Big decisions & Adoption changes

2 years... I can't believe we began our adoption journey 2 years ago! Back then we expected to have a sweet baby from Ethiopia in our arms and home by now. Out Lord is so gracious and has blessed us with a new baby in our home, our precious baby Samuel:)

Also can't believe that Samuel is almost 8 months old... they grow up so fast!

When we began our journey of adoption, our desire was to demonstrate God's love and adoption of us as we adopt a child and bring an orphan into our family. When we began the process, Ethiopia was one of the countries processing adoptions in quick and efficient manner. We decided to pursue an adoption there to bring a child into our home as quick as possible (knowing that adoption isn't quick). Since then, the process in Ethiopia has slowed down dramatically. We have had several twists and turns through our adoption journey (changes and longer wait times in Ethiopia, having to complete a new home study, immigration and fingerprints expiring) ... once again there is a new twist. We found out this week that our dossier has been in Ethiopia so long, it is actually expiring next month. This means that we would have to compile a brand new dossier (birth certificates, marriage license, medical letter, police records, too many notarized and state sealed forms to count!) The first time I put together our dossier, I took a break from homeschooling, and the process still took 3 months! Along with the paperwork, we were going to have to more fees to pay again. Needless to say we were a little overwhelmed by this news!

After prayer and many conversations with our wonderful Bethany Christian Services case worker, Josh and I decided to switch gears and pursue a domestic adoption. About a year and a half ago, we were made aware of the GREAT need for families open to adopting babies from different races... right here in Arkansas. We had just completed and sent our dossier to Ethiopia when we had a conversation about how we wished we had known about that need sooner. We talked about domestic adoption a couple times over the past year, and currently sense the Lord leading us down this path. We want to be good stewards of our time and finances; we feel that domestic adoption is the best route for us to adopt. We will begin working on the paperwork and process for domestic adoption in the next month.

Many of you have been supportive of our fund raising efforts over the past two years. Much of those funds are able to transfer over, and we do not have to pay the application fee or home study fee again. Unfortunately some grant money and a lot of the funds we raised have already been sent to Ethiopia or used in our home study/dossier process; we will not get those funds back. Thankfully two major grants from Show Hope and Lifesong will still apply and be able to help in the costly process. We have two-thirds of the funds needed, but still have funds we need to raise. We're excited to see the Lord's provision through this new process.

Thank you for praying for us throughout our journey, we ask you to continue to pray for us...

• Pray for our family as we navigate this new process of domestic adoption (learning more about birth mother and open adoption).
• Pray for God's timing of adding a new sweet baby to our family.
• Pray for God's protection over our child and the birth mother.
• Pray for Evan, Benjamin & Samuel's transition as they get a new baby brother/sister.
• Pray for God's provision of the last $5,000-$6,000 we need to complete this adoption.