We're in!


On Wednesday this last week, I Fedexed our adoption application to our agency. On Thursday at 4:30 p.m. I got the email of acceptance. That was fast!


This week we need to send in our USCIS application, allowing our goverment to approve us to adopt a foreign born child. I'm sure that won't be approved within 24 hours!!! We also received documents to start working on our dossier that will get sent to Nepal in December or January. Also upcoming will be the home study. I am thankful that we get to use anyone we choose for our home study since we received a wonderful referral from our friends who adopted from Ethiopia last year and loved their social worker. Any more questions out there about our adoption...

Why Nepal?

This was the harder decision! We were drawn to Asian countries first. But we didn’t meet all the qualifications for some countries and waiting lists for infant girls are long and we seemed to hit many roadblocks. So…

Africa, specifically Ethiopia was certainly an option for us! But for some reason that I cannot quite wrap my head around even yet, I just cannot see us going to Africa. I’m not drawn there. Odd. Maybe one day I’ll know why. Then…

That led us to Nepal. One of the guidelines for Nepal adoptions is that if an adoptive family has children of all 1 gender, as we do with 2 boys, we would only be eligible to adopt a girl. We have friends currently on the waiting list for their Nepal adoption and are just waiting to be matched to their daughter. The statistics alone were enough to make us want to reach out. There are over 1 million orphans in the country! More than half the Nepali population lives on less than 60 cents per day! Eighty-five percent of the population is illiterate. More than 10 children die every hour due to malnutrition and disease. And if a young girl does survive long enough, the chances of her being sold to India for human trafficking is high!

While I was a bit upset that Asia wouldn't really be an option for us, it was Jay who found out that Nepal would be a possibility. Once we learned about the programs available to us, we felt like this is where we should go.

That's it for now. We just got back from camping and I have 2 very dirty boys to clean up before running off to t-ball.

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there! Hope it's a wonderful day!

We're officially starting the journey!

Wow. I received a surprise email last night from our adoption agency. We are to start the application process this week as opposed to waiting until July! Yikes! We have a multi-page application to send in by Friday along with a rather large check for the first of our payments. I'm under the assumption that the application will be reviewed (and hopefully accepted) by the end of this month and we will start our dossier and home study in July!

I didn't sleep at all last night knowing this large check has to go in the mail. This is what savings accounts are for, and we planned for this, but it won't be fun to see that account go down! Yet this morning, I was reminded in church that God can move this financial mountain for us. I won't be able to do it myself. He will be faithful.

OK. So that's the fun update. Now to answer another question about our adoption for you...

Why Go International?
Frankly, we find the international scene to be an easier process. Sure, it costs way more and takes more time, but the legalities of it all are just easier. We know full well that there are children in our own country who need loving homes! There are even more across our borders and most are living in poverty with little to no healthcare. They are unwanted for various, sometimes unthinkable reasons. We desire to serve those children. We also love the idea of having a child who doesn’t look exactly like us and comes from a unique culture!

Welcome to Our Blog!

Hello to all our friends across the globe! Most of you have heard by now that Jay and I are planning to adopt a daughter from Nepal next year. We have created this blog as a way for you to keep track of where we are in that process, what you can be praying for during the journey and other ways you can help. The paperwork will start in just a few weeks! In the meantime, I thought I could take some time to answer just a few preliminary questions this month. I'll try to update this at least once a week, perhaps on Sunday after church. Thanks for visiting us!


Why Adoption?
With 2 handsome, healthy boys at home, I’m sure some of you out there wonder why we’d consider adoption in the first place.

Our 2 pregnancies were wonderful and we didn’t experience any major medical complications! But both our boys were born by c-section and a body can only take so much. My doctor in Lincoln told me that 3 c-sections were about all I should consider.

So, couldn’t we just try again for a girl one more time? Sure. But I don’t think I’m ready for that yet. I’m not exactly ready to be “done” having kids at this point. I love being pregnant and I’m still young and have time on my side. We desire a girl and trying one more time gives us a 50-50 chance. Adoption gives us a 100% chance of having a girl!

I believe our move to Lincoln was a huge influence in our decision to adopt as well. While we had always talked about adoption, especially with Jay having grown up with his foster brother Ron, and the year I spent in Japan, it was always just a thought in the back of our minds.

Currently, we have numbers of other friends here in town who are also in their own adoption journey. This is simply a cause felt deep in the heart of our community. In our life group from church alone, we have one family who already adopted from Ethiopia, 1 other family considering private domestic adoption, and our leaders are also investigating their options to expand their family! The list doesn’t stop there as we know even more people who have created their homes for multi-racial children. What a great place to raise a child!

We have heard the need. We are answering the call.