The Gift

This evening we had a jaw dropping experience and I am not even joking about that. We were visiting with our friends Joel and Laura and Joel's younger brother Jesse. We had recently finished sharing a meal and were sitting around chatting, which we were very excited to do because it is one of the many benefits of having them live in Laramie now. I started visiting with Laura about a receipt I had from shopping earlier in the day, and how we could possibly use pursue a few different routes to help with the cost of the adoption travel. As we were discussing options, Jesse asked us if we had money set aside fo the adoption. We explained to him that we had been saving up some money, and we have a good start, but we definitely don't have all of the money that will be needed to fund the entire adoption process. Jesse then began explaining to us how he had been in a really bad car accident the previous summer. As a result of the car accident and a long battle with the insurance companies, he received a decent sum of money. He made the decision early on that he did not need or want this money and would gift it to an organization. Throughout the year he has struggled to find the organization/persons that he felt the money should go toward. Up to this point we were both listening, and I don't know if either one of us knew what was coming next. Jesse then stated that he would like to gift us with a sum of money from his car accident, because he just felt that it was the right thing to do. We sat in shock for what seemed like an eternity. Once we could pick our jaws up off the ground, we quickly reminded Jesse that he had only known us for 6 days! Why would he possibly want to do this for us? His reply, without any hesitation, was because he just felt that it was the right thing to do and that he wants to help us with this process, he wanted to help bring this child home.
I don't know if many people have experiences like this one, but it is truly a blessing. We have felt confirmation and provision in ways that we least expected to. We asked ourselves many times, "How could we be so fortunate?" and "Did this really just happen to us?"
Needless to say, we feel so blessed and feel that without a doubt this is the journey we should be taking right now. We are eager to share with others the story of this gift and hope to someday provide an amazing gift in return.

Announcing the News, Part I

We arrived in Jackson last night. We drove up to spend the week with Joel and Laura to help them prepare for their move to Laramie. Today is Laura's golden birthday and as we were driving back into Jackson from a hike we shared with them our news of adoption.  Laura being her true self was very excited and squealed a little bit.  I, being my true self, got really emotional and teared up a few times.  It just feels so good to finally share our news with the people we love, it makes it feel more real.  

We really are excited to....... 

move forward, 

to grow our family, 

to share the wonders of the world,

to love a child as our own.

Why?

So why adoption? Why, when we have the opportunity to grow our family through very "normal" methods would we not do so? Well, first of all, I don't like the word normal. The reasons are not that easy to sum up in a few short sentences and in order to understand this decision, we feel that you need to understand our hearts.
I, SaraJane, have wanted to adopt a child since I was in the second grade. I remember visiting the school library one day and coming across a picture book that discussed adoption. I remember finishing that book and thinking that I wanted to be a part of something as beautiful as that. Throughout my life I continually came across information, whether I sought it out on my own or not. The desire planted in my heart has continued to grow and remains even stronger.
When Micah entered into my life I quickly shared with him my strong desire toward adoption. We had many conversations regarding the topic and I trusted that when the time came to grow our family we would have many more conversations about the topic. Micah has always been supportive of the idea. As a matter of fact, within our first year of marriage we traveled to Belize and Guatemala and while sitting on a gravel road at eleven o'clock at night discussed what it would look like for our family to become a transracial family.
As we began discussing what it would look like for our family to begin expanding, Micah and I both felt an overwhelming desire to bring a child into our family through adoption. There are so many children in this world that are yearning for a hug, yearning for a family, and we want to provide that for them.
There are probably a million other reasons and a million other thoughts, but it feels a little difficult to put into words what I have felt in my heart for such a long time. I am so thankful that Micah is willing to take this journey with me and that together we will walk this beautiful path that leads us to our child.

Questions We Have Asked...

As we have begun the journey of adoption we have found ourselves asking a lot of questions.  We thought we would give you an idea of some of the questions floating through our daily thoughts.

Are we ready for this?                    

Will I be a good dad?                                                                      How will we handle living as a transracial family?     

How will we handle living as a transracial family in Laramie Wyoming? 

How will we handle walking in public places and having people think it's weird having a child of a different color than us?

What will our families and friends think of it?

What will our co-workers think of it? 

What will our church think of it? 

What adoption agency should we go with?

Will I be a good mom? 

Are we ready?

How can I help the child cope growing up in an adoptive home? 

How are we going to balance our jobs and a child? 

How will finances work out? How will we finance this adoption? 

Will we be good parents? Are we ready? 

The Beginning of Our Journey

This blog entry begins the process of our journey to adopt a child from Ethiopia. It is hard to believe that we are at this point in our life after, "thinking about thinking about having kids someday." But this is it. The decision has been made and we are going to start moving forward. Our hope is that we will be able to keep family and friends updated on the adoption process along the way. We are very excited and nervous as well, so we hope that you will join us on this journey. We look forward to sharing more with you along the way!