Trent and I began dating in 2000. We met at church when I tripped over some cords attached to speakers and he caught me. True and awkward. That very night, in the early fall of 2000, we began our journey as a "we". We both knew while dating that we were someday marry. After 11 months, we were engaged. During our engagement, we talked a lot about our future and what we hoped it would look like for us. As a couple, one of our dreams was to adopt.
In our first year of marriage (ok-5 months into the marriage), we discovered mr L was on his way. It was wonderful and scary all together. mr L was born in the fall and 2 years later we had another surprise: our incredibly funny mr Z was born.
We never felt our family was truly complete. However, medically we were not able to have more kiddos. We began to talk more and more about adoption. After the earthquake in Haiti, we knew that the time had come. I spent hours up at night praying. My heart was broken and I knew the time had come for us.
If there was one thing we took away from all the tragic events surrounding the earthquake,
it was our call to adopt.
At first, we thought our call was to adopt from Haiti. We chose an agency with orphanages in Haiti. However, time revealed that adopting from Haiti would take years and would be hard for us with biological children already in the home. We began to pray about giving waiting children a home now. Our criteria for a country had always been need. I know...need. Need is present in every country.
We began to pray if we were to wait or begin our adoption process.
However, through a series of events, we chose to adopt from the African nation of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Our desire was to adopt 2 children that were either siblings or from the same area. We had a family meeting and told our boys that we were beginning the process of adopting and our family would soon grow. For us, being in a pilot program, our process was not as long as others. However, when you are the mama and papa of children far away, time passes slowly.
In the fall of 2010, we had the amazing privilege of seeing a picture of our girls for the first time via email. It was an amazing 48 hours in many ways. Many prayers, loads of jewelry making and piles of paperwork later, we welcomed our girls home in May of 2011.
Thank you for being a part of our journey. Thank you for being a part of my neighborhood as crystal from little bit funky once wrote (if you have not read her series on "why blog", it is a must).
We look forward to sharing our adventure with you.
We look forward to sharing our adventure with you.
