Those of you who are friends with me on Facebook, already know this news, but I wanted to let those of you who don't know, that...
WE ARE ADOPTING AGAIN!!!
Now, before you get too excited, let me just say that it may take quite awhile before we are matched with a child & are able to complete the adoption process. Many people have asked me if we would be adopting from Mexico while we were living here. We definitely thought the answer to that question was "no" and that we would wait until we were back in the U.S. to adopt again. However, Lincoln & I started bringing the subject up to each other about 2 1/2 months ago. It was one of those things that just popped in my head & I couldn't get it out, no matter how hard I tried.
A few days later, we went to Chapala with our friends, Brother & Sister Herrera. We didn't know them very well at the time. As we were talking with them on the drive over, they brought up the fact that they used to own an orphanage. Lincoln & I just looked at each other & knew this probably wasn't a coincidence. :) We had only started talking about adoption a few days before, & nobody had any idea that we were even considering it. Needless to say, this was huge...Brother Herrera was able to answer our questions about adopting from Mexico & ended up meeting with multiple orphanages to try to get us an appointment.
The orphanage that Brother Herrera was originally thinking of matching us with only had children ages 3 & older. Linc & I have always wanted to adopt a baby instead of an older child...but I could not get the idea out of my head that we needed to consider adopting a child instead of a baby. I wasn't excited about this feeling, because it would complicate things quite a bit for me...I would suddenly have a school-age child (they put children in school here between ages 2 & 3), this child would only speak Spanish, I would have to buy clothes & other things for this child instead of using the baby clothes that I already have from Kylee & Jackson, it would change the birth order of our family, & this child would have already learned a lot that we hadn't taught him/her & wouldn't be used to our way of doing things. There are so many more things that went through my mind, but I was still feeling such a push to put in our papers to adopt an older child. I called my dad crying & told him that I'd gotten an answer, but that I didn't feel like I was cut out for this. We had a good conversation & I was reminded once again that as long as I'm following the promptings that I receive from the Lord, the details will eventually work themselves out.
Brother Herrera was able to set up an appointment for us to meet with the director of an orphanage here in Guadalajara. Most people have to send in their paper work, then wait to see if they are approved, without ever meeting anyone in person at the orphanage. Because Brother Herrera has so many great contacts since owning an orphanage, he was able to use that to talk the director into meeting with us first thing. About a month ago, we met with the director. We had a good visit with her (although she spoke mainly Spanish so I wasn't able to understand everything that was being said), she gave us our preliminary paper work to fill out, & told us that if nobody from the orphanage had contacted us within 15 days of turning our papers in, that we should call them back.
This orphanage is huge & has about 450 kids. The only kids we saw were the ones who were coming back from school when we were leaving. We were impressed with how happy the kids seemed to be, and how clean & orderly the orphanage offices were. All of the employees there were very kind & friendly too, which made us really happy.
After we left the orphanage, the director herself immediately called Brother Herrera twice to tell him that she wanted to rush our paper work. She told us that it wasn't necessary for us to have all of our documents, reference letters, etc. but to just turn in as much as we could, as soon as possible. We turned in our paper work (almost completed) a week later. We had to show in our paper work what gender & age we wanted to adopt. We finally decided on a girl between 3 & 5 years old.
Last week, Lincoln called the orphanage and was told that the committee is giving priority to couples who are waiting to adopt, who don't have any children yet. Since we already have Kylee, we were told that it could take 1 1/2 to 2 years to match us with a child. When Linc told the director that that was fine, and that we would just wait, because we still wanted to adopt from them, the director seemed surprised and told us that she will talk with the committee about us again. That's the most recent information that we have received. We're just waiting to find out more.
Adopting from an orphanage here in Mexico can be pretty complicated. It's not as straightforward as adoption in the United States is. Nothing here really is. It's hard to explain, but in almost everything we do here, we receive some sort of info, then different info, until we put the pieces together & figure out the whole picture. I'm not sure if that makes sense to those who haven't experienced living here. But anyway, we've already obviously experienced the same with this adoption, & we will probably continue to, until this adoption process is complete.
The reason I'm sharing all of this now is because:
1) I want to document the details of how we get this little girl.
2) We need people's prayers!
3) I want our loved ones to be able to experience this journey with us.
I will post each time we receive more news from the orphanage. I was so thankful for all of the comments on Facebook & all of the love and support that we constantly feel from everyone here in Mexico & back in the United States. How blessed we are to have such great support systems in TWO countries!
P.S. We've explained to Kylee what is happening, even though I'm not sure how much she understands. In our prayers we ask Heavenly Father to "please help us find Kylee's sister". She is very excited about having a sister, even though she has informed me that she wants her sister to sleep in the extra room, not in "Kylee's room". :)
A few days later, we went to Chapala with our friends, Brother & Sister Herrera. We didn't know them very well at the time. As we were talking with them on the drive over, they brought up the fact that they used to own an orphanage. Lincoln & I just looked at each other & knew this probably wasn't a coincidence. :) We had only started talking about adoption a few days before, & nobody had any idea that we were even considering it. Needless to say, this was huge...Brother Herrera was able to answer our questions about adopting from Mexico & ended up meeting with multiple orphanages to try to get us an appointment.
The orphanage that Brother Herrera was originally thinking of matching us with only had children ages 3 & older. Linc & I have always wanted to adopt a baby instead of an older child...but I could not get the idea out of my head that we needed to consider adopting a child instead of a baby. I wasn't excited about this feeling, because it would complicate things quite a bit for me...I would suddenly have a school-age child (they put children in school here between ages 2 & 3), this child would only speak Spanish, I would have to buy clothes & other things for this child instead of using the baby clothes that I already have from Kylee & Jackson, it would change the birth order of our family, & this child would have already learned a lot that we hadn't taught him/her & wouldn't be used to our way of doing things. There are so many more things that went through my mind, but I was still feeling such a push to put in our papers to adopt an older child. I called my dad crying & told him that I'd gotten an answer, but that I didn't feel like I was cut out for this. We had a good conversation & I was reminded once again that as long as I'm following the promptings that I receive from the Lord, the details will eventually work themselves out.
Brother Herrera was able to set up an appointment for us to meet with the director of an orphanage here in Guadalajara. Most people have to send in their paper work, then wait to see if they are approved, without ever meeting anyone in person at the orphanage. Because Brother Herrera has so many great contacts since owning an orphanage, he was able to use that to talk the director into meeting with us first thing. About a month ago, we met with the director. We had a good visit with her (although she spoke mainly Spanish so I wasn't able to understand everything that was being said), she gave us our preliminary paper work to fill out, & told us that if nobody from the orphanage had contacted us within 15 days of turning our papers in, that we should call them back.
This orphanage is huge & has about 450 kids. The only kids we saw were the ones who were coming back from school when we were leaving. We were impressed with how happy the kids seemed to be, and how clean & orderly the orphanage offices were. All of the employees there were very kind & friendly too, which made us really happy.
After we left the orphanage, the director herself immediately called Brother Herrera twice to tell him that she wanted to rush our paper work. She told us that it wasn't necessary for us to have all of our documents, reference letters, etc. but to just turn in as much as we could, as soon as possible. We turned in our paper work (almost completed) a week later. We had to show in our paper work what gender & age we wanted to adopt. We finally decided on a girl between 3 & 5 years old.
Last week, Lincoln called the orphanage and was told that the committee is giving priority to couples who are waiting to adopt, who don't have any children yet. Since we already have Kylee, we were told that it could take 1 1/2 to 2 years to match us with a child. When Linc told the director that that was fine, and that we would just wait, because we still wanted to adopt from them, the director seemed surprised and told us that she will talk with the committee about us again. That's the most recent information that we have received. We're just waiting to find out more.
Adopting from an orphanage here in Mexico can be pretty complicated. It's not as straightforward as adoption in the United States is. Nothing here really is. It's hard to explain, but in almost everything we do here, we receive some sort of info, then different info, until we put the pieces together & figure out the whole picture. I'm not sure if that makes sense to those who haven't experienced living here. But anyway, we've already obviously experienced the same with this adoption, & we will probably continue to, until this adoption process is complete.
The reason I'm sharing all of this now is because:
1) I want to document the details of how we get this little girl.
2) We need people's prayers!
3) I want our loved ones to be able to experience this journey with us.
I will post each time we receive more news from the orphanage. I was so thankful for all of the comments on Facebook & all of the love and support that we constantly feel from everyone here in Mexico & back in the United States. How blessed we are to have such great support systems in TWO countries!
P.S. We've explained to Kylee what is happening, even though I'm not sure how much she understands. In our prayers we ask Heavenly Father to "please help us find Kylee's sister". She is very excited about having a sister, even though she has informed me that she wants her sister to sleep in the extra room, not in "Kylee's room". :)
6 comments:
That is HUGE news! I will definately keep you guys in my prayers. You guys are amazing...
Exciting! So happy for you. What an adventure!
I love that about Kylee. Now we can all pump her up about finding her sister. LOVE THAT! Thanks for being specific about what you need from prayers. You will be in ours. Good luck!
Adoption is AMAZING ! I wouldn't be here without it : ) I wish you all the best of luck and I hope you'll keep everyone posted. I am so anxious and excited to see how this plays out. What FUN it will be for Kylee having a sister close to her age. They will grow up being the closest of friends : ) I am so happy for your decision. I'm not part of your family and even I feel like this is the right thing for you : )
Oh I loved hearing the whole story. Thanks for sharing. You guys are amazing parents. I know you can over come whatever challanges that may come your way. We will keep you in our prayers.
That is so awesome! I'm very excited for you all. I hope you will get some news soon! You are a great family!
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