We have talked about adoption since long before we got married. We knew that it was something we would be open to and that if God led us to it, that we would absolutely say, “Yes!”
Carter was talking to one of his friends about getting an adoption update from their family in May of 2023. Both of us expressed that we felt God calling us to take that first step and use the slow time of summer schedules to pursue adoption education and take any courses or trainings we may need to take. We simply put in an inquiry online to Lifeline, and the inquiry went directly to the Director of Lifeline Georgia’s desk! To this day, no one knows how or why. It turns out, though, that the Director was coming south just a few days later so we were able to sit down with her over coffee and talk, learn more about Lifeline and about adoption, and process everything together. She informed us during that meeting that a required International Adoption Roadmap webinar was that Sunday evening. While the timing seemed too good to be true, Sunday nights are church nights for us since Carter is the Lead Pastor. Except that this particular Sunday we were hosting the local high school’s Baccalaureate Service so we did not have church that evening and would, in fact, be home by the time of the webinar!
After the webinar, we began the application process. We moved forward through the Home Study process smoothly as we continued to prepare our home for our adoption. Our Home Study for North Macedonia was finalized on November 8, 2023. However, not long after our home study was complete, our agency advocated for a young girl in Eastern Europe as an urgent adoption need. We continued feeling drawn to this child and inquired for more information. Long story short, it seemed our family was a good fit for her and that she was a good fit for us! So we changed our country over to her country, and that home study was finalized on December 6, 2023. We are now waiting for USCIS to approve our application as we prepare our dossier. We are incredibly excited to grow our family through international adoption!
