The Annoucement

Where to begin? Well, as some of you know already, R and I have talked about adoption ever since our little experience in Africa. However, with the change of his career and our financial situations of this year we put those ideas on the back burner. During the month of January we were challenged by the Stake Presidency to attend the temple weekly. On those trips I experienced deep feelings, or impressions about my family. I knew I would adopt someday, however I was not in a position to act now.
When the Haiti earthquake hit we all witnessed, thanks to modern technology, the gruesome aftermath that followed. The already impoverished country, filled with orphans, was now more impoverished and now bursting at the seams with orphans. It was a scene that touched R and I. A few days later R turned to me and said "What if we have kids in Haiti?" HE had been having some feelings as well. My heart dropped into my stomach. I could not imagine adding to my stress level of 5 children and our financial situation. I told R that we still could not afford it right now and so on and so on (as far as excuses go my list was endless). The conversation ended. Over the next few days that conversation was never far from my mind, how could it be with the images we saw on TV.
That following Wednesday I sat in the temple in the most spiritual session I have ever been in. I knew I had more children. I could not deny that. Where they in Haiti? I wasn't sure. But I knew the Lord was trying to tell me something.
The following Friday, I could not shake it any longer. I committed to spend 30 minutes on the phone. (Yes, 30 minutes) I knew if I hit roadblocks I would know it was not my time and I would be done worrying about it. I sat at my desk trying to figure out what to google, who to call, where to start.
28 minutes to go... Here is where my story begins to take some unexpected turns.
Lets go back 2 months to Festival of Trees. I had put my heart and soul into our committee tree "Its a wonderful Wife". I was sure it would sell for $3,000. I was so upset when it only sold for $1,750. It put a damper on my whole Festival week. As the Festival days went by I was sick of feeling sad. I don't do well with negative baggage (for those of you who don't know this about me). I prayed that I would be able to get over these feelings and feel good about everything. When I prayed a peace came over me that said everything happens for a reason. I was good with that. I delivered me tree ( with the help of my awesome committee members) the following Sunday and to my surprise it had been bought by a adoption agency. This lady had children of all ages and races running around her house. We talked a little bit about adoption and she gave me her card. I honestly did not make much out of it. Funny how the Lord prepares you for things.
Back to the present day....who to call, where to start...Oh, this ladies card is here on my desk so what the heck. I called her to see if she knew anything going on in Haiti as far as adoption goes, she did not. She does not do international. Okay then, thanks anyway....26 minutes left. Oh wait, She use to know a lady who dealt with International adoption and here is her # maybe she know something, its been a while.
Call # 2 and 25 minutes to go.... "Hello, this is Deann"
I tell Deann my short version of the story so far. She is working with For Every Child, An Agency who places children from the Foyer de Sion Orphanage in Haiti. She is , As we speak she is compiling a list of families willing to adopt Haitian orphans whom they are trying to rescue out of Haiti ASAP. I begin answering her questions. "Girl or Boy" she ask....I say " siblings" she gets excited "no one says they can take siblings" I tell her about my time in Africa and about the two brothers I love so much. She says she will email me more forms but I need to get my homestudy done and I will need BCI's and I realize...I should probably call R.
20 minutes to go and I also realize, Heavenly Father does not play around.
I call R and tell him that I have been up to something this morning. He is so happy and completly on board and tells me to do it. I call Deann back and say...Okay, lets go ahead.

Enter the world of adoption. I realize I have no idea what I am doing. Adoption is a huge process of BCI, homestudies, paperwork, and forms. But, add to that this Haiti situation where everything can change in one day or even one hour. We selected an agency (A Guardain Angel) to do our homestudy, only to have it change 2 days later. Now we needed to go with a state acredited agency because it was looking more like it would fall into a foster to adopt situation. So we changed again (Families For Children). It turned into a 2 week crash coarse on adoption.

Wait, I am getting ahead of myself here...
The day after I talked with Deann (the first time, we are good ol' friends now) She asked me what orphanage I was at in Ghana. Please keep in mind that there are a lot of them. I could not remember the name of it, only that it was run by a man named J. She asked me if his name was Bishop K, I said I did not think so. She told me she knew of some people that had been working with him. His orphange was called Lucky something?? and had success getting a good group of kids to families in the US. If the Haiti thing does not work out she thought I should try that route. After talking to her I was curious and looked back through my Ghana stuff. Sure enough I was at the Lucky Hills Orphanage with Bishop JK. I sent her a picture a of me with the kids explaining where the two brothers in the picture were. She called me right back...
That is (names removed and will be referred to as the boys). We have been praying to find them a family. Maybe the Haiti thing happened so you would look into it and come across the boys again.
I became a little bit overwhelmed for the next two days as I ran around filing papers and trying to figure out what I was getting into. Figuring out the Haiti thing, Figuring out the Ghana thing, figuring out the adoption process...Add to this, the fact that at one of many temple visit my car was hit in the parking lot so I was also running around getting estimates and trying to get that fixed. Also, I was heading up this huge donation drive for the Haiti orphans for For every Child. At one point I was crying alone in my car when I heard these sweet words whisper to me "I will keep turning your head if you just keep moving your feet." I knew as long as I stayed in contact with the Lord and followed his promptings I would end up in the right place...no matter where that is.
So the annoucement is that we are officially trying to adopt. We are hopeful at this point that the Haiti sitiuation will work out for us. However, if it does not we will look elsewhere. I want to share the boys story with you as well but will in another entry. I never thought that this blog would turn into a place for me to vent as I stepped into this world of adoption. But that is where we are right now...and the waiting game begins.