We have BIG news!
We are adopting a beautiful boy named Elijah into our home!
We have always been open to adoption, but the time never seemed right. We have both been educators for almost a decade and are involved in the lives of many great kids. We have overcome some difficult family circumstances in the last several years and have never had the opportunity to start a family. But, we had no idea that a little boy named Elijah was about to rock our world.
Elijah is a 20-month old boy from Iowa. He has an older brother and sister who live in Scottsdale with a social worker who adopted them a few years ago. When Elijah's mom decided that the best thing for his future was to place him for adoption, she wished that he would be able to be close to his older siblings. She brought him to Phoenix to be placed by the same agency that had the privilege to help his older siblings.
A childhood friend Jessica works at that agency and knew we had long hoped to adopt a child, and that an active 20-month old boy would be a perfect fit for us. She reached out to us on a Thursday morning to tell us how precious Elijah was and to see if we would be interested. We prayed about Elijah for a couple days and felt like we should meet him. We got our first introduction to this amazing boy three days later on Saturday. The phrase "love at first sight" took on a new meaning that day. We got to spend the evening eating dinner together, going on walks, and watching the movie Hook (Andrew's favorite childhood movie). It was clear that we were supposed to be a family.
We spent the week preparing our hearts and home to welcome Elijah to the family on Friday morning. We completed our background checks, got physicals, set up a nursery, gathered toys and clothes from friends and co-workers, and prepared our hearts to make sure that Elijah was given everything that every child deserves. We were given the opportunity to take Elijah to his new home for a visit on Thursday night so he could see the house and ease the transition that would happen the next day (only 8 days after we learned that Elijah needed a home!!).
After the visit, we took him back to the house where he had been temporarily placed with the adoption agency's director. When we went to part ways, Elijah gripped tight around our necks and had to be pulled away. We all ended the goodbye in tears…
We were making our way to the car, sad to leave him, but excited for the next morning, and nervous to be new parents. There were too many emotions for us to fully understand. Just as we were buckling up to leave, the agency director ran outside with Elijah and flagged us down! She said she has never seen a child connect with a family so powerfully and so quickly. While she stood at the entrance to the house and prayed for God's wisdom and how to comfort Elijah, God's presence was clearly on our new family. Elijah needed to go home with his new family that night!
Elijah came home with us that night, only seven days after hearing about him! Only five days after meeting him! And all of our lives have been changed forever. Elijah is one of the most precious people you will ever meet. It took less than a day for him to identify us as "Mommy" and "Daddy". He spends his days dancing and pretending to sing into a microphone, he also thinks that everything is a phone no matter what it is. He will run to you and grab you by the cheeks to tell you (in toddler talk) about every new thing he has discovered about the world. He will play the piano, sweetly pet the dogs, demand a bite of your food, and give you a kiss to make sure that you know the everything will be alright. He is marked by the peace and the grace of the Lord Christ Jesus. We are looking forward to how the Lord uses him in His kingdom, how all of us will grow in Christ not only individually but as a family of THREE!
We are beyond excited and are doing everything we can to welcome our beautiful new boy into our home. As part of our adoption process, we have started a crowdfunding campaign. It may surprise you to hear that adoption related costs can easily total up to $35,000 or more. This is why we have set a goal of $35,000 to help ease the financial burden that often overwhelms adoptive parents. We look forward to giving Elijah the opportunities that every child deserves. We look forward to raising him to be a great man of God, a person who continues to show compassion and grace and to change the lives of everyone he meets. We look forward to seeing him have a relationship with his older brother and sister. We look forward to seeing him bring a blessing to this world the way he has blessed us. We hope that by inviting you into this process, you will see yourself as part of the community we hope to build around Elijah as he grows up.
