The Decision

October 16th 2008

The adoption decision is made... The process has begun! Ty and I have been throwing around the idea for years. At first it was just me not wanting to be fat and pregnant again (I admit to selfishness), oh yeah and not to mention the pushing it out part... But we have always wanted a boy and what are the odds of us naturally having another baby that happens to be a boy after having 2 girls (it's HIS fault!)? Not so good right? Anyway, after some pushing from my dear ol' brother Eric (Bub), Ty and I started talking seriously in June, after our Kern River trip, about another child. We seriously considered another pregnancy. I went through all sorts of fun testing to see if I could do it again. Somewhere along the way, before I had the official medical answers, my heart changed and I knew I would not have another baby. God just would not let us off the hook. We slept on it, ignored it, prayed about it, talked about it, thought about it, dropped it more than once and it just kept popping back up. We even had Amber, Ty's awesome sister, fly out to talk to us about it! She works for America World Adoption Agency (our agency!) and has an adopted daughter from China, our niece, Avery. She shared her insight and passion for adoption with us. Just to be sure, we even dropped the subject again for a bit after she left. Alas, God is presistent! In Jackie and Anna's swimming lessons, suddenly there were two adopted children, one Mexican and one African American, with Caucasion military families. Then I looked around and noticed at least 3 bi-racial families. I started to think, "I could totally do that". Then we'd go to church and some missionaries would be there showing video footage of starving children in Russia or Africa etc. Man! OK! I hear you already! :) I admit I'm a bit stubborn as well as selfish, but even I can hear Him now! Oh, and BTW, all my tests came back fine. I am totally capable of having another child... I just KNEW God would leave it that way. In the end, we found out we both have a heart to adopt!

People keep asking us, why Ethiopia? Well, I think for a bunch of reasons. We first considered an Eastern European country to get a Caucasian child, thinking that would be an easier process for all of us. After reading and researching those countries, our hearts just were not there. Then we considered Domestic. That did not last long. We kept going back to Ethiopia! As one our friends told us, who just adopted 2 children from Ethiopia, the kids there are "just starving". It's not about abuse or alcohol or drug addictions. They are just not able to feed them. I think that is what gets me. Also, I look forward to the inevitable challenge of constantly representing adoption in a very obvious way. If our child has black skin and we have white, people will look. Ty and I both believe we are equipped to handle that. What an opportunity to educate! How cool for us all to have the privilege of living with a person of totally different heritage. To raise three children to not have any pre-conceived notions of anyone due to skin color. Fantastic! How rich! We know we will have lots of challenges. We expect some of our friends and family may not support us fully, we just pray their hearts will be changed once we get our little guy! Besides, we had to go with Africa because Ty really wants a Tyrone Jr!

(just kidding :) )