We're adopting!

Some of you may have already heard this news, but we thought we'd make official by starting a blog--that's what you're supposed to do, right?! Yes, we're bringing another little one(s?) into our family and we're all excited about it! I'm writing this as Eli is outside doing a Limeade stand to raise our first funds for the adoption--so it doesn't take much to see that the whole family is ready to get this journey started! There's so much to say about it and I have no idea where to begin, but I thought I'd start with questions that I've already gotten to make it flow a little better since I have so much information I want to share. I'll try to write as little as possible on this post so it won't be too overwhelming. There will be months...and months...and months...for more information.

Why are you adopting?
Some people grow up wanting to be doctors or lawyers or circus clowns, I have grown up wanting to adopt as many children as I could (and to work in orphanages, but that's another blog post I'm sure I'll get to). Now that I'm older I realize that adopting isn't as easy as just saying you want to do it and bringing a child into your home, but we're ready to start filling out mountains of paperwork and looking for ways to raise thousands of dollars for at least one little one to join our family. Kyle and I have been talking about it throughout our whole marriage and we can't think of a better time to begin than now, so we're starting and praying that through every step of this process we will know we are not in control but the Lord's eyes are on us and our little Sparrow thousands of miles away.

From where? Why?
Because of both Kyle and my love for international anything and Kyle's special fondness of India we're going to be adopting from that beautiful country. We both see times of travel (and maybe living?) in India in our future, so for our adopted child(ren) to share their home country with us in that way seems really special. I know many people have their ideas about why you should or should not leave your home country to adopt, and I'm sure there will be blog posts in the future about how I feel about it all, but for now we'll keep it simple.

Do you know anything about the child yet?
India has more rules than I can possibly explain here, but we do know that our child probably will not be younger than 3. We are planning on adopting a girl--unless there's any way we can adopt siblings, which I'm praying strongly for, and in that case we might be bringing a little boy into our home too. We do know that we'd like to keep Eli as the oldest so 5 or younger is the plan. I say all this knowing that just because we have a picture in our minds doesn't mean that it's where the Lord will actually lead and I pray that we're open to anything!

How long before you will be bringing the little one home?
Only the Lord knows. This is one of the hardest parts for me. I want to know..and I want to know NOW. I want to be assured that once we get our home study done we will be matched within the month and then once that's done we will be holding that child in our arms no more than 6 months later. But that's crazy and ridiculous and have I mentioned that we're adopting from India? I'm not going to say what the time line is but I will say that I'm praying it won't take longer than 18 months. I know many people have waited way longer than that and I know it can be more like 2-2.5 years, but I'm praying for shorter time because patience is not my strength (maybe that's what I'll be learning along the way?) The time line can't be seen before it's even started and more than that it's a long, heart wrenching process that I'm sure will lead me to more tears and frustration that I can imagine right now. Which leads me to the last question I'll have for now....

Why 'Our Indian Sparrow'?
One night in May after we had officially decided that we were going to start the process I was reading through an adoption blog and the author was posting some youtube clips of her favorite songs, one of them being 'His Eye is on the Sparrow'--and I started bawling. Besides getting a list of things we need for our home study and deciding on an agency, we have not even taken a tiny step into this and I'm already overwhelmed, bogged down with how much it's going to take to get our little one home. I know there's a chance I'm going to get news about forms being lost in offices all the way across the world, or thoughts of my little one being sick with a cold and I'm not there to help them feel better, and I will feel completely discouraged. And I also know that the only thing that can get me through that time would be drawing "closer to Him" knowing that His eye is on the sparrow--OUR Sparrow and that He knows our cares and fears. If you don't know the lyrics, or haven't heard them in a long time I recommend reading them and knowing there's more truth in the message than your doubts in the lonely and hard times can ever escape.

 So--this was a lot longer than I planned. And I know I talked a lot about being overwhelmed, but I also know this is going to be one of the most exciting times in our lives. Think sweet pregnancy thoughts! :)