Wednesday, January 28, 2009
How we found Anna
I guess since we've shown you a picture of the little girl we are hoping for I can tell you about how we found her.
Like I explained a few posts pack, we have been searching Waiting Children lists like crazy, most often these lists consist of no photo and a quick few sentence bio about the child. Well... here was the first "glimpse" we had of Anna:
"This very tiny girl was born in June of 2007. She has Osteogenesis Imperfecta. She has had many health struggles being in an orphanage but now has a non-profit aid organization helping to sponsor her and she is starting to get some much needed medical care. This child has a strong spirit and a heart of gold. She is described as fun loving and cheerful. She loves to be touched and held. She is getting massages which she likes a lot. She always has a smile for those who greet her and she loves to be the center of attention. She urgently needs a family to love and care for her and get her medical care. She is quite bright but will not have the chance to thrive and grow where she is. We have lots of photos and a video available for people who might be interested. If you think you may have a special place in your heart for this little princess, please give Kids To Adopt a call."
From that I requested information about her and a couple others from the agency (I figured if I was emailing about her, I might as well see about some others) Later that day Jeny from the agency emailed me pictures and a video link for Anna and the others... but right away we knew something was special about her. Justin even said "can we keep her?"
Because of her Osteogenesis Imperfecta we had to do some research to make sure we could be good parents to this little girl. Jeny suggested we talk to the director of the agency who has several members of his family (children included) that have OI so we could get a first hand opinion of what life is like. After talking to him we felt encouraged but still wanted to make sure. The more we thought about it, and the blessing of our insurance, we realized that if God is able to make all this happen, that we will be incredibly happy with this little girl.
So that is how we "found" Anna. We just keep moving forward with this process with a mountain of paperwork for our homestudy ahead of us.
Like I explained a few posts pack, we have been searching Waiting Children lists like crazy, most often these lists consist of no photo and a quick few sentence bio about the child. Well... here was the first "glimpse" we had of Anna:
"This very tiny girl was born in June of 2007. She has Osteogenesis Imperfecta. She has had many health struggles being in an orphanage but now has a non-profit aid organization helping to sponsor her and she is starting to get some much needed medical care. This child has a strong spirit and a heart of gold. She is described as fun loving and cheerful. She loves to be touched and held. She is getting massages which she likes a lot. She always has a smile for those who greet her and she loves to be the center of attention. She urgently needs a family to love and care for her and get her medical care. She is quite bright but will not have the chance to thrive and grow where she is. We have lots of photos and a video available for people who might be interested. If you think you may have a special place in your heart for this little princess, please give Kids To Adopt a call."
From that I requested information about her and a couple others from the agency (I figured if I was emailing about her, I might as well see about some others) Later that day Jeny from the agency emailed me pictures and a video link for Anna and the others... but right away we knew something was special about her. Justin even said "can we keep her?"
Because of her Osteogenesis Imperfecta we had to do some research to make sure we could be good parents to this little girl. Jeny suggested we talk to the director of the agency who has several members of his family (children included) that have OI so we could get a first hand opinion of what life is like. After talking to him we felt encouraged but still wanted to make sure. The more we thought about it, and the blessing of our insurance, we realized that if God is able to make all this happen, that we will be incredibly happy with this little girl.
So that is how we "found" Anna. We just keep moving forward with this process with a mountain of paperwork for our homestudy ahead of us.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
She's On Hold For Us!
Yay! Today when I got home from a CRAZY day at school (aka a day with a class with the crazy lady!) Justin and I were cuddled on the couch as I was checking my email while dinner cooked and we got an email from Jeny at the adoption agency.
They got our application today and Anna is officially listed "on hold" for us! Now, while this again... does not guarantee that she will be coming to our family, it is a big step. This means that no other families in the US will be applying for her.
Like we said, our next step is the home study, which is the biggest portion of our dossier (the packet of info about us that gets sent to Russia). We are so happy!
Now we just need to pray that the check that went along with our paperwork doesn't try to clear our account until Thursday... they got our paperwork faster than we thought they would.
They got our application today and Anna is officially listed "on hold" for us! Now, while this again... does not guarantee that she will be coming to our family, it is a big step. This means that no other families in the US will be applying for her.
Like we said, our next step is the home study, which is the biggest portion of our dossier (the packet of info about us that gets sent to Russia). We are so happy!
Now we just need to pray that the check that went along with our paperwork doesn't try to clear our account until Thursday... they got our paperwork faster than we thought they would.
Monday, January 26, 2009
It Has Officially Begun
Well, today on my way to Men on a Mission at church, I stopped by FedEx and sent off our adoption application packet, complete with a check for $250 to begin the process. Like Lindsey said earlier, the next step is the home study. Once the agency receives the check (which will be soon!), the child we have in mind will be placed on hold for us. While this won't guarantee us her, it is the first step of many that will eventually bring her home.
Okay, have we kept you in suspense long enough? Well, here you go. This is the girl, Anna:
Cute isn't she? She has a genetic disorder called Osteogenesis Imperfecta, but it is commonly known as brittle bones. We have done some research on it, and considering my excellent health insurance, we feel that we can help her live a full, happy, healthy life.
Like I said, the home study is now the next step. That is going to cost us about $1,300. The adoption overall is going to cost upwards of $20,000, but we will be eligible to apply for grants once we have the home study completed.
There will be more pictures of Anna to come, and a few videos as well. Keep posted for more updates!
Okay, have we kept you in suspense long enough? Well, here you go. This is the girl, Anna:
Cute isn't she? She has a genetic disorder called Osteogenesis Imperfecta, but it is commonly known as brittle bones. We have done some research on it, and considering my excellent health insurance, we feel that we can help her live a full, happy, healthy life.
Like I said, the home study is now the next step. That is going to cost us about $1,300. The adoption overall is going to cost upwards of $20,000, but we will be eligible to apply for grants once we have the home study completed.
There will be more pictures of Anna to come, and a few videos as well. Keep posted for more updates!
Home Study woes
Epp... waiting is SO hard!
I made some calls today to set up our home study (the process where a licensed therapist or child services type person talks to you and checks out your home to make sure you are mommy and daddy worthy) and the first agency I called said it would take 4 to 5 MONTHS to complete on top of the three week wait to even get an appointment. Eeep! I don't mean to be impatient... but we have a little girl in mind (more posts about her later) and she needs medical care... we can't wait that long.
In tears I called Justin to tell him the news. But he reminded me that our friends who have adopted told us about their agency, and that they were based in Atlanta (I couldn't find them locally,no wonder). So I called the agency, Family First, and they are emailing me the documents and mailing the rest and it should only take 6-8 WEEKS to complete! YAY! Praise God for having Justin think clearly when I'm in "pout" mode. Had he not convinced me to call the other people, I would have just assumed they all take that long.
So prayers please that we are able to get all of our documents they need and our fingerprints etc. Today was the first time I really grasped how overwhelming the process of adopting is. I always knew getting our child and raising them will be overwhelming and new... but just the application process is daunting at times.
I made some calls today to set up our home study (the process where a licensed therapist or child services type person talks to you and checks out your home to make sure you are mommy and daddy worthy) and the first agency I called said it would take 4 to 5 MONTHS to complete on top of the three week wait to even get an appointment. Eeep! I don't mean to be impatient... but we have a little girl in mind (more posts about her later) and she needs medical care... we can't wait that long.
In tears I called Justin to tell him the news. But he reminded me that our friends who have adopted told us about their agency, and that they were based in Atlanta (I couldn't find them locally,no wonder). So I called the agency, Family First, and they are emailing me the documents and mailing the rest and it should only take 6-8 WEEKS to complete! YAY! Praise God for having Justin think clearly when I'm in "pout" mode. Had he not convinced me to call the other people, I would have just assumed they all take that long.
So prayers please that we are able to get all of our documents they need and our fingerprints etc. Today was the first time I really grasped how overwhelming the process of adopting is. I always knew getting our child and raising them will be overwhelming and new... but just the application process is daunting at times.
Waiting Children
So as Justin and I had been researching various adoption agencies, we became very familiar with the term "waiting children". This term applies to lists of children who have some reason they are not the most "desirable" by some to adopt. These reasons vary drastically from very minor medical conditions (even as simple as diabetes) to major medical conditions (where the child will need life long full time care) but it also includes sibling groups and any child who is a little older than the baby/toddler phase as most people adopting want an infant.
Justin and I spent a long time discussing if we would be comfortable adopting from a waiting child list, at first we knew that we could love a sibling group and we were fine with a slightly older child, but not too much (it doesn't make sense for me to have a 10 year old). We also decided that based on the medical condition, we could be comfortable adopting a child with medical needs... after all we are very lucky that we have nice health insurance that will cover an adopted child and any needs he/she will have.
Once we decided that, I began searching Waiting Children sites like crazy. I think by this point I have seen every child available for adoption that is listed online. Our search included children from every state and countries around the world. One of the unique differences between the United States and other countries when it comes to these waiting children lists is that most countries restrict the posting of pictures along with the information on a general public website. So while it was "fun" to look at all the babies and children that we could actually "see", we also spent time reading pages and pages of listings with a quick two sentence bio about a child half a world away. It's hard to think that from those few sentences we will find our child, it is just such limited information on which to go, but we have faith that the right child will be clear to us.
Thanks everyone for your prayers and support during this adventure.
Justin and I spent a long time discussing if we would be comfortable adopting from a waiting child list, at first we knew that we could love a sibling group and we were fine with a slightly older child, but not too much (it doesn't make sense for me to have a 10 year old). We also decided that based on the medical condition, we could be comfortable adopting a child with medical needs... after all we are very lucky that we have nice health insurance that will cover an adopted child and any needs he/she will have.
Once we decided that, I began searching Waiting Children sites like crazy. I think by this point I have seen every child available for adoption that is listed online. Our search included children from every state and countries around the world. One of the unique differences between the United States and other countries when it comes to these waiting children lists is that most countries restrict the posting of pictures along with the information on a general public website. So while it was "fun" to look at all the babies and children that we could actually "see", we also spent time reading pages and pages of listings with a quick two sentence bio about a child half a world away. It's hard to think that from those few sentences we will find our child, it is just such limited information on which to go, but we have faith that the right child will be clear to us.
Thanks everyone for your prayers and support during this adventure.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
The Background
Why did we decide to adopt? Well, it all started last February just after we moved down here to Augusta. Lindsey and I had heard about a concert tour called Winter Jam on our local Christan radio station. We went, not because of any knowledge about adoption or anything, but because we could see six or so of the biggest acts in modern Christian music for the low price of $10 per person.
The band that is the main host every year of Winter Jam is a group called NewSong, and one of the members showed a video about a recent trip they had made to China to an orphanage there. They gave information about an organization called Holt International and they had a booth in the lobby area of the arena. I felt a strong compulsion that God was telling us we had to adopt a child that night. Lindsey was in the restroom during part of this presentation and I sent her a text message that said "Was God telling you it was time for a kid?" We also purchased a CD at the MercyMe booth, which I opened months later and inside was an insert that showed one of the members who had recently adopted a baby and had information about another agency, All God's Children International.
Really what kickstarted it into gear, while Lindsey was gone with her mom on business, I opened the MercyMe CD, visited the AGCI site, and requested information. We began getting emails and an information packet from them that had a DVD, a book, and other information. The emails had photos of waiting children and we began to look into them, but at the time, none of the children were right for us. So, we kept reading more and more about it, and eventually put it into the back of our minds, as something we would do in the future when we felt the time was right.
Well, fast forward six months later, it's the future, and the time must be right, because we feel like it is our calling. So, that's where we are now. More posts in the future will have more information about our journey through the entire adoption process.
We appreciate everyone's prayers through this process. We believe that God has a baby out there for us, and we just want Him to lead us to him or her.
The band that is the main host every year of Winter Jam is a group called NewSong, and one of the members showed a video about a recent trip they had made to China to an orphanage there. They gave information about an organization called Holt International and they had a booth in the lobby area of the arena. I felt a strong compulsion that God was telling us we had to adopt a child that night. Lindsey was in the restroom during part of this presentation and I sent her a text message that said "Was God telling you it was time for a kid?" We also purchased a CD at the MercyMe booth, which I opened months later and inside was an insert that showed one of the members who had recently adopted a baby and had information about another agency, All God's Children International.
Really what kickstarted it into gear, while Lindsey was gone with her mom on business, I opened the MercyMe CD, visited the AGCI site, and requested information. We began getting emails and an information packet from them that had a DVD, a book, and other information. The emails had photos of waiting children and we began to look into them, but at the time, none of the children were right for us. So, we kept reading more and more about it, and eventually put it into the back of our minds, as something we would do in the future when we felt the time was right.
Well, fast forward six months later, it's the future, and the time must be right, because we feel like it is our calling. So, that's where we are now. More posts in the future will have more information about our journey through the entire adoption process.
We appreciate everyone's prayers through this process. We believe that God has a baby out there for us, and we just want Him to lead us to him or her.
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