Answering your questions!

Hey friends! Thanks for reading our blog. I know I've said it before but hitting that publish button just makes me so nervous. This is way out of my comfort zone so to know you would take the time to stop and read what is happening with our journey means so much!

I wanted to take some time today to not only update you guys but to also answer some questions. We have gotten so many questions! Personally, I enjoy answering the questions because I want to bring awareness and education to the process of adoption. I am by no means an expert, but I do feel like we have already learned so much. 

Okay, here we go with FAQ's!

1.What country are you adopting from?

We are adopting from India!

2. How did you guys choose India?

The short answer is that is where we felt the Lord calling us.

The long (very long, sorry) answer is that we were both open to either domestic or international. We knew we had to make that decision first. I just prayed that the Lord would open the doors for the route we should take and close the doors for the other. We believe there is a need for both and we don't believe that one is better than the other. All children deserve to be in a loving family regardless of what country they are from. I don't believe the Lord sees us as Americans, Indians, Chinese, or any other race. As the song goes "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world". We are all his children no matter what country we live in and we all need to feel loved and cared for. 

Also, the only two families we know personally that have adopted internationally both adopted from India. That is how we initially felt the Lord pulling us towards India. We started to really think about India and what that would look like for our family. A more practical reason is that it is one trip of 10-14 days. Many countries require multiple trips and many weeks or months of visits. We knew because of Joeys job that would not be an option for our family BUT we were willing to travel and willing to get out of our comfort zone and GO!

Another reason, and for me the biggest reason, is that India has one of the largest populations of orphans. 31 million orphans. Just let that number sink in. It breaks my heart. India is also the second most populated country in the world, but only 2.3% of that population are Christians. We felt the Lord calling us to a place where children are not very likely to hear the gospel. A place where there isn't much hope. Not that Christ can't do whatever he wants. We aren't the Savior, Christ is. We just know that the Lord has placed this desire on our hearts, and we want to be obedient. We want to be good stewards of the grace that the Lord has given our family. We want to share that grace where there is an urgent physical and spiritual need. We also look forward to growing our family and welcoming another sweet babe into our home! 
Oh and India is a beautiful country. They are a beautiful people group and they have delicious food. What's not to love!?

3. What agency are you using and how did you choose?
We are using Lifeline Children's Services

We learned about Lifeline through some friends that recently used Lifeline to bring their son home from India. After hearing about how great the experience was and what Lifeline did for them through their journey, I knew they were an agency I wanted to explore more. I spoke with a few other people and looked into two or three other agencies. I realized quickly that Lifeline's values and morals just aligned with ours. I spent a lot of time gathering a long list of questions and figuring out the things that were important to us to have from an agency or maybe I should say, specific things we were looking for from an agency. We spent a good amount of time asking questions to Lifeline and were always pleased or impressed with their responses. Not just impressed for ourselves but for the future of adoption as well. It's so important that your agency understands the country you adopt from. CARA is the Indian government agency that handles all adoptions, and they are very thorough. We wanted to feel confident that our agency could handle any major changes they may throw at us. The agency needs to understand India and they need to know when to push and when not to. Lifeline checked all of those boxes. I also spent a good bit of time looking up hashtags. Yep, hashtags. Hello 2019! I searched Instagram for #indiaadoption and #lifelineindia. I wanted to find other families that A adopted from India and B adopted from India using lifeline. I feel like any agency can make up a pretty website and answer all the questions like you want them to but, I wanted to hear more real life people that have walked through this journey with Lifeline. After reaching out to several families, I did not hear one bad experience from anyone that used Lifeline. In fact, every family I talked with just raved about how wonderful Lifeline had been through their entire journey. I was just so encouraged and knew we were making the right choice by choosing them. 

4. What is the cost and what are you paying for?
The cost for us is going to be around $45,000. You aren't buying a child. You are paying for the many fees that are required to make the child legally yours. Fees such as:
-Adoption service provider fees
-Home study fees
- Immigration and Visa fees
- UCICS filing and fingerprinting fees
-Medical examination fees (for the prospective adoptive parents and for the adopted child)
-Travel Expenses (flights, hotels, passports)
-Legal fees
 I am sure I'm forgetting something but that covers most of it. 

5. How far into the process are you?
We have been accepted into the India program and are currently in the middle of completing our home study. The home study takes 3-4 months and requires several visits from our local social worker. We are also required to receive psychological evaluations and full physicals. Those appointment are scheduled and coming up next month.

6. Are you adopting a boy or a girl?
I knew I didn't care which gender. I was open to both. I told Joey that if he felt he wanted to have a boy then this was the time. He agreed that he couldn't decide either and he could totally see us having three girls. So we both agreed we would let the Lord decide. We know He knows the gender our family needs. We trust he already has this child chosen for our family. We are anxious to receive our match! I can't wait to know if we are going to be blessed with another girl or a boy! It feels like that same kind of excitement when you go in for your anatomy ultrasound to learn the gender. Eeeeek!

7. How old will the child be? Or what age are you open to adopting?
India requires you to stay in birth order. So our child will not be older than Eden. Meaning, this childs birthday must be after Eden's. 

8. How long is the process?
On paper they say 12-24 months. It seems like the average is 18-24 months. That has been the timeline a lot of families that have adopted from India recently have had. Truthfully, I try to not look at how long it takes for others because really the Lord can do whatever He wants. This process could go as fast or slow as He wants it to go. I don't want to look at timelines much because I don't want to be disappointed when I realize a certain part is taking longer than what was estimated. I am really trying to trust the Lord's timing and not focus on how long this could take. He has this story written already. Even though I am longing to hold my baby, I know that his timing is perfect and he has already taken care of all the details. 

I feel like those are the most asked questions currently. If there's something I haven't covered, please reach out and ask. Like I said above, we are not experts, but we are committed to learning, growing and educating ourselves and others as we go through this process. 

CHRISTMAS COOKIE FUNDRAISER

Here I am just in awe of what the Lord did through the Christmas Cookies. I mean I just can't believe that I get to do this for this process. Don't get me wrong, it was exhausting. It was time consuming. There were times of feeling overwhelmed. I just kept reminding myself, this isn't for me. This isn't for the money. This isn't for the encouragement from others. This is for our child. This is part of the fight to bring him/her home. So thankful for every single cookie order that we received. Thankful for those late nights by myself decorating cookies just dreaming of what our child's face looks like. Imagining watching all three of our children playing together. It all just makes me so happy and excited.

Here are the numbers!!
768 total cookies
$1,845.00 raised 

WOW! Y'all are amazing. Thank you all so very much! We really are so humbled by it all. 

Also, thank you to my sweet cousin Kendall that drove 3 hours to come help decorate cookies!

Puzzle Update!

Our puzzle is coming along and really taking shape! We have sold 81 pieces out of 300. We are so encouraged by that! Every single dollar we raised for the cookie fundraiser went back into buying pieces of our puzzle! Once every piece of the puzzle is purchased then our entire adoption will be fully funded. Purchasing a puzzle piece is the easiest way to support us financially. 

Thanks again for reading about our journey!

With Love,

Whitney