Why Adoption?

 Mabuhay (welcome/hello)!

Ben and I are extremely blessed to have friends and family that have so strongly supported and encouraged us already in our adoption journey. That said, everyone has questions…so below are some of the common ones we've been asked and the thought process behind those answers.

Why do we want to adopt? 

First and foremost, both Ben and I have been blessed by the unconditional love our heavenly Father and that love is the foundation of our choice. As many of you know (at least about one of us), we both have felt the calling to adopt for quite some time. For me, I can't really remember a time I didn't think of adopting at least some of my future children. In middle school, my closest friends would even joke with me about this. For Ben, he's felt called to adopt even as a high schooler.

As our relationship with Jesus and each other has grown over the years, we've come to recognize this calling in a more definitive statement. We feel called to provide a loving home and family for orphaned or abandoned children.

To answer the question many people aren't quite sure if they can ask…no, Ben and I have not struggled with infertility issues. We simply believe God is calling us to build our family through adoption. We know this can be hard for others to fully understand/relate with, but for us it just feels perfectly right. We want to love, nurture, and grow children whom God has already placed in this world. Because, after all, he already knows the plans for each of us (and our children) before they were ever born, so to Him, we're already their parents.

Why international adoption?

Ben and I prayerfully thought quite a bit about what form of adoption was the right path for our family at this stage. That included considering foster care, private adoption through the US, and international adoption. I personally remember an exact moment at church one Sunday morning where God spoke to me and told me to adopt where there is the greatest need. Ben and I both feel God has spoken to us that we are to adopt those who have been truly abandoned or orphaned. While there are many degrees of abandonment, we take it in a very literal form. We also know "greatest need" can be viewed from many different lenses. After much research and many prayers, we believe God has shown us that international adoption fits his plan for us in adopting where there is great need and children who have been abandoned or orphaned.

Why the Philippines?

This answer plays right along with the callings of God in our previous answer….The Philippines place a high emphasis on the religion of adoptive parents. For us, our faith is the foundation to all of life, and we couldn't be more excited that our adopted children will come from a birth culture that values this.That being said, because of this focus in the Philippines, we recognize there are many adoptive parents who may not fulfill this requirement.The adoption process through the Philippines is often known to be a very long process…longer than average. Again, this limits other adoptive parents. Another big factor that may turn away other adoptive parents…the need for sibling groups to be adopted.

So how many children are we open to

Ben and I know this may sound crazy, but we hope to adopt a sibling group of 2-3 children. We both agree we want a house full of children in our lifetime….although we haven't settled on our final total number of kiddos. ?That being said, since we know we want a houseful and we want all of our children to come through adoption, we are excited to open our home through this first adoption process to a sibling set. We value being able to provide children a way to stay connected with their birth siblings.

How long does the process take?

Well, for the Philippines specifically, we've been told to expect 3-4 years.And man, does that feel like forever or what? However, we're not discouraged, because we know that it's all God's timing anyways. To summarize the process, we essentially must "apply" to Missouri, the US Government, and the Philippines. The application process for all three ends up taking about 1 year. Then, we wait to be matched with our kiddos. That waiting game can last up to about 3.5 years on average. Once we're matched, it takes about 5-7 months to finalize all the paperwork to bring them home.

We're hopeful that the "waiting to be matched" timeframe may go a bit faster given our desire to adopt sibling groups. However, we're already preparing ourselves for a long wait. We know God will use the time to prepare our hearts and home (and for me, patience is always something God is working on in my heart).

Where are we right now in the process? 

Sadly, we're still in the phase of applying to Missouri…as we're working to complete our home study. We'll be sharing more insight into the process we've encountered thus far in future posts, but suffice it to say, there's been a lot of paperwork and appointments. ?

On that note, I'll wrap up the Q&A session. Ben and I want all of you, our friends and family, to know that if you ever have questions – ask away! We're excited to be a part of God's plan and hope that in sharing our story, we can show our children and others the love of Christ.

Until next time – all our love!