What lead us to adoption?

Since i plan on using this blog to not only share our process but to also educate people about adoption, I guess I should start with our story...the specifics.

Like I said in my last post, I mentioned that Mike and I had the opportunity to go to Romania on a missions trip to work in an orphanage. We met boys from ages 5-15 who have had such a hard life. These boys have a testimony that would give you goosebumps. One boy, Alex, shared that he lived with Gypsy's at a young age and begged for money, food, clothing to survive. He lived such a hard life but yet was able to see God's sovereignty in his life. He knew that God brought him to that specific orphanage. He knew love. Wow.

After we got home, Mike (my boyfriend of only 9 months) told me that he thought we should adopt one day. That if we can give a child hope in a situation where they might not have that, that would be great. We always said that we would adopt after we had 2 or 3 of "our own." God decided that He had other plans.

We always knew that adoption would be not only an emotional process but also a financially difficult one as well. We had to grieve the idea of not having biological children (but trusting that God can do whatever He wants). After accepting His will, we started doing research and talked to some people.

Now that we are very into this process---it is a decision that we are happy and blessed to have made. If anyone ever thinks that they will just "have their own kids" first...remember that God can change that and that any child that you bring into your home will be "your own." But I strongly recommend that you and your spouse pray and do your research. Decide what you are capable of (in terms of the child and birthmom), whether you want to use an agency, open vs. closed adoption, domestic vs. international. There is so much information on the internet. Visiting websites like adoption.org or a specific agency will give you the facts you need to aid you in your decision.

Prepare your hearts for a long but exciting road and enjoy it from start to finish.

Welcome to our blog!

Well after months and months of comtemplating...I finally decided to start a blog. My name is Kim Wise and I have been married to my amazing husband Mike for over 4 years now. We live in Orange County and have a cat named Snickers. About 2 years ago, we decided to start a family. This was going to be an exciting chapter for us. We wanted to travel in the meantime and went to Colorado, Northern California, Palm Springs, Texas. After about a year of trying to get pregnant, we realized that it just wasn't happening and sought the advice of my doctor. This really overwhelmed us and after a lot of prayer and talking, we knew that God had bigger plans for us.

It was shortly after that we decided to consider adoption. This was always something we wanted to do one day. About 4 years ago we had the opportunity to serve in Romania in an orphanage. We had only been together 9 months but knew that this would be something we would do one day...together.

Now we are in the process of adoption. We applied in the beginning of August to go through Nightlight Christian Adoptions and finished our Homestudy a few weeks ago. We are officially waiting for the call to let us know there is a birthmom wanting to meet us. The agency told us that we could get matched with a mom who is due as soon as early December!!! Wow!

I decided to have a blog to serve multiple purposes. Obviously I would like to keep this blog as a journal for us to look back on and see how we felt at certain parts of the process and to allow our children see this as well. But another huge reason was so that I can share what the adoption process is all about. This is a process that I would love to see so many people experience. God calls us to take care of the widows and orphans and adoption is such a great way to learn what it means for us to be adopted by God.

I plan on posting regularly with a new topic on adoption so that I can share our feelings and recommendations.

Thanks for reading and being on this journey with us!!!

Love,

Kim