The first step in this process? Talking to everyone I knew, who has adopted. Each adoption story I have heard has moved me to tears, and while many are filled with heartache and challenges, each story screams of God's unending love and grace. We began exploring the process of adoption through a site (thank you, Tamie) called rainbowkids.com. It was the first time I began to see the process in a clear, and understandable way. In a time when we were only exploring the "how to's" of becoming ready to adopt, we learned about something called a "waiting child program." This means any child in this program is ready to be adopted immediately to any family, who has been home study approved and ready to go (we were not even close). The children in this program consist of: children with special needs, children over 5, and/or sibling groups. After signing up on this site, we began receiving pictures of children in need of families. We suddenly found ourselves calling an agency-Adoption Hope International, in South Carolina. They organize adoptions for waiting children in Nicaragua, Mexico, Russia, and Estonia. In a time when we were only seeking to find out how to get a home study, we fell in love with a sibling group of 3 beautiful boys in Estonia. That's right...THREE boys! After questioning our sanity, and lots of prayer, we came to the conclusion that this is what we've always wanted--our family to fill our 3 empty bedrooms. It's just come a little sooner than we'd imagined! Again, I continued to doubt God, asking, "Is this YOU or is this all me imagining this is the right thing?" The final answer was this...we did not want these boys to go to anyone else but us. My heart felt the way it felt with I immediately fell in love with Josh, but was too afraid of my own feelings to believe they were real! :) While we pray that God brings them home to us, and it appears this is the path God is leading us down, he may have alternate plan for us entirely. I just need to remember this, and be positive if this initial path changes direction.
