Accepted!

The email came today! We've been accepted by our agency! We applied Sunday night as soon as the money we sent home was in our bank account. We were so excited!

Here's the email I received:

"Danae & David, I have reviewed, processed, and approved your application for an adoption from Bulgaria! I was excited to see that your family had filled it out – I loved having the opportunity to Skype with you over the phone a couple of weeks ago! If you choose to move forward with an adoption from Bulgaria, the next step to becoming a full client with MLJ is to submit your executed Adoption Services Agreement, signed fee sheet and initial payment according to the attached fee sheet. We will also need an original signed copy of your application. I've attached a copy to this email for you to print, sign and mail into the office. I know that you’re living abroad and sending documents internationally is a little bit more difficult. We will need original copies of your documents, but if you’re wanting to move forward quickly, you can email me scanned signed copies of the Fee Sheet and Adoption Services Agreement before you put them in the mail. We can take checks for the first payment, but we can also do a direct debit from your checking account, or charge a credit card (3% credit card fee applies, but is waived on the application payment). I do want to let you know that this application process is only an initial screening based on the limited information received. There are other approvals you will need throughout your process in order to bring a child home. These approvals come from your home study, Bulgaria, and the US State Department. The application approval is not a substitute for a home study assessment approval and does not screen for any laws specific to a state or country of residence other than Indiana. This is an initial screening and does not guarantee future approvals. Please let me know if you have any questions!"

Man I love this agency! I can't wait to begin this journey to bringing our kids home with them! Please continue to pray for our process!

Exciting, Scary Progress.

Cha-ching.
This is the thought going through David's mind this week.
So close. So real. So very.... scary.
These have been my thoughts.

We've been researching and researching, planning and saving, for almost two years now! I've found a sort of contentment in the planning, in the preparation, and even in the not having kids yet. We've worked really hard to try to figure out what we need and want to do to prepare for kids, and now it seems like the process it really going to get started.
So far, it's been a lot like a wandering walk in the park, looking at things we want to look at, discovering new things and finding things that can help us along the way. Now it seems like that relaxing, slow paced walk is over, and it's about to turn into a full sprint to the finish line. I realize the adoption process could take years to complete, but even still it's going to go quickly for us.

We had a Skype date with MLJ adoption agency's representative. It was really super encouraging, and I must say that I was dancing (and bouncing) around our house that night to the point I could hardly sleep at all! They work with expats, and they want to be super flexible with us, knowing that we live in China and that's different than if we lived in the states. Our finances, insurance and life-style looks totally different, and it was so nice to hear that it wouldn't be a problem! They showed us a list of referrals that they had received from Bulgaria in 2014, they talked about how Bulgaria is very reliable compared to some other countries and they had one more bit of news that pushed me over the edge of excitement and nervousness; with how much we are open to for our adoption, we could wait as little as three months for a referral! This comes after all the home study and paperwork stuff is taken care of, so we have at least until 2015 before any of this really comes into play. They also sent us an expense sheet, and the overall total is around what I had said before, $30-40,000.

The thing that really made this REAL for us is when we saw the costs broken down, when they were due and how much was due each time. Talk about David going crazy! He was not at all happy to find out that the money we have been saving and raising will only cover the first payment! All of which should be going to the agency within this month! That's our other piece of really big, encouraging news! I don't have to wait to get started on this process.

Now, before we were informed by a different agency that we both needed to be 25 years old. I had emailed this agency before (MLJ) and gotten a similar response, but I'm thinking they believed me to be single, because the representative informed me Tuesday night that since David is 26 and we're married, it will be ok to get started. There is a small part of me that is a little frustrated with this information since this means we really could have gotten started about a year ago. However, the bigger part of me (thankfully) is happy that David and I have had this time to become more informed, to pay off school bills and to become more financially prepared to take on the task of raising children. I think God placed this misunderstanding in our path to lead us in a better timed direction.

With all this new information comes a responsibility for us to get our butts kicked into gear to raise the money we'll need to complete our home study. Thankfully, after we have the home study completed and approved, we can apply for all sorts of adoption grants that will help cover significant amounts of the cost of international adoption. We are talking with family in HHI and Bluffton to start on some community fundraisers, one of the first is an outdoor movie night with hamburgers, hot-dogs, and apple cider. One that we'll will be doing in February is a Silent Auction/Dinner with a movie night for kids. If you have any ideas to help make these better functions, let me or any of my family members know! If you would like to donate an item (a product you or your company makes) for the Silent Auction, it would be such a blessing! I really appreciate your prayers and can't wait to see how God moves in this special area of our lives!

What if God thought this way?

I would like to talk about something that has been on my heart for a while. I had been reading about all the people who had adopted and had dealt with rude comments. I have been contemplating how I would respond to these people.

I have dealt with several comments already. Mostly people are just confused. One of David's students asked us why in the world we would do something like this. But he didn't stop there. He called us crazy for selling things to raise money. He criticized adopting children that were going to be "messed up." He topped it all with a whopper "Oh, my G--, teacher! You're not God! You can't save all the children!" We've also had people tell us that we are young, that we'll change our minds soon. That having adopted children can never come close to having your own. That adopted children are messed up and why don't we just start with our own instead. That adoption just costs too much to be really worth it, and we might as well just try to start a family of our own. Now, some of these are curiosity, some of these just aren't any of their business, but I've tried with as much grace as I can sum up in that moment to explain our call regardless.

This is what hit me in the face: What if God had thought these things? What if he thought, "You know, adoption of these people sure does cost a lot." "These people are going to be more screwed up than if I had my own kids." "I'm not going to be able to save all of them." "The process is just too hard and stressful for me." "I'll just wait and see how I feel after I start my own family."

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Wow. I have never felt so convicted to adopt as when this hit me. God's cost was so much steeper than anything I could ever pay. God deals with a lot more behavior problems than I will ever have to with adopted kids. God deals with the grief that not all of us will be saved (by choice!). God dealt and deals with a much harder process of adopting his children than I ever could.
Praise Him! He gave and gives more than I deserve and nothing I could ever do would amount to what he has done. Thank you Lord that you cared enough for us to pay that price, to deal with our loads of crap and to continue to parent me regardless of all of my flaws.

So I have to leave you with the thought that brought me here:
What if God thought they way you do about Orphans?
Thank Him that he doesn't!