First let me start out by saying that I did not start this blog because I feel that I am in anyway special or worthy of your attention. In fact, in some ways it's the opposite. God often uses the ordinary to show us how extraordinary He is.
That being said, I know there are many family and friends that don't want to be pests but they don't want to miss out on any adoption news either. Hopefully this blog will be a way for everyone to journey with us as we bring our son home.
BORN OF THE HEART
People often ask us how Caraline, our biological 2 year old, is handling the adoption process. "What do you tell her?" It's funny when you're 2 you have no expectations of how your family is going to grow. You're just excited to know that someday there will be someone else to play with.
I'm not sure when I first heard the phrase "born of the heart." God was planting seeds of adoption in both of our hearts long before Bill and I took notice. I learned about the Invisible Children suffering in Uganda back in high school World Cultures classes. Bill and I both had the opportunity to serve first hand in an orphanage in South Africa in college (in fact my murals still adorn their walls). We both came to love different cultures and appreciate diversity in our friendships. It wasn't until after we were married that we both realized we were equally interested in adoption. Not as a solution to infertility or as a back up plan, but as the primary way to grow our family. We knew that was a unique thing so we kept it in the background as we enjoyed our newlywed years. The more we talked about family the more we realized that there were too many children in this world that needed parents. Why not us?
In 2008 I sent away for information from America World Adoptions. We were curious. What was involved in international adoption? The moment I began reading the brochure my heart attached itself to the word "orphan". We had talked about them as children. We knew they needed a home. Somehow we never used the word "orphan" until that moment. It was then, sitting on my kitchen floor, that something began in my heart that I've been unable to subdue ever since. We needed to bring our children home.
Our next step was to go to a seminar where we could ask questions and find out more. It was here that we learned that each country has their own standards about who can adopt. I very much wanted a little girl from China but we learned that both Bill and I would have to turn 30 before we'd be allowed to apply to China. At 26 years old, this was hard to hear.
We began looking at other programs but Bill was also interested in having at least one of our own children first. So in December of 2009 we welcomed Caraline into our family. I was very nervous about being a mom to an infant. Those of you who talked to me while I was pregnant already got an earful of that story, but what I can say now is that I've never been more wrong about anything in my life. Raising Cara has been the biggest blessing in my life so far.
As Cara began to grow (almost all adoption programs require at least 6 months between a birth or an adoption before you can begin applying for another child) we continued to turn our hearts to God and we felt continued conformation that there was a child out there God needed us to raise.
For me (Lauren) the desire to adopt never dulled. Bill would sometimes be embarrassed when we'd see other adoptive families in public because I would just stare and stare. I couldn't get enough of their beautiful faces and laughter. "Lauren, it's rude to covet other people's children." My response - "isn't that what adoption is?" haha.
Needless to say I was thrilled to continue our journey toward adoption. We spent many months researching countries that had the greatest need. Bill teaches about things like modern day holocaust, human trafficking, and other horrible things going on in the world. Every year I take my youth group through a program designed to educate students about world hunger, famine, disease, and poverty. We were aware of millions of orphans. We began asking God to direct our path and narrow the search.
Because of our time in South Africa we started there, but quickly learned that they required families to live in South Africa for a minimum of 3 years before a child could come home to the United States. With Cara being the first grandchild on both sides of our family we knew that leaving for 3 years was not an option.
After a lot of research we circled back to the Invisible Children in Uganda. If you saw the KONY2012 video that went viral a few months ago you may already be familiar with some of the horrible things that have been happening to children in Uganda for many years. Even though Joseph Kony left Uganda in 2009 to continue his travesty elsewhere, there was an entire generation of children (now adults) scared by his regime. In a country trying to rebuild, millions of orphans are left without hope and a generation whose childhood was stolen are starting to become parents themselves. Babies are left in toilets (dirt holes in the ground), abandoned in parks, or left on doorsteps of families already struggling to get by. All of this on top of famine, flooding, AIDS and Malaria. It didn't take long for us to feel pretty strongly that God was asking us to bring our son home from Uganda.
There have been many ups and downs in the process so far. I finally feel like we're close enough to the end of this journey that we can update a blog often enough to keep people interested. Thank you to everyone who has been with us for all of these years; especially those of you who attended our Flapjack Fundraiser last June which gave us the kick start we needed to jump into the application process.
We look forward to all that God is going to teach us through this process. Right now that's patience.
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