The Journey Begins...

The desire to adopt a child had been eating away at me for years. When I first brought it up to my husband, Jerry, he thought I was crazy. He said he liked having older children; we had more freedom to be a couple without worrying about car seats and diaper bags. Today Joey is in fourth grade and Rosey is a freshman.


This was hard for me because the nagging desire to have more children would not go away. I cannot have more of my own children, and even if I could I knew I wanted to adopt. My husband and I spend time every year working in schools and orphanages in third world countries, and I just knew this was from where we should adopt.

I brought up the topic several times, before feeling it was hopeless. Finally, the last time my husband said he would pray about it. But I didn’t ask him if he was really seeking God on this issue. I just prayed. Finally, after about six months of praying, begging God to change my husband’s mind, I told God that if He intended us to adopt He would have to change Jerry’s heart; I surrendered my desire to Him.

The day after the earthquake in Haiti Jerry looked at me and said, "It’s time. Let’s do it." I must have asked him six billion times if he was serious, and each time he said he was; he said that this was the Lord and that we should adopt a child from Haiti.

Our children Rosey and Joey were so excited. Right way Joey said he wanted a little brother and bunk beds. He blathered on and on about teaching him to play basketball and skateboard and all the endless things they would do together. Joey has been asking for a little brother for years.

We wanted to get started right way. And because of the work I’ve been doing in Haiti since 2006, it wasn’t difficult to find an agency. We are working with New Life Link (their website is listed under ‘Adoption Links’ on the left side of the page). We requested a boy between the ages of one and three years old because by the time he gets to the United States he could be as old as five.

Next, a friend recommended the Children’s Hope Network as a place for us to contact regarding the home study. This is a huge process and takes at least six to eight weeks, if not more. We also submitted our i600a form to the government right away, and next week we will travel to Milwaukee to get our fingerprints taken.

I’ve never been so overwhelmed by paperwork in my life. But the Lord is faithful and my husband is a constant encouragement. Last night we divided up some of the paperwork and phone calls, and today we registered for the online classes we have to take for the state of Wisconsin.

I trust God that all this will flow smoothly, and before we know it, we will bring our son home.