We plan on telling the whole story of how God tugged on our hearts and how we made the big decision to adopt, but in the meantime, we wanted to do a little Q&A. These are questions we have been asked… or questions that we assume people are curious about.
Why are you adopting? Are you unable have any more children biologically?
We actually are able to have biological children. Mary did have high risk pregnancies with both Ava and Jesse, which made us apprehensive to get pregnant again, but that is not at all why are adopting. God softened our hearts to the orphans of the world. He calls us all to care for orphans and He just happened to ask us to bring one home.
“Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: To look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
James 1:27
Why China? Why not domestic adoption? Why special needs?
Well, we went to a seminar on domestic adoption, as well as one on international adoption. We were sure that God was nudging us to adopt a child that was unwanted (we didn’t feel called to adopt an infant in the US, as there are many people waiting for these children- many who are waiting are unable to biologically have a baby.) We considered fostering to adopt a toddler/preschooler in the US, so we researched and prayed about it. Ultimately, we didn’t think we could emotionally handle fostering as it does not always lead to adoption (we also were unsure how the kids would do with that scenario.) Ultimately, we didn’t feel like that was the way the Lord was leading us. When we called AWAA (our adoption agency), they told us that there were many “waiting children” in China. They explained that these kids are harder to place, and there was a real need for adoptive families. We prayed about it and we felt drawn to the program. And yes, we do have both a nephew and niece adopted from China. It did bring us comfort to know that our son would have cousins that were also from China.
How much will it cost?
$25-$32k
How long will it take? Will you travel to China?
We aren’t sure how long it will take from this point? As of now, we are hoping for no longer than a year or a little more before we travel. Unfortunately it is unpredictable. We will know more as we get further along in the process. Yes, we will travel to China to get our son. We will be required to be there for around 10 days, so with travel, we will be gone about 2 weeks.
Do you have a picture of your child? Do you know who they are?
No, we don’t know yet. We pray for him everyday and think about him- We wonder how old he is and what he is like… We do not know how long it will take before we get our referral. We will be sure to let everyone know when we do!
Are you adopting because Mary’s brother and sister adopted? (yeah- we were really asked this!)
We would NEVER make a huge decision like this flippantly or because someone else did it. Yes, Mary’s siblings have adopted.. and honestly it’s been amazing to watch God at work in the midst of it. We loved to see these precious kiddos come into forever families.. But, NO- we are not trying to be in the “adoption club.” We are just being obedient to what the Lord asked us to do. We think it’s awesome that God could use their adoptions to soften our hearts, and honestly, we pray that God would use our son to soften hearts, too. It would be amazing if God could use our son’s story to tug at someone else’s heart to adopt.
What do your kids think about it?
They are so excited! The wait time seems to be a little confusing to them, especially because we can’t give them a solid answer for when to expect their brother home. However, they continue to ask questions- “will he be a baby?” “will he wear diapers?” “will he be afraid of us??” Although we don’t have many answers for them, we continually pray for baby brother and talk about how fun it will be when he comes home.
Why are you doing this if you can’t afford it?
We feel confident that God has called us to do this and we are relying on Him to provide the resources… simple as that!
Hope this helps! Please feel free to ask us any questions you have 🙂
Oh, and we really liked this short Francis Chan clip on adoption.. check it out!
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