Our pastor gave the most amazing sermon on Easter Sunday about the Unexpected. We now are facing our own Unexpected moment as we now are looking to move forward with the adoption of a baby girl stateside. This is very exciting and a leap of faith. Right now, we are looking to see what this will look like, and we ask for your prayers. We commit that should this adoption not be completed, any raised funds will be used to help payoff adoption related debt, and then as we move forward with our adoption plan…most likely returning to the South Africa program we previously were a part of.
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This update is hard to write, but in January Ethiopia voted to close inter country adoption. We fought hard to get T home, but in the end we have had to acknowledge that we will not be able to complete her adoption. Our hearts ache, and we pray for T and all of the children of Ethiopia - that they would know the love and protection of a family.
As of now, we have been grieving this loss. While similar to when we lost K's referral, this is much different in many ways and after 11 months of being matched. We continue to seek out God's plan for our family.
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Late one night I saw her face. It was unexpected. She was not in the country that we were already in process with. But there she was. Across the ocean from us, we saw our daughter for the first time. It was just like with our son a few years ago. After a month of paperwork and interviews we had the call to learn that not only did we think we were her family, but so did the agency working so hard on her behalf! God made it clear that she is our daughter, and we have needed to start from scratch, yet again, to bring her home. Our "T" has been in an orphanage for over 5 years, which is too long to be without a family.
Many of you followed us as we brought E home from Ghana in 2014, and thank you so much for your support and generosity! He is excited to be a big brother, and to help support her transition from Africa as he was also an older child when he joined our family.
We have had a lot of people ask us if they can support our journey to "T", and the answer is yes! Through this campaign, you can give a tax-deductible gift that will help us get our sweet girl home. She has some significant needs that we hope will help expedite aspects of the legal process both in the US and her home country, and expenses will be adding up quicker than anticipated.
Unfortunately, international adoption is a very expensive process. This is why we have set a goal of $40,000 to help cover costs so that we can reserve resources to meet her needs immediately upon arrival to get the critical care, therapies, and more that she will need. We've already paid for many initial pieces including first installments of agency fees, immigration submissions, etc. The amount we're hoping to raise will allow for us to complete the necessary adoption steps, including our family traveling overseas for several weeks to finalize her adoption when the time comes.
We hope that by inviting you into this process, you will see yourself as part of the community we hope to build as she grows up. Thank you in advance, and please let me know if you have any questions! We invite you to be covering our family, and specifically "T" in prayer over the coming months.
God writes the best stories, and we can not wait to meet her, laugh with her, play with her, care for her, and love her for the rest of her life.
