Our story

As most of you know we have been on one crazy, windy, bumpy, worth every minute of it kind of journey to find our next love. Today, that journey has changed and our prayers have been answered. We received a referral of our precious baby boy!!!

Here’s our story:
In the summer of 2008, we followed God’s calling to pursue our second international adoption. Little did we know it would take us nearly two years to be matched with our second love of our life. I know there is nothing quick about international adoption, but compared with our first adoption where everything happened so quickly (8 months from start to finish), it was hard adjusting to the feeling of standing completely still.

After looking into several countries, we found our hearts in the Korea program. I don’t know what it was, but something about this program made us feel so comfortable. Maybe it was the short time frame compared to other countries, the age of the child at referral or maybe it was just God’s way of telling us this is where our child was.

So late that summer, we contacted an agency and requested information on that specific program and sent in our application that same week. We were accepted on three different levels…never felt closer to finding our child. That was until we learned Korea had a weight requirement and due to my…oh let’s say chubbiness, we were no longer eligible to complete the adoption.

Back on the search we went. We started looking into adoptions with Thailand (children were older), Taiwan (didn’t meet the marriage requirement), domestic (estimating three years) until we started wondering if our child was meant to come to us through adoption. This is when we started looking into fertility treatments. This was by far the worst decision we have ever made. After two failed attempts, we knew this was not the path God was leading us on.

After much heartache, we decided it would be best if we took a break from the adoption for a few months. Then we got a call from the agency we had been working with. They had an opening in their Korea program and asked if we would like to reapply. Again, it felt so right…like this is where we were supposed to be. Unfortunately things still stood where they were before. In order to complete the adoption, I knew I would have to lose x number of pounds before officially turning in our documents. Could I do? Possibly if I really put my mind to it, but the stress put on me to do it in such a short time frame was really making me nervous. Not to mention the fees we would have lost if I wasn’t’ able to lose the weight by the deadline. As hard as it was, we turned down the offer.

A few weeks later we got a call from the agency again informing us of a new program they took over in Taiwan. We jumped at this opportunity. We started our paperwork in March of 2009, but couldn’t officially turn in our paperwork until November because of the five year marriage requirement. At this time we were expected to be matched in 12-18 months. However, things quickly started changing. Referrals weren’t coming as quickly as they were and the time frame was expected to reach 3 years. Something in my heart was telling us this is not where we were supposed to be.

At this point, we started looking into several waiting children. I believe we looked at 9 profiles over the course of a few months…but nothing came with them. We even went as far as looking into other agencies and came very close to making the switch when we learned they were estimating referrals in 6 months. Do you know that agency told us NOT to make the switch? What agency would not but jumping on someone right now? Must have been God’s angel sitting there that day. Anyways, we pretty much hit rock bottom and were struggling with every emotion possible. We were struggling with financial issues, family drama, and this feeling of not being worthy of another child. This is when it all started to change.

On Tuesday March 16, 2010 an unexpected email came across. It was our social worker and the title of the email was “2 Korean babies needing homes”. My heart literally fell out of my chest when I read those words. We opened up the attachment and there was his precious little face. He, along with another little boy, was on Korea’s waiting child list. No one in the Korea program showed an interest in these sweet little boys’s, so the agency presented everyone in any of their programs with their files. Since they were special needs waiting children, Korea lifted the weight requirement…Praise God!!!!

We immediately feel in love with his little guy. We prayed every minute of every day that if this was the child God set aside for us then to let his will be done. From that moment on, we were given every sign possible to put our hearts at ease and knowing this was our son. On Friday March 19th, we submitted our request to be matched. After a very long week and a half we officially received our referral of our baby boy on March 30th…his 7 month birthday. God’s work is truly amazing and we are beyond blessed!!!