A much better picture of the process...

Well today was a very informative day in the adoption journey.  We had about an hour and a half conversation with a really sweet lady from the Gladney adoption agency and she walked us step by step through the whole process.  There are definitely alot of variables as far as the overall time frame is concerned but from what I can gather it looks like it could be about a 2-3 year process before we have our child or children (whatever God has in store).  As far as the overall cost is concerned we will probably be looking at over $30,000.00 ($16,000.00 of which will need to be paid within the first 6 months).  We are rejoicing that God has already provided $6600.00 to our adoption account so far (what an awesome boost of encouragement and confirmation for us!).

It looks like if we stay on top of things that all of the major paperwork (homestudy, immigration forms, foreign dossier, etc) should be able to be done and sent off in the next 6 months.  After that we will be assigned a number and put on a waiting list (6-12 months?) until we are assigned a child from the IHNFA (the Honduran Adoption Agency) based on our criteria.  We will then have a doctor check out the info about the child and we will approve the child they have selected for us.  Within about 6 weeks of getting our child we will travel over there for our first visit which is about 5 days and we will undergo a psychological testing to make sure we are a healthy family.  After that we will wait another 4 months and then go for our final trip (about a 4 week trip) where we will receive our child and have an 8 day bonding or trial period with them.  After the bonding period we will sign off on everything and then just wait the remainder of the time to get all of the paperwork from the Honduran government which takes a couple of weeks.

It is great to have a more clear idea of what the process will be and how we can be praying more specifically for these steps.  Lastly, I have had some people ask me if there was a way they could give towards our adoption.  I will be adding a feature to the blog very soon where you can submit an online donation that will go into our adoption account.  My plan is to have a running total on this blog to let everyone know how our fundraising is going.  We are also starting to brainstorm on creative ways to fund raise as a family and will let you know what those will be soon.  Thanks so much for your continued prayers and support!

in Christ,

Brian

The Twists and Turns

Well, the wild adoption adventure continues on.  Last week we ran into quite a game-changing obstacle.  Our plan thus far has revolved around us not using an adoption agency but working directly with our lawyer in Honduras (a lawyer we were connected with through some relationships from our church's missionary work).  In using a lawyer we still need the services of an approved agency to do our home study which is called a 'modified program'.  As of a few days ago it appears that all of these agencies have shut down their 'modifed program' forcing individuals like us to have to do the full program.

It appears that perhaps God may be steering us towards doing this adoption through an agency.  On the positive side an agency really takes you by the hand through every single step along the journey.  The negative side is the cost of this adoption just shot up way high (estimated at like $28,000-$30,000?). One thing I am already learning is that we need not put our hope and trust in a certain set of expectations of how we think this will all go but simply put our hope and trust in God.  All we know is that God has put this on our hearts and we know it's in His heart and only He knows how it all will turn out and unfold.  We must simply trust in Him and not the circumstances.  On another note, a couple from our Young Couples class has also stepped forward to begin the adoption journey from Honduras.  So we now have three of us walking through it together which is really awesome!

Again, thanks so much for all of your interest, prayers and support towards us!

God bless,

Brian