Frequently Asked Questions Part One
What made you decide to adopt?
A serious of events happened before we made the decision to adopt. Sometime in the month of August 2006, we discussed the idea of adopting with friends one Saturday night, and then the next Sunday at church the guest speaker was from Children's Hope Chest which is an organization involved in orphan care and outreach. (You can visit this organization at http://www.hopechest.org). After hearing this speaker, we decided to research the possibility of adopting. We got some information and just started talking about adoption. We didn't know much about it which led us to an even at Irving Bible Church called "Adoption Myths and Realities," which was put on by the Tapestry Adoption Ministry. Tapestry is a community of foster and adoptive parents that support and encourage each other. (They have a website, too. http://tapestry.irvingbible.org). Attending this event gave us a lot of information and put us in contact with people who were "veterans" at the adoption process. I say "veterans" because no one adoption process is exactly the same, but still they could help us maneuver these new waters.
After this event, we started looking into agencies and countries. We started to pray (not that we hadn't already been praying). We spent time deciding as individuals how we felt God leading us. We didn't want one of us to influence the other, but let's be honest if someone was going to push someone it was going to be me (Annie). I can be a little impatient; Scott, however, has no problem taking his time. Nevertheless, I set a deadline of Christmas 2006 for us to know where we were headed with our family.
Scott and I picked an agency and a country. We signed up for an Informational Session with the agency. The meeting was in December, so we were on track for our deadline. But, the session got canceled due to lack of interest; I guess Scott and I were the only ones interested. We felt a little dejected after that. Concurrently, one of the couples from the Tapestry Ministry invited us over for dinner to discuss where we were in regards to adoption.
We met with the couple, and we told them about our canceled Informational Session. We also told them that we had reached the decision to adopt. We felt God calling us to start our family through adoption. The couple we met with suggested we look into another agency that dealt with the country we were considering. We took their advice and ended up signing up for an Information Session with the Gladney Agency. The session was scheduled for January 2007.
While waiting for our session, we had discussed our decision with our families over Christmas, and we assured them that we would have more information after our January session. January comes and so does the ice. Our session got canceled, again, but this time because of weather. So, we signed up for another session with Gladney in February. Finally, we got to the Informational Session, and we got so much information that we were now leaning towards a different country. We began to prayerfully considered the countries we felt led to. Scott was led one way, and I another. We also discussed the two countries with our families to see what kind of feedback we got from them. Then, finally, right before my spring break in March, we decided on Vietnam.
After deciding on Vietnam, we could begin our official adoption process. We contacted the agency to let them know that we had picked a country, and then we were led through an overview of the adoption process for Vietnam. Next, we filled out an informational sheet to request our 50 page application. So, now six months later, what began as a conversation back in August is being lived out.
