As most of you know Josh and I both have a great desire to
adopt. We feel the bible commands us to care for orphans and we feel the Lord
has personally called us to pursue this for His glory. With a few years of prayerful
consideration we believe the time is NOW!
We recently decided to start looking into different agencies
and adoption programs to decide which was best for us. We are excited to say
that we submitted our application just last night (July 17th) and
found out this afternoon (July 18th) that we have been accepted into
the Ethiopia Program through American World Adoption (AWAA). The program we
have chosen is estimated to take up to 50 months. We know that this is going to
be a long process for us but we feel we are up for the journey.
In the meantime, we are looking into a local program here in
Lubbock called the Bair Foundation where we hope to do something called foster
to adopt. Foster to adopt is a program run by the state, where you foster a
child in your home until either the child goes back to the family or the rights
get terminated from the child’s family. If that happens, then we would keep the
child for 6 months and then have the opportunity to adopt the child. This
process is much shorter which is why we have chosen to do this in the meantime.
We feel we are ready for more children and ready to start the long journey to
care for orphans.
All of this is subject to change. Nothing is ever set in
stone when going through the adoption process. Since this is the first time, we
are expecting some heartache and rocky patches; but we are praying that the
Lord will guide us through this and lead us where we need to be. We are
confident that the Lord has called us to do this and we are going to do our
best to fulfill His calling.
So here’s to our first adoption blog!! Make sure to follow
all our updates on the adoption process on the blog. That is, of course, why we
started the blog!
We ask for your prayers,
The Holders
