One tiny step closer!

We were able to tell both sides of our family about our adoption over the weekend! Funny how nervous I was! Today we went and got our fingerprinting done for our FBI background checks so we can get that part sent off. It's supposed to be one of the longest parts, so hopefully they get it done quickly!!! This Saturday we are going to our training. It is an ALL day thing and it is 2 1/2 hours away so the kids will be staying with Grandma and Grandpa! They are pretty excited! Hopefully #4 won't be expecting us to bring him home a sister. He has it all planned out in his head. G and G are going to stay with him and his brothers while mom and dad get on a plane and bring his sister home. He was ready to pack his bags 3 weeks ago when we first told them! It's finally starting to sink in that it's going to take a bit longer ;-)

Audio Adrenaline - Kings & Queens

I've heard this song a ton of times and loved it! It hit me a couple months ago what this song was actually about! Funny how sometimes I can know every word to a song and not really understand it. Love this song even more now!

Update on applications and contracts

We have officially signed with our International adoption agency as well as our home study agency! Since we are using an agency outside of our state to handle the actual adoption, we will need to have a licensed Hague accredited agency specific to South Dakota. Our adopting agency is Nightlight Christian Adoption Agency from Colorado and our home study agency is New Horizons Adoption Agency. Nightlight approved our application on November 4th and now all of our contracts and first payments have been sent into both agencies. Every step feels so HUGE! We should be getting a TON of paperwork in the mail in the coming days which will keep us busy for quite a while!! We have talked about the possibility of adoption with the boys a few times, but 2 nights ago told them officially! Son #4 was the most excited :-) We told them all to keep it secret for a little bit until we can tell the rest of our families on Thanksgiving.... Well, Son #4 couldn't wait! The next morning he told our friend that takes them to school and then his preschool class later that day. So far only a couple of our friends know that we are this far into the process. Everyone else that knows are the other families adopting from Kyrgyzstan!! I'm excited for Thanksgiving! (I'm terrible at keeping in good news!)

Setting out on a new journey.... How it all began

It feels like we've already been on a long journey, but in reality we are at the very beginning. Jamie and I were married in August of 2000, three months after I graduated high school. Around our one year anniversary we decided we wanted to expand our family. We figured it wouldn't take long, after all, we were both young and in good health. After nearly a year and a half of trying we were starting to talk about "what if it never happens". We talked about the adoption option and were both open to it. Soon after that we found out we were pregnant with son #1! The adoption seed was planted....

June 25, 2011 I was pregnant with our 5th child, a girl! I was 15 weeks and 3 days when I went into full blown labor. She was born too early and passed away during birth. This was the hardest thing we have ever gone through and Lord willing, it will be the hardest thing we ever do go through. One of our friends said through this that maybe there is a little girl out there that is going to be part of your family. Everything was hard at that time and we couldn't see what good come out of losing her. God had plan...

Fast forward to December 2012. Jamie went to Jamaica with 3 other guys from our church to work on getting a new campus set up. While they were there he met a little girl we'll call Z. She melted his big tough heart! Me being pregnant with our 5th son we knew it wasn't something that was in our immediate plans. God was watering this seed yet again...

Fall of 2013 we had 5 healthy rowdy boys, the youngest being only a few months old and the adoption word started coming up often. We decided that we wanted to explore this more and Z was the reason. We had a few pictures of her and I already felt my heart falling for her. After talking with a number of people who had adopted from Jamaica and some that still were in the process we learned that the chance of actually being able to adopt this specific little girl was basically zero. We weren't completely detoured from this country, maybe God just had a different little girl for us. After more research we learned that some adoptions had been in process for 7 years! We knew this wasn't an option for our family. We want our children, all of our children to grow up together. God has another plan....

Spring 2014 we began talking with an agency in South Dakota about possible other countries. Having a large family and me having cancer in my medical history we were already disqualified for a number of countries to adopt from. I spent hours and hours online each night trying to research US agencies, what countries they work with, how long they estimated the timeline to be, costs and pretty much any other information I could find. I came across Nightlight adoption agency and discovered a country I had never heard of. Kyrgyzstan. It seemed to be a perfect fit. I spoke with the lady from the agency and asked every question I could come up with. I felt this was it. This is where God had a little girl waiting to be a part of our family. We know that this will be an exhausting process and there are so many parts of it that we will need God to completely lead on. Patience. Finances. Getting my husband on the plane (he HATES flying and it will be a total of 96 hours in the air total!). Leading us to the little girl He has planned for us. But we are ready! Bring on the paperwork! We'd love you to come along with us on our journey. God has a plan and He's showing us what it is! We submitted our formal application today!!