We have excitedly and prayerfully been working to finish our homestudy. Usually a family has to complete their homestudy and submit their paperwork (dossier) overseas, and then they wait to be matched with a child that is in the age range/sex that they prefer. Our process has been very different for us.
For several months now, Stephen and I have been talking and praying about adopting two siblings instead of one. We have several reasons for this. First, we know that we want to have at least two more children, likely more. Also, we know that if we were to adopt one child now, we would want to adopt one more at a later time. We also feel (and have learned in our training courses) that adopting two siblings makes it much easier for each of the children to adjust to a new home than if they just came by themselves. And lastly, adopting two at the same time is only slightly higher in expenses whereas if we adopted two children one at a time the cost would be almost double. So we've been moving forward, praying about this possibility for our family.
Our adoption agency sends out newsletters every month or so with updates and also pictures of some of the children waiting to be adopted. Usually the pictures are of children that are either special needs or that are "hard to place" meaning that they are either older children or sibling groups since most people don't want to adopt these types of children.
For the past two newsletters, Stephen and I have seen a picture of two little brothers, ages 2 and 4 years old. They immediately jumped out at me when I saw them, but since all of these children are so precious I didn't really talk to Stephen about it. Then I saw them again in the most recent newsletter, and I showed Stephen. He looked at the picture, was quiet for a minute, and then said, "Okay, let's ask about these boys."
We wrote to our agency, thinking that they would say we weren't allowed to get any info on them until we completed our homestudy, which we were only half-way through at that time. To our surprise, they wrote back saying they would love to tell us more about them! Within an hour, we had the complete file on them with all of the info they had for them, and about 8 pictures. I cried as I read their story about how they ended up in the orphanage, and as I looked at the pictures of them. They are so precious.
Stephen and I prayed about it and decided that if we were able to adopt them, we would. We asked our agency what steps we needed to take in order to have an official referral (where they match you with a child or children). Again, to our surprise, they said that we could go ahead and accept their referral since they were on the "waiting list". They were on there because even though they are completely healthy, they aren't babies. Also, the agency wants them to be adopted together which makes it harder for them to find a family. Stephen and I were SO THRILLED to hear that we get to adopt them!
Our latest exciting news came this week when we were told that we are able to send them Christmas gifts and pictures of us so that they can begin to become familiar with us. They are going to be notified in the next week or two that they are being adopted. I can not wait until the day that we get to bring these precious boys home! Right now, our agency is estimating spring of next year, but it could be sooner.
Here are a couple of reasons that we have made the decisions that we did.
- We purposely chose to adopt boys because more people adopt girls than boys and there is a huge need for boys to be adopted in many countries, including Ethiopia.
- We chose the toddler/preschool age because more people want little babies than "older" children.
- And we chose a sibling group because most people only want one child, making it difficult for siblings to stay together.
This was the right choice for our family. Please continue to join us in praying for our little boys while we wait to bring them home and for our family as we continue to work through this difficult process. We also still have an overwhelming amount of expenses so if you would like to help, please see Stephen's website at www.stephen-miller.com.
Thanks guys!
