We had always talked about adoption as a Plan B for our family; however, throughout our marriage God has placed some amazing ministries and people in our paths that have opened our eyes to the reality that adoption doesn't have to be Plan B, it can be Plan A.
In June of 2010, after lots of prayer and discussion, we believed that we had recieved confirmation from God to start our adoption journey.
We have, so far, completed our homestudy and we are currently awaiting an appointment with immigration to get fingerprinted. After that we will send off a bunch of paperwork to Ethiopia (where we are adopting from) and then the waiting begins for a referral.
So a couple of questions I am sure you are asking yourselves:
Why Adoption?
God continues to show us his divine grace in adopting us into His family and has revealed to us that we, too, could show this same type of love to our children through adoption. We both feel as if God has led us to adopt as a way to carry out His commands and testify to His love.
Why Ethiopia?
Mike and I have always had a heart from Africa. Once we began talking about where and with whom we should adopt, it became obvious pretty quickly that it would be from Africa. We were originally looking into Ukraine or Russia, simply because we have several friends in our community who had also adopted from there, however, the more we talked, the more we felt God was telling us that our baby was going to be from Ethiopia.
How Long Will This Take?
The simple answer is... we do not know. There is a lot of policy changes happening in Ethiopia right now that can drastically impact the amount of time it will take for families adopting from Ethiopia. All we can do is pray and believe that God is sovereign and in control.
So that's our big announcement! The Fleener Family is Adopting!
No comments:
Post a Comment