The Journey

A lady from my church who adopted from China gave me a book to read about adoption. She said that it was her all time favorite book about adoption, and I now see why! The name of the book is The Waiting Child. This book is not just a book about a family loving an orphan and bringing her home, but about this orphan's love for another orphan. This is a true story about a little girl named Jaclyn. Her family adopts her from China, but when they bring her home she cannot forget a little boy in the orphanage that she basically mothered at the age of three. This book took me a little while longer to get through than most books not because it was boring, but because the reality of what life in the orphanage was like for this little girl. My heart broke as she would tell stories about surviving in the orphanage and the memories she clearly recalled after she was home in America. Stories of rain coming through the window at night, and then being punished for wetting the bed. Stories of r

Today I woke up with Ethiopia and our adoption really heavy on my heart. I think about it all the time of course, but there are times when it just really pulls me. As I woke up, I just couldn't get it out of my head. It's not that I don't want to think about the adoption, but I am really trying not to stress about it because it is totally out of my control. I started by praying and asking God to somehow make a way where there doesn't really seem to be. I usually try to avoid news articles and things that could possibly dampen my spirit, but I am also a strong believer in being educated and knowing what we are getting ourselves into. When I Googled recent news articles on Ethiopian adoption, I found of course what I have been trying to avoid-an article about how Ethiopian has slowed their adoptions down by almost 90% since 2011 and an article on how an Ethiopian girl just revoked her adoption from the Netherlands because of abuse. I hate how the articles that the world

Jeffrey and I both took the day off work. I recently posted about the film STUCK, and how I really wanted to see it. Since we were unable to attend the STL showing, my mom bought us the film. She gave it to us today, and we just finished watching it. Surprisingly, I didn't cry nearly as much as I thought I would. I think the film did an excellent job at showing how children get literally stuck in the adoption process and they are left in institutions for years when they have families in America desperately wanting them to be home. Like many government policies and ideas, things sound much better on paperwork than they really end up being. Sadly, as paper work sits so do the children. Adoptions are taking longer than ever and are sadly decreasing due to all the regulations and finances. Jeffrey and I desperately want our friends and family members to see the need for children all over the world to have the right to a family. Many of the children who are being adopted internation

I know I posted about this film a while back ago, but here is an update! STUCK is a new award-winning documentary film, produced by Both Ends Burning that uncovers the personal, real-life stories of children and parents navigating a rollercoaster of bureaucracy on their journeys through the international adoption system, each filled with hope, elation – and sometimes heartbreak. STUCK steps into the complex human experience of adoption, exploring the challenges faced by birth parents, prospective adoptive parents – and children. The film follows Tihun from Ethiopia, Nate from Vietnam, and Erickson and Therline from Haiti on their individual voyages from orphanages in their native countries to their homes with families in the United States. Filmmaker Thaddaeus Scheel tracks the chapters in the lives of these four children, and the three couples seeking to be their parents, revealing along the way the intense hope and disappointment they experience on the odyssey to u

This blog is intended for those of you have donated to our behalf directly to our adoption agency through online donations. We have a feeling that many of you have donated towards our adoption journey and that we have not been able to thank you. We want to let you know that we are not ignoring your generosity. We are so blessed to have such a huge group of people who love us, who love adoption, who love baby Woodson, and love to fight for orphans.  We want to let you know that through some of you letting us know that you have donated online, we are discovering that it takes a while for our adoption agency to notify us of your gift. They try their best to let us know within 10 work days, but your gifts are processed through two different departments which can take a little longer. Our adoption agency just recently started this program that allows family and friends to donate to adopting families directly online, and there has been a huge amount of donations coming in. I know in the Ethi

In my last real post, I talked about a list that moms have composed to give you a pretty good idea of where you are in getting your referral. Since we have been on the list, I have come a bit obsessed with checking the list. The list is usually updated weekly, but sometimes more than once a week. As beneficial and informative as this list can be, it can also be a discouragement. I have seen our name go up and down due to a variety of different reasons that I am not going to get into, but it seems like we aren't moving as quickly as I had hoped.  I have decided to take a break from the list for a variety of reasons, but the major one is to just stop worrying about where we are and just let it all happen. Looking at the list every day sometimes more than once a day is not going to change our status. So as much as I do want to keep you all informed on where we are, I feel like this is something I need to do for myself. I have decided to not look at the list again until June 28th whi

"When are you guys leaving?" "You guys have all your money! That is exciting!" "I can't wait to meet the baby this summer!" "So do you guys have the baby room ready? When is your baby shower?" "I'm so happy you guys are so close!" These statements and so much more seem to be the opening to a lot of conversations we have had lately. Since this has been happening much more than I had expected, I want to clear some things up. First of all, I want to talk about the fundraising. Yes, we were extremely blessed by the trivia night, and we were so happy to raise such a large amount of money, but that was just a portion of what we still need to raise. We have wanted to be really open and honest with everyone in this whole process. We have totaled up what we still owe and have subtracted what we have raised and saved, and we still have a total of $17, 563! Yes, international adoption is extremely expensive. So no, our fundraising