We look like a small family of three, Michael, Beth and William. However, we are part of a large international family. In 2004 we welcomed our first host daughter, Aya from Egypt. Since then we have filled our home with AFS KL-YES high school exchange students from around the world: Egypt, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, India and South Africa. Those students became part of the ever-growing International Spenard Family.
We cannot imagine our lives without the laughter and craziness these kids have shared with us over the past 13 years. Mike became a runner. Beth discovered a love for Zumba. William became a brother. Thousands of cookies have been baked and there have been many spicy sauces tried. Hundreds if not thousands of miles have been walked. Tears of joy and tears of sorrow have been shed. These kids will always be part of our hearts. They changed us. They gave us the gift of calling us Mom and Dad.
We decided to begin our journey to adopt from the Philippines in January 2009. We were surprised to discover, we were expecting our miracle, William Jon. He is named William after Beth’s maiden name and Jon after our Malaysian son, Jon Wen. He was born in August 2009 and his host sister, Ash from the Philippines, arrived when he was 2 weeks old.
Many years passed with many detours but finally in the spring of 2017 we felt the call to pursue adoption again. We learned it would be a long process, maybe 3-4 years. We knew that was enough time to save the approximately $30,000 needed.
But wait! We discovered the "special homes finding list". This list includes older children who are available for adoption. Once a child is 15 they have aged out and cannot be adopted. We decided to choose an older child. There is a particular girl, “G” we are hoping to adopt. We will write more about her later when we know we have been approved.
We have finished our home-study and we are waiting for our immigration approval. At that point our dossier will be sent to the ICAB in the Philippines (Inter-Country Adoption Board.) Because G is an older child they will “fast track” our dossier and we should have our referral within 30 days.
We want to welcome an older child into our home, but that shortens the time we have to raise funds to complete the adoption from 36 months to 9 months. We'll need to pay $10,000 as early as spring and $5,000 at the end of summer.
Will you help us?
