Growing our Family

About a year ago (February 12, 2012), we visited a church in CO where Tom Davis would be the speaker.  I had never heard of him nor his ministry before then.  The service was about orphans and God's perspective on caring for the orphan.  Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows~James 1:27  Did I mention there are 165 million children without a family? He brought awareness of the tragic problem and what the likelihood of these children's lives are like after the orphanage if they stay there until they "age out."  Guys, it's grim.  Most of the girls (about 60-70%) end up being a product of human trafficking, about 70% of boys end up criminals, and about 10% committing suicide.  Luke 10:27 says, "you must love The Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind. And love your neighbor as yourself." I know I would not want to grow up without a family nor would I want my children to not have anyone to defend them, why is it any different for these precious children all over the world..

At the end of the service, Jason and I met Tom and purchased some of his books.  We immediately began reading Fields of the Fatherless.  I remember feeling helpless and not being able to sleep for several nights and honestly, I was aching inside for these children.  I kept wondering what could we do to help and more importantly how was God trying to speak to us.  My solution??  Let's adopt!!!  I tell Jason with much enthusiasm and he looked at me like I had lost my mind.  To my surprise he didn't say "no" but "maybe."

A little history, Jason and I were "done" having kids after Haley and then we had Brannan who was a surprise blessing and then we decided we were really done and took care of that.  I brought it up for a couple of weeks on and off and finally decided to drop it. I sure didn't want him to feel like I was "forcing" him to agree with such a life-changing decision. Instead, I decided to put it in God's hands and prayed incessantly for  his heart to be changed and for him to have a desire to do so and until then I would do my best to not mention anything about it.  Well, several months later, he came to me and said "I'm on board."  I kinda looked at him crazy and he said, "I was never against it but now I'm really on board and I want to do this." I was so crazy happy!  We then shared with the kids our decision and discussed with them about what this meant and not surprisingly, they were all very excited too.  Sometime in the middle of all this, the kids and I joined a summer co-op and just so happened that 4 of the families in it (that I had not known before this co-op) had either adopted previously or were in the midst of adopting. Isn't it crazy how God orchestrates everything?!   It was such a great blessing to grow close to these families and see how it really is.  I'm not going to lie, in the beginning, Jason and I imagined our adoption would be a fairytale adventure.  I mean we were "rescuing" them, right? Well, we learned rather quickly that it's not like that at all.  I so appreciate their honesty and being upfront with us. 

Back in September we sent our application to Lifeline Adoption Agency with an adoption from Uganda being on our radar.  A couple of weeks later after speaking to our program coordinator and finding out that the in-country timeframe had been moved to 3 months, we prayed about it and decided that wasn't realistic and continued to pray about where to go from here.  My mother had mentioned a lady that had been in our youth group was now working stateside for an orphanage in Haiti and she reconnected us.  We met with Christy and Brian over Thanksgiving in Victoria and got a better picture of what they do and how the orphanage over there runs.  As of today, Haiti has some guidelines that prevent us from being "eligible" such as the age (Jason's almost there) and the number of biological children in home.  During the last several months Haiti has been meeting to change their laws which would then qualify us.  Since the entire adoption process is so long we decided to go on and start the homestudy process (we mailed off our app. and first large check on Friday) and that way we will be "paper-ready".  We continue to pray that God will speak clearly to us where our child is.  We know that it's in His hands,  He already knows who it is, whether it's a boy/girl-we are open to either (ages 2-5).

We believe that adoption is a team effort and that God calls each of us to be involved in the care of orphans.  Whether that is through prayer, emotional or financial support (it is very expensive, in excess of $30k). We greatly appreciate your prayers and support. 

Love,
Jason and Fallon