Adoption

So to kick of my series of the main topics of my blog, I decided to start with adoption. Mostly because we just had our first home study visit the other day and I've spent the last few weeks doing online training videos, so it's definitely fresh on my mind!

I want to start by saying that while yes, we have been struggling with infertility, no, that is not why we are adopting. Please don't assume that this is our "plan b". It isn't. It saddens me to think that many people will look at us and think, "Oh they couldn't get pregnant so they had to adopt". Our dream has always been to have a blend of biological and adopted children. As this is the first post on this, I'll keep it simple and just tell you our story (the abridged version).

My husband and I discussed our feelings about adoption on our second or third date. It was never a question for either of us, we wanted to adopt. So naturally, by the time we were married we nailed down a pretty good plan. Wait 2 years... start trying to get pregnant... have first biological baby by year 3, have the next shortly after... then adopt two children so that we could teach our biological kids about adoption during the process. Dreamy. The only problem was, it didn't happen.

We started out on track, trying to get pregnant after 2 years of marriage. However, having a miscarriage 14 months later was not in the plan. (More about that in a later post). All the professionals assured us that because of hormone levels after a miscarriage, we were likely to get get pregnant again right away. We didn't. A few years later I had a surgery to help with some endometriosis. Again, we were assured that many women get pregnant right after this surgery. And again, we were disappointed.

We've been trying to get pregnant now for almost 5 years. I don't even know how many pregnancy tests I've taken, only to be disappointed time after time. I honestly don't ever want to look at another one. We haven't given up on getting pregnant, but we have finally let go of our narrow little plan and embraced whatever plan God has for us. After a lot of prayer, we finally felt like it was time to start the adoption process, and we are so excited about starting our family this way. Through more prayer, we decided to adopt from Uganda, (can't wait to tell you about why we picked this amazing country!), and chose an agency. They have had us do tons of paperwork, reading, online training, and more paperwork. We are almost done with our home study, and couldn't be more excited. I can't wait to share more with you all about the beauty of adoption, the pain of infertility, and how God uses both for our good and His glory. There is so much more to our story that I'm sure will come out in later posts, and so many rabbit trails I'm dying to go down. For now though, I'll leave you with this:

".... he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved."

(Ephesians 1:4-6 ESV)