We had tonight what we believe is our sign from God that we are on the right track toward adoption. And it actually started about 4 years ago before we were married. I never claim to have figured out what God is doing, but I sense that this time His hand is on our path toward adoption.
4 years ago, my mom and I came across a banquet hall while looking for a wedding reception facility. The Mabee Hall is located in The Gladney Center for Adoption building here in town. We ended up not using the hall even after putting a down payment. Fast forward 2-3 years and out of the blue, my dad and occasionally my mom had begun participating in missions trips with their church. Mostly to Central America - mainly Honduras - but also to Dominican Republic.
Now just keep all that in mind....
Tonight John and I attended an orientation at Gladney for info on international adoption. As expressed in my last posts, I've spent these past 2-3 weeks sorting out my feelings and my hopes and concerns regarding adoption and our questionable ability to get pregnant ourselves. Going to the meeting tonight, I knew that I was ready to take the next step but I just didn't know how. John and I had looked at the countries available through Gladney and though we hadn't discussed any details with each other - such as country, age, sex, etc - we went with an open mind and the hope of discovering more about where our desires might lie. About 4-5 other couples were present and it was in a way a relief to see faces of others just like us whether their story is the same as ours or not.
The lady heading the orientation basically spent the majority of the time telling us about each individual country, its criteria, the children available and a little bit about traveling. And of course Q&A with everyone afterward. I don't know why the question struck me, but it happened to be the last question to be asked. I guess in a way I was kind of disappointed that I didn't feel connected to any of the countries that we would be accepted in except for Taiwan. So my question was, did Gladney have any new countries opening up in the near future? The Gladney ladies laughed and were so happy to answer because new countries are always an exciting venture. Can you guess the country........Honduras.
All of a sudden, I was back to trying on the wedding dress I knew I would walk down the aisle in. I was back in my house the first time I walked in and knew that was the house we would call home. Like a rush of emotions and nerves, the second she said Honduras I knew right then that God had spoken to us. And the last four years all fell in place like a puzzle I knew was being fitted together by God - almost using the Mabee Hall for our wedding and years later remembering the one adoption agency that I knew was there. The connection my family has to Honduras. And if I didn't see it right then - I knew that this other couple did. They sat across from us at the table tonight and I could see in their eyes that they knew something was happening inside us that only God can piece together.
We got home tonight and filled out our information sheet to take to Gladney to start the process. On the section where you number your preferred countries, we had to write in Honduras and next to it is the number 1.
It's our first step and nothing is permanent until you have that child in your hands, but if we are accepted and as we go through the steps toward adopting, we may become the first family through Gladney to adopt in Honduras. As with any new country opening up - someone has to be pioneers to pave the way for future families, and they were more than happy to see something clicking in our minds. There's no determined time frame or costs or anything for that matter - it's a whole new process that is in it's beginnings. So our prayers are that if Honduras is where we set our sights, that God will open doors for us and for Gladney to help create a successful program and help us create our family.
No comments:
Post a Comment