Journey to Motherhood

A little over a year ago, I came across the blog Adoption Love and started following along. In that year, their family has adopted an adorable little girl and I've enjoyed reading their journey.

I even made two adorable ornaments for them last year during Ornaments for Adoption.

Kristen decided to host an Adoption link up so that adoptive families can "meet" and connect with one another.

So, I know adoption is something I've written about on here a lot. However, I thought I'd give a recap or our journey and throughout, I'll link other posts I've written if anyone is interested in reading more details. 

Where did it begin?

I'd say it was early 2012, when God really began to work in my life and show me that there are a lot of hurting people in this world and I have the means to help them. Not only did I want to help them, but I learned that Scripture instructed me to help them. In March of that year, I read a book (Kisses from Katie) that really changed my life. Shortly after that while browsing on Pinterest, I was lead to a blog post about orphans and adoption. (I can't link the blog post because it is now private.) I remember sitting on my couch crying at the thought of all these children without families. God broke my heart and I wanted to do something to help. At the time, I was trying to start an Etsy business and decided to try and sell headbands to help an adoptive family raise money. This was very unsuccessful and I took it kind of hard, but it didn't stop me from wanting to help. I almost became obsessed with reading about adoptive families and orphans. I was donating money left and right to adopting families or buying the items they were selling to raise money.

Did we feel called to adopt?

For a while, I just focused on helping other families who were adopting. I didn't give it too much thought as something we would do. At this time, my husband was a part time youth pastor at a church that was about an hour drive from where we were living. Every Sunday, we did a lot of driving and had a lot of time to talk. I can remember driving to church and just kind of blurting out "I think we should adopt." I think I even surprised myself in saying this. Unknowingly, God had been working in both of our hearts through my new-found passion for adoption to lead us to consider adopting. We decided that we would adopt regardless of whether or not we were able to have biological children. Throughout the next year, God continued to work out this desire in our hearts and I have shared in the past why adoption is important to me and how adoption plays into my testimony.

What is Ornaments for Adoption?

As I mentioned, in early 2012 I had a failed attempt to raise money for an adopting family. Later that year, this idea hit me. I could make ornaments to sell and raise money for an adopting family. I liked this idea because it was a seasonal thing, so it wouldn't be overwhelming to take on. Plus, ornaments are something people are always buying. I first presented the idea in September 2012. I also decided to share an adoption related post every Monday while I was selling ornaments. Overall, the first year was a success. I revamped some things to make it better in 2013 and OFA 2013 was also successful. I'm not sure what will happen this year. I'm still thinking it through. 

When did we begin the adoption process?  

In summer 2013, my husband and I began discussing starting the adoption process ourselves. I admit, it took me a while to get started because I didn't really know where to start. We told our families in September what we were doing and we started the process in October by applying to the Children's Home Society. Our application was approved and we met our social worker within the next month. We had a few more paperwork things we could do, but due to the holidays coming up we wouldn't be able to do much else until early 2014. During that waiting time, we took care of some paperwork things. The CHS requires people adopting from foster care to take about 30 hours worth of classes as well as being CPR/1st aid certified. So, in February we began these classes and they pretty much consumed every Tuesday and Thursday evening as well as a few Saturdays. We were very busy. On top of that, we moved to a new apartment in order to have a second bedroom for our future child (or children). There was also a lot of snow this past winter, so school for me kept getting cancelled and some of our classes had to be cancelled and rescheduled.

Where are we now?

Along with everything else we were doing in February, we also conceived a child. After our classes at CHS were through, I noticed my period was late and took a pregnancy test at the very beginning of March. It was positive and I couldn't believe it. So, we had to put our adoption on hold for now. It is still something we hope to do one day. We also have begun talking about not only adopting, but becoming foster parents as well. For now, we're focusing on the November arrival of our little girl. Until the time is right for us, I will continue to be an advocate for orphans, children in foster care, and adoption. I hope once things settle down, we can go back to doing some volunteer work for a local organization that focuses on foster care adoption. I also want to continue to support adopting families through our own giving and through Ornaments for Adoption.

I'm also linking up here: