World Adoption Day | Personal

iPhone picture credit: JD Mason

Today is a little bit of a different post, because it's world adoption day and of course I have to celebrate! Nathan and I started the adoption process about 14 months ago - man, does time fly when you're waiting for a baby ;) Some of you know that we had our first little bit of excitement since officially joining the waiting list when our profile book was shown a couple weeks ago. Though the mom did not choose us (she may have chosen someone else or decided to parent), it gave a glimmer of hope on a very long journey.

World Adoption Day was actually first celebrated last year - on my sister's wedding day! With all the craziness of being both her photographer and maid of honor, I didn't get to add my voice to the mix of celebrating adoption, so I'm thrilled to be able to do that this year. I'm also thinking of ways I can incorporate the support of adoption in my business, and I have some fun ideas for my brides coming soon :)

In light of this celebration, here are some fun facts about our adoption journey...

• We attended our first 'adoption event' on September 16, 2014. It was a meeting at Bethany Christian Services that went over all the details of the adventure we were about to embark on. I was excited - Nathan may have been a little overwhelmed!
• Backing up, August was when Nathan first told me he was ready to begin the adoption process. He was traveling for work out of town and we were having a regular conversation while I went on a walk. I'll never forget where I was when he said "By the way, I'm ready." I had NO idea what he was talking about, and was shocked when he told me he was actually ready to begin the process. I hopped on Bethany's website IMMEDIATELY and began looking for our first steps!
• We finished ALL our paper work for the home study, including fingerprinting, doctor's visits, and mounds of questionnaires in two weeks flat. Our worker told us the average time of completion is two months. We get stuff done ;)
• Our first home study appointment was February 19, 5 days after I turned 24. At the meeting in September I learned the minimum age for domestic adoption was 23. Didn't know there was a limit before, but...I (barely) made it!
• Last Tuesday, November 3, we celebrated 6 months on the waiting list. And it really was a celebration. We have experienced so many great moments and so much love from friends and family it's been unbelievable. We are nothing but thankful!

So there you go. Happy World Adoption Day! If you want to celebrate with me, post a selfie on social media with a smiley face on your hand. It's the cool thing to do ;) And as always, thanks for joining me in this adoption adventure!

An Adoption Update - In It For the Long Haul

I realized the other day that it's been awhile since I lasted updated you on our adoption progress. It's not that it hasn't been on my mind all the time, but we are in an interesting period of time right now. All the paperwork has been filed, all the home study interviews have been completed, and we have nothing to do for the first time in about 9 months. Now, we wait.

We are waiting for a call to hear about our child coming home. It's a strange feeling, both exciting and a little anticlimactic in some ways. In all honesty, we do not expect to receive a call for a long time. We are certainly not the only families on the waiting list (sorry for all the adoption lingo!) and we have not been on the list very long. When I tell people this, it begs the question - how do we get chosen?

During our final home study interview, we were asked a series of questions about what child(ren) we would be able and willing to bring home. This was very hard and deeply personal for a lot of reasons, so I will not - and could not - list all that we said yes and no to. I will say that we do not care at all about gender, since that seems to be the most frequently asked question. There are a lot more factors than that, though, and we prayed and talked a lot before deciding.

Now that we are on the waiting list, when a birth mom decides to place her child for adoption, she will contact Bethany. They provide free counseling about what that means and will also ask her a series of questions about her child. She may not know all the answers, but she will provide as many as she can. From there, Bethany will select the profile books (basically a picture book of who we are and why we desire to adopt) of about 10-15 families who have said 'yes' to the individual factors that make this child unique.

The birth mom will then select a few books, may or may not interview 2-3 families, and will choose from there. Each adoption happens differently and some moms may not want to meet the families before her child is born, but this is the way Bethany encourages things to transpire. For that reason, parents who have more narrow selections about their future child will wait a bit longer than parents who have decided they can handle more factors.

All that to say - we are waiting. And we honestly have no idea how long the wait will be. We could be chosen by the first mother to see our profile or we could be shown to a dozen before the right child comes along. Either way we have peace. God is in control of our lives, our child, and the timing of it all. Your support and questions have meant the world to Nathan and me, so don't feel like you shouldn't ask about what's going on - we love talking about what's coming for our family and we love that you've become such a big part of that.

Click here to see more of our adoption journey, or search the hashtag #findingourspady on Instagram!