May 21, 2010

Originally the following note was composed to send to close family members, but Jeremy prompted me to post it on facebook so we could share with our friends as well.

Hello! Jeremy and I wanted to share with you all some recent happenings for our family! Throughout the course of our marriage, the desire to adopt a child has been placed upon our hearts. Even before our own biological children were brought into the world, we were talking about this dream. We have always said “someday” we would like to adopt. It just wasn’t the right time. I would keep pushing it aside each time Jeremy would suggest looking into it more. We were busy with infants and our growing boys! How could we afford it? How would this impact our family? I continued to say “later” or “not now”. But in the past year, after much thought and prayer for God to lead us, it seems that our “someday” has become today and we are in fact pursuing adopting a daughter into our fold!
After extensive research and discussions with other adoptive parents in the area, we decided on the agency All God’s Children. Personally, I love the name, as it speaks volumes to our belief that God embraces us all around the world as His. We really did not care which country our child would come from. There are over 143 million orphaned children in the world. We consulted with 3 different agencies and they all told us that Ethiopia was the best match for us. (Of course this was the country Jeremy has had his eyes on for the past couple of years!)
About a month ago we submitted our application, filled out additional forms, mailed more forms, and this past Wednesday we received the call from our agency that they have approved our application for adoption. Our “paper pregnancy” has begun! This coming week we have an orientation call with a caseworker and more paperwork to complete! The first week of June our homestudy begins with our local agency, The Baby Fold. From there many more steps are required before this all can even come to fruition. We are hopeful though that a year from now, we will be welcoming a little girl around age 2 into our family.
Thank you in advance for your love and support as we open our arms to this child from around the world. Please keep her in prayer and we ask for your prayers as we continue in this process. We love you all and are so thankful for such a blessed unit of family and friends.
With love,
Jeremy & Julie

May 19, 2010

We were approved!! All God's Children called us this evening to confirm that they have approved our application for an Ethiopian adoption. It was that rush of emotions like I had just taken the pregnancy test and the stick in my hand read "pregnant"! Our "paper pregnancy" has begun. We are getting a packet FedExed to us and next week we have our orientation call with a caseworker. Baby Fold, our local agency, also contacted us today to set up a time to start their formal application. One step closer today.

May 8, 2010

On this day before Mother's Day I sit here to put this into writing. We are again looking to expand our family. This time not through pregnancy, but adoption. A few weeks ago we took the first step and submitted our application online to All God's Children, the agency we decided to go with. It's kind of like saying "we are trying to get pregnant". All of the same hopes and dreams are there with all of those same uncertainties and unknowns. I hope to share our story in the days to come, one step at a time, concluding with an introduction to our daughter. I pray for God's guidance as we proceed...