Are We There Yet?

Warning. The following post may bore you. There are no pictures. No fun links. Just information.

 

Unofficially, the goal of this blog is to provide an update on our adoption experience about once a week. At times, the posts won't be very eventful, but our intent is they will, at the very least, be informative. That is the hope of this post as few logistics have changed and no new life-changing revelations appear to have occurred over the past few days.

Upon learning of our plans to adopt, one of the more common responses we receive is in the form of questions.

"Where will you adopt from?"

"How long will it take?"

"Boy or girl?"

It's been great for us to get to share some of these details in person, but since that isn't always the case, we thought it might be a good to have a post that highlights some of the more pertinent information.

First, we'll be adopting an infant from the United States. There are a lot of options regarding location when it comes to adoption. For us, we felt a significant desire to adopt a newborn baby. It's nearly impossible to bring a child under 6 months home from another country. Given that, our decision to adopt domestically was determined fairly early on in the process. We will be adopting through American Adoptions, an agency in Kansas City some of our friends have used and one we've enjoyed working with to this point.

The length of the entire process varies and is dependent on a number of circumstances. An adoptive family must first become "active" with the agency. This process can take anywhere from 3-6 months itself, and this is currently where we fall in the process. Once a family becomes active, it takes anywhere from 1-12 months (possibly longer) to be matched with your child. Our goal is to complete the pre-activation process over the course of the next few months and hopefully become an active family in the early part of 2013.

The pre-activation process itself consists of 3 primary steps:

1. Completion of a home study
2. Filling out the Adoption Planning Questionnaire (APQ)
3. Composing our family's print and video profiles

For the multi-taskers out there, these three requirements can be taken on simultaneously. Currently, we are attempting to do this with our immediate focus on starting the home study and completing the APQ. The home study essentially ensures the state that the agency has found our home and family suitable for adopting. We are prepping for our first home study visit now and hope to have it scheduled in the next few weeks.

The APQ outlines our personal preferences for the child we'd like to adopt. This is where matters like gender, race, budget, and so on come into play. The details of the APQ probably warrant more than a paragraph, but we have elected to remain non-specific on preferences for gender and race. This choice will likely result in a shorter wait time to be matched, but more importantly, we feel like it helps keep our hearts open to accepting the situation God intends for us. This decision definitely brings about some uncertainty, but along with it, a great sense of freedom. It's very liberating to leave these specific decisions out of our hands and trust God knows what's best for our family.

As for the print and video profiles, we'll dive into these items once we get the home study going and formally submit our APQ. This step will be sure to challenge the inner artist in each of us. Fortunately, we know some hip, trendy "kids" that will help keep our profiles fresh and inviting.

There is actually a 4th piece to the pre-activation stage, though the circumstances vary for each adoptive family. The agency requires a family have access to their entire adoption budget once they go active. The costs of the adoption aren't fully known or paid until a match is made, but because there is no way to know if a family will be matched in two weeks or twelve months, the agency requires the family be prepared financially for any circumstance.

We'll likely have a future post specifically on adoption costs and our plan for saving and raising funds, but one of the first things we're planning is a garage sale the first weekend in October. It's a good opportunity for us to get into a "saving" mindset and also reduce some of the clutter in our home. I'll refrain from using this blog as an ad, but should you be interested in helping out or even donating items to the garage sale, simply call, text, facebook, or email us at jonmbc1@gmail.com.

Hopefully this post has provided a little insight into the process adoptive families face and some of the decisions that have to be made. Should you want to know more, just ask. We're more than happy to fill you in.

A New Hope

Here we go. Time for a new experience.

No, I'm not talking about this blog, though it's certainly new in its own right. After all, we've never been "bloggers" in this household. I've thought about it before, but the alternative of simply being a "reader" has always been too easy. I'm only six sentences in, yet I have new respect for those who manage to keep these things up to date. Even well written in some cases. Impressive.

Not just a new experience, but a new risk, a new faith, a new hope. I'm talking about adoption. Over the past 18 months and through a number of circumstances, God has clearly been preparing us for this. It hasn't always been easy to see, but it's an idea that never felt too distant. It was almost 5 years ago we began hoping God would give us a baby. He delivered on that hope at the start of 2009, and our lives have never been the same. A little over a year ago, we began hoping God would grow our family. This new hope is where we currently reside. I have a feeling our lives will never be the same...again.



Our hope realized on January 2, 2009 - Riley Kate

 

Earlier this year we attended our first seminar on adoption, and six weeks ago we formally applied for a domestic adoption through an agency in Kansas City. As overwhelming as the process is, we could not be more excited. Our goal is to use this blog as an outlet to share our experience with each of you and keep anyone who's interested informed on the process. Who knows, it may even turn out to be an outlet for the spectrum of emotions we're sure to experience over the next who-knows-how-many months. Maybe we'll even become real bloggers.

I will try to provide a current status of where we are (and what we've got planned) in the next post, but for now, we simply wanted to invite you to join us as we covet your friendship, prayers, and support. There is much ahead and much to share, but for now, we simply wanted you to know.

One last thought regarding our new hope. We chose the scripture at the top of our blog because of it's encouragement and application to this endeavor. For us, our ultimate hope is in Christ and what he accomplished for us through the cross. Likewise, he gives us hope in the things he's called us to, even things we cannot see. Especially things we cannot see. On the one hand, we wait for the realization of our hope with eagerness. On the other hand, we wait for it with patience.

This is where we are. Eagerly waiting. With patience, of course.