Adoption. Is It For You?

 Have you ever considered adopting a child?  If so, what stopped you if you didn't take those steps toward the adoption process? 

There are many roads to adoption. For some, it may be doing foster care.  For others, it may be adopting a healthy infant domestically. And for still others, it may be that they feel called to adopt a waiting child from another country or a child with special needs. 

It's totally worth doing some research to see what might be the right path for you and your family.  Anyway, I thought I would share a few sweet faces who need a family to call their own.

Is it even possible to resist some of these precious faces??

Above is a sibling group of 6!  They are listed in Colorado. They look like adorable kids and what a lot of fun it would be to add this bunch to your family!! Click on the link to find out more.

http://theadoptionexchange.org/child-adoption-profile.cfm?ChildID=10627

This sibling group is in Nevada...Maria, Michael and Nathaniel.  Aren't they beautiful?  Click on the link for more info.

http://adoptuskids.org/_app/child/viewp.aspx?id=40167

The next 3 children have Down syndrome.  Obviously our family has a special love for children with that extra chromosome.  Maybe you think, "oh that's great for you, but not for me."  But I say, "Try it!! You will be blessed more than you could ever imagine and you don't know what you are missing!"

This is Leanne. She is in China. I met this little girl in 2012 when we were in her province to adopt our Emilee. She is super cute and smart, too!

Here is a video I took of her. Pretty cute!  

http://reecesrainbow.org/48172/leanne

And this little guy is in the same city as Leanne.  He looks super smart.  What a handsome fellow!  I do have another picture of him as well for anyone who is interested.   

http://reecesrainbow.org/48170/boden

I love Yvonne!!!  She is "older" but sounds like the perfect child!  :)  Would love to bring this sweet one home myself if it was possible.    

http://reecesrainbow.org/58689/yvonne

If you are considering international adoption, there are many countries that you could adopt from and many different types of children!  All these countries have different and varying requirements for the adopting family.  Please research because I am sure you can find a country that will match your family's needs!  And there are so many beautiful kids needing and desperately wanting a mommy or a daddy or both!  :)

Here's one link that can help start you on the path to figure out what country might be best for you.

http://reecesrainbow.org/new-family/international-programs

Or try this one...

http://www.rainbowkids.com/countries/

Ok, here are just a couple more kids from the USA.  

Many children who are in foster care in the US end up "aging out" of the system.  This means they turn 18 and in many cases are handed a few items or nothing at all and sent out on their own.  They never have a family to call their own, no one to come home to at Thanksgiving, no one to help pay for college or tell them how to fill our a job application.  Even if a kid is already a teen doesn't mean they dont want or NEED a family!!!  

Meet Andrew.  He is a teenager who just wants a family and a sister. A sister!! Make sure you go to the link and watch his video.  Beware...it may jerk on your heart strings.  But don't be scared.  Teenagers are awesome!  They are just big kids who still need to know they are loved! 

http://theadoptionexchange.org/child-adoption-profile.cfm?ChildID=7015

And lastly, meet Desta!  She is a ninth grader and sounds like a pretty typical teen and a very caring individual. Both her and Andrew are located in Colorado.  

http://theadoptionexchange.org/child-adoption-profile.cfm?ChildID=10640

If you want to find out more about the waiting kids in any of the US states, please visit

www.adoptuskids.org 

It is a great site with loads of info about adoption.  

Please prayerfully consider adopting a child.  :)  It may be the best thing you ever do...

New Year New Beginnings

Wow a new year 2014! I am always amazed at how fast the last year flies by!  I'm not sure why that is...  I guess I think it should slow down somehow, but it never does.  

This was the first holiday season in our new house. Yay! We'd been in a house in town with neighbors all around for the last 10 years. We liked living in town for the most part. We had nice neighbors and the kids enjoyed playing with all the neighbor children. Plus I like paved streets/no rough and dusty country roads. But it's just not the same as living in the country.

Before town we were out in the country in a small house with our 2 older boys and 2 little ones. We had a few dogs, a couple horses and a herd of cows. It's where we began our journey with foster care.

We loved the country life and the older boys enjoyed playing in the hills behind our house and swimming in the pond. We even had ducks!  The boys have fond memories of that place. Feeding cows in the winter, branding calves in the spring with friends, playing cowboys or whatever boys do in the woods, riding their bikes up and down the county roads, playing with cousins, and swimming in the pond. It was great!

We eventually had to sell our cows, and we moved into town as the boys were entering high school. As our family grew, we knew we needed a bigger house.

Now we are back in the country but sort of close to town, too. It is a really nice combination of country but close to the conveniences of town.  We finally have our horses back with us which is really exciting! The boys love to ride and can literally walk out the front door and grab a horse.  And as soon as it gets a little warmer, the girls will be doing more riding as well.

Ok well I didn't exactly mean to get off on that tangent.  Ha! But it was fun to go back through the old pictures! 

We are just really excited to now be where we believe God has opened the door toward a dream He gave us years ago. We were never in a position to put it all together before. Well I take that back, it just wasn't His timing. He gave us the vision...call it a sneak peak into the future.  We didn't even totally understand it all back then. It's always in His time that these things happen, and that lesson is a hard one to learn sometimes.  We had to go through a whole lot of refining and growing (literally as a family).  Only God knows what our next steps will be. But I'm here to tell you we are open and ready and listening for His will and waiting for His direction and timing.

And that makes things all the more exciting! 

God gives us dreams a size too big, so that we can grow into them!  But more importantly, we learn to trust Him and His timing, so we begin to understand that we can't accomplish those dreams without Him!