Domestic Adoption? Why?

We get asked all the time why we chose domestic versus international adoption. I have to be honest, I feel a little like we have to defend our decision at times.

So I thought I would try to put my thoughts into words here for anyone who is interested.  First, let me say that we believe in international adoption and at some point we may take that route, but for now this is where the Lord has led us.

But let me also say that we believe there is a huge need for domestic adoption.  I read an article recently talking about the need for domestic adoption if we are to be proponents of a pro-life movement.  This article put into words what I had been thinking but hadn't been able to put into words myself.

For us domestic adoption is as much about the ministry to the birth mom as it is about impacting the life of a child.  Domestic adoption is about providing an alternative to abortion.  Domestic adoption is about telling pregnant women that there are great families out there who would provide a great home to their baby.  Birth moms who choose adoption are not selfish.  In fact, choosing adoption is one of the most selfless decisions she could ever make.

For us, we choose domestic adoption because we feel that God has called us to this decision.  We know that there are many great reasons to choose other forms of adoption and even less expensive forms, but we also know that God has called us to this path for a purpose and we are excited about the plans He has for our forever family.  For all these reasons and more we choose domestic adoption.

Looking Forward to a new Chapter

Many of you know that DJ is about to finish his doctorate and with this new degree our goal was for him to move back to the classroom so that he wouldn't have to travel so much when our new little one arrives.

The spring was filled with job applications, interviews, and major decisions.  We really thought that we would be leaving Abilene for another job, but instead we are happy to announce that we get to stay!

DJ has accepted another position at Hardin-Simmons that will begin in August of 2014.  This worked out perfectly for him because it gives him a full year of closure and time to get everything even more organized to hand over to the new Head Athletic Trainer that will take his place.

DJ's new job will be in the school of Education as an Associate Professor of Fitness and Sports Science, in addition he will also be the Clinical Coordinator for the Athletic Training Education Program.  Essentially what this means is that he will mostly teach classes in the Athletic Training Education Program and he will also organize/supervise his college students in their clinical sites.

Through the ATEP at HSU students learn to be athletic trainers, while receiving hands-on training in clinical sites.  He currently supervises the students that work in his Sports Medicine Clinic at Football and Men's Basketball.  Other clinical sites include the other sports medicine clinics at HSU for each of the athletic teams.  In addition, his students also receive hands-on training in doctor's offices/surgery rotations, as well as the sports medicine clinics at the local high schools.

I am so thankful that this will be our last year of 7-days-a-week during football season.  In just the past few days, he has spent 3 days with his student-athletes at the hospital for many hours late into the evening.  I am so excited to have my husband back, but know that he is a little sad that he won't have these opportunities to invest in his athletes like he does now.

We are very excited for this opportunity to stay in Abilene and for DJ to continue doing what he loves... working with college students.

2014 is the year!

We are hopeful as we pray that 2014 will be the year that our little one comes home! 

It has been 2 years since we sat in our adoption orientation.  It took us that long to turn in our adoption paperwork.

It has been a hard two years because we started the process by being very open about God's call on our lives to adopt.  With that openness comes lots of questions of those wanting updates on our adoption process.  But then the process came to an abrupt hault. We knew it was just a pause as we grieved the loss of our second miscarried child. We are so thankful to have so many people that care enough to ask, but it was definitely hard to answer people wanting to know how the process was going.

It was February almost a year ago that God made it very clear to us that we needed to step out in faith and trust Him. 

It is with great joy that I can say we have officially submitted our adoption paperwork!!!! 

We have also officially raised $20,000 of the about $35,000 - $40,000 needed! 

The next step is for our agency, Christian Homes, to review our paperwork and send us a checklist of anything left to complete.  We are currently working on our birthmother letter and photo album.  This is what the birth moms will use to pick the family for their baby.

We are also preparing our home for the home study.  Previous owners of our home took out the bath tub to make it handicap accessible, so we need to redo the bathroom to make it "baby accessible" by creating a working bathtub.  In addition, we had a water leak under our foundation earlier this year.  Thankfully the plumbers did not have to drill into the foundation, but instead redirected the water lines through the wall.  However, this left 3 holes in the sheet rock that also need to be fixed before the home study.  We will be working on these projects soon and hope to have our home study complete in the next month or so.

Once we have our interviews and home study complete we will be approved (hopefully!) and ready for a birth mom to pick us!

We are so grateful to so many for all your love and support!  Thank you as well for your prayers as we continue on this journey.