Hold on, babies, daddy is coming!

From my perspective, adoption is kinda a bizarre thing.  I am paying insane amounts of money to take on the burden of raising two children that I’ve never met.  These children will come with a unique set of emotional and physical hurdles that will intensify the process and make it extremely difficult at times.  These problems include language barriers, heath issues, failure to thrive, learning to bond, disabilities, malnutrition, and a host of other struggles as a result of being institutionalized.  I know this to be true because I had to take a forty hour class on the topic and the material seemed to be created with the sole purpose of scaring me off.  But it didn’t work.  Despite the difficulties and brokenness and financial pressure that is coming with these two little girls, I’m not scared at all.  I’m excited.  And that’s a bit bizarre.

As we’ve wrestled through the last two and a half years, I’ve asked myself the question of why I would stumble down this strange path in life.  Was it just supporting my wife?  Was I trying to obey God?  Was I captivated by a cause?  If I’m honest, I’m sure all those things have been true at times.  But not since I saw them.  The moment I looked at Abigail and Autumn, I loved them.  Somewhere in the deepest part of me, I knew they were my mine, my daughters that I would move heaven and earth to bring home as a part of our family.  That seems bizarre too.  But it’s the truth.  I sit here this morning, typing on this computer, and my heart tells me that I have two children on the other side of the world that are mine and I love them like my own.  They have never met me, I have never met them, but they are mine!

Pretty strange story, right?  But perhaps one that is not unfamiliar,  It seems to me that I am simply experiencing on a very small scale what God has felt for the entire world.  I John 4 tells us that God loved us first.  We had no idea of real love - of family, acceptance, health, comfort, trust - until He showed us what it meant.  He loved us and came such a long way to get us, paying an immeasurable price.  Unsurprisingly, adoption was God’s idea first.

So maybe I’m not weird.  Maybe I’m blessed enough to catch a glimpse of God’s heart.  Maybe my experience is simply an echo of how He has shaped eternity.  Maybe I just love being adopted in His family so much, I want to pass it on.  Doesn’t matter in the end.  Because whether it is weird or wonderful, my heart tells me I have two daughters in India and I will do whatever it takes to bring them home.  So hold on, babies, daddy is coming!!

Why you can't see them...

One of the things I can’t help thinking is how much people would be impacted if they could see pictures of our girls.  If I could just put their photos on Facebook or Twitter, the response to their cuteness would be overwhelming; we would have our miracle in minutes.  But we can’t post and pics.  Know why?  Cause we live in a messed up world where evil people sell children for profits.  Child trafficking is a terrible problem around the world and, in an attempt to protect innocents, most countries prohibit displaying images of orphans to prevent advertising children to monsters.  I totally agree with this.  Anything that can be done to protect kids, I’m all for.  I still wish you could see our daughters.

I’m looking at there pictures right now.  They are so beautiful and yet so broken.  You can see that they need someone to hold them, someone to cuddle them, someone to tell them that they are loved.  We so desperately want to be those people.  One thing that you would notice right away is that they don’t smile in any of the pictures.  They look so sad and serious.  I don’t know if it’s cultural or if they are told not to smile.  All I know is that I look at them and want to see them laughing.  Life has stolen joy from these girls.  Life has stolen their smile.  I am determined to get it back for them!

Would you help me?  Would you help me find joy for these girls that you can’t see but who need your help so much?  If we don’t help them who will?  Please take a moment and click the link on the side of this page and give a donation to bring them home.  Julie and I will go get them, bring them into our family, and love them as our own.  But we need your help to make that happen.  Please help us save them.  I know we can do this!

When we do get them home, I’ll make you this promise.  I’ll take some pictures and post them for you to see.  I can guarantee they will be smiling. How can I be sure?  I’ll buy them ice cream.  You can’t help but smile the first time you have ice cream.  Then you will be able to see the joy that you helped return to these little girls!

Major Update!!

Wow, we have had a crazy twenty four hours!  Yesterday, we received an email full of pictures of the two little girls we are adopting.  Previously, we only had one small photo of each of them, a simple head shot that gave very little detail.  Seeing them clearly for the first time made it feel like Christmas!  Julie and I stared at computer screen, trying to memorize every detail of their faces, imagining bringing them home and giving them the life they deserve.  It felt like such a milestone in our journey of growing our family and rescuing these lives.  But it was only the first part of an impactful day.

Not long after we received the photos, we got another email from our adoption agency updating our status.  They told us that the final paperwork from India would be arriving next week and, with it, our final bill for adoption.  This was far more accelerated than we expected.  We had been fundraising in anticipation of this expense but things move very slowly in inter national adoption and we believed we had more time.  Still, we thought we were only off by two thousand dollars and that seemed possible with a fundraiser push in the next ten days.  But the numbers we received were different than what we expected.

We originally had been matched with two sisters who were ages eight and ten.  Due to a computer issue in India, we lost that referral and had to be rematched.  That is how we got connected with Abigail and Autumn.  But the difference in age was significant.  Abby and Autumn are two and five.  What we didn’t realize is that the difference in age would play a major part in determining the fee.  Because the original girls were older, there was a discount.  The cost of adopting each girl would have been around $10,000 a piece.  Because Abby and Autumn are younger, the price increased dramatically.  The cost for each of them is $14,000.  

That means instead of being off the mark by two thousand, we are short $10,000.  That’s a lot of money!  It seems almost impossible to raise that kind of cash in ten days.  But despite the shock, Julie and I are not discouraged.  We believe that God has led us to these girls, that He wants us to adopt them, and that they are our daughters.  We also believe that He specializes in the impossible.  And we believe that He uses people to accomplish His miracles.  So we are asking for help!  See that white square on the right side of your screen?  That number needs to be $10,000.  

If you can, please take a moment and donate to our account on Reece’s Rainbow, a tax deductible non profit organization that assists in special needs adoptions. (We qualify because Autumn is blind in one eye.)  In doing so, you are being a blessing to us as we look to bring our little girls home.  More importantly, you are literally helping to save a life.  There is no future for orphans in India, especially girls.  Most of them are eventually swept up into the sex trade or into slavery.  Together we can prevent that for these two girls and give them a family who will love and care for them.  

It’s going to take a miracle to hit this financial mark.  But it’s Christmas time. It’s a good time for miracles.  Please, please help us get one on behalf of Abigail and Autumn.  

PS- Donations to our Reece’s Rainbow account are anonymous (we can’t see who gave what).  We would love to shower you with our thanks, love, and appreciation, but unless you tell us, we won’t know.