We have exciting news!!

Check out our adoption update on our new blog!

(Beautiful art by my wildly talented cousin, Jeny)

 Our Road to Rowan Blog!

Maybe Baby!

  We have been in a holding pattern, waiting to hear back about our first review of our home study, and in this time, we received an email about a handful of children who are in need of homes.  We felt such a strong connection to one of the children, and we are so hopeful that they are our child!  This child is not listed publicly, so we are waiting to give any more details until we are, hopefully, matched with them! (Even then, we won’t be able to post pictures or give any identifying information!) All we know at this point, is that we are one of three families reviewing this child’s file.  We have gone through a medical review with our International Adoption Doctor, we have filled out a TEN page questionnaire on how we plan to help and care for this child now and forever, and we have been hopeful in prayer.   We would, more than anything, love to bring this child into our family, if we are the best fit.  We love this little person so very much already!
It is nerve racking to wait with the unknown, but we have peace over this sweet child.
We are praying for a quick home study finalization, so that we may be considered as a family for this little one!
It is clear to see, that we are already falling in love, and without a doubt, it is “love making a family” already at work in our hearts.
We are praying for home study approval by the end of next week!!! 🙏🏼❤️🇰🇷

March Adoption Update!

  Our home study visits are complete, as well as our psychological evaluation.  And now we start our second "go" at waiting. Our first round of waiting, was when we gathered all of our paperwork and waited to schedule our home study.  Now that we have everything on our end complete, we need to wait on the approval from our agency.  
   Something I have learned already, is that there is a lot of waiting in adoption.  (and we're just at the beginning!)  But there is also sanctification in waiting, as well.  While I'd love for every process to go smoothly, and I pray for that daily, I also see that there has been blessings in the waiting as well.  Back in February, had our home study process gone a little quicker, we might not be adopting from Korea, or we might have had to have a complete home study update, tacking on even more time.   It hasn't been that long, but I can already look back, and be thankful for how that waiting helped us. 
  A HUGE step, is having our draft of our home study, on the desk at our agency.  In fact, it was something I prayed for, and even this weekend, prayed that our home study would make it to our agency this week.  Monday afternoon, we learned it was sent!  That was HUGE!  While this doesn't sound like a big deal, even this past Friday, we were scrambling to get more documents to our home study social worker.  I felt like this home study would never end.  But right when I'm thinking that it was going to drag on forever, I was able to see a glimmer of hope.  When I read that the home study was to Holt, I almost cried.  It was answered prayer, and much sooner than we were anticipating! 
 So now we wait on home study approval, which will most likely take a few weeks.  Once approved, we are in the line to be matched with a child in South Korea. 

I dream of that day.  I dream of that face.  It doesn't feel real, but one day it will be.  And all this hoop jumping with be SO VERY WORTH it!  We love this child, and look forward to the day that we can hold them in our arms!

We are adopting!!

 
  This announcement is long and coming for our family!  For many years, we have talked about "someday" adding to our family through adoption, and the exciting thing, is that the time is now!

We are adopting a little boy or little girl from South Korea, and we could not be more excited!! (Read on for details!)


  Though we have talked about this for years, it is only in the last 9 months that we have been actively walking down this path, searching for the direction we were meant to go.  First, we explored fostering or adopting through the foster care system.  We were starting from a stance of whole heatedly supporting reconciliation, and if it were ever possible, we would adopt.  We took classes, and prepared our home for welcoming one or many children into our home, one at a time.  And then I got a new job, with much different (and later) working hours.  The case worker that was working with us was very clear with us that we needed to wait.  I was starting a new job.  Palmer was starting kindergarten.  The phrase "it sounds like we're too much for you right now" was spoken.  She told us to check back in with her in the Spring.  I thought this was the direction we were going, but this felt much like a door closing for us.  A couple weeks later, we were heart broken, as a letter came in the mail that "we had been taken out of the foster care system."  It felt like the door slammed shut.
  I started my new job this past Fall, and in reality, adding Foster Care to that was probably too much at the time.  We were learning new routines, we were helping our son thrive in Kindergarten, and there was more on our plates than ever before.   But the longing to add to our family didn't completely go away.  It wasn't the right time,  but the calling never left.   Many, many Sundays we would leave church, and adoption was on our minds.
  Throughout the Fall, we explored other options for adoption. Domestic or International?  Ultimately, we felt that International was the best fit for our family.  We decided to adopt from China - my sister has two wonderful girls both adopted from China, and if we, too had a little girl, they would all have each other.  We applied to Holt, and specifically to the China program.  That was it.  We'll adopt a girl from China.  We started paperwork, we completed 7 (!!) background checks, got fingerprinting done, more paperwork, multiple doctor appointments, ran down documents from our work, ordered extra certified birth and marriage certificates... and when we thought we were done, we did even more paperwork.  We were set to do our home study, except we were waiting on a few background checks to come in.  It had seemed that the China program was changing, where it was once 12-18 months from application to bringing a child home, it was now 12-18 months from home study to match.  It broke my heart thinking of that wait. We knew it was worth it, but nevertheless, brought anxiety. I prayed and prayed for our child to have just one person that loved them.  Just one person (or more!) that were forming bonds of love with our child.  We thought a lot about the needs we could add to our family.  Most international adoptions are considered "special needs adoptions" of varying levels, but we were told that China was more "moderate needs" that it had been in the past. All of these things caused me to lay awake at night.  Thinking.  Praying.  For whatever reason, even though we felt firmly called to adoption, I was not feeling peace over it. 
And then I saw his face.  One day, I was looking up waiting children, and I saw "Jagger." (His Korean name can't be shared)   I knew Ross had his heart set on a girl.  When I had mentioned Chinese boys in the past, he still had his heart set on a girl.  How great would it be for all the girls to go back and see China together? How great would it be for Quinn to have a sister?  (I love having sisters!)  I wasn't sure his heart would change on this.  But then I shared with him this little boy, in Korea.  It felt like maybe his thoughts and heart were changing.   I shared with him, that many of these children have lesser or resolved special needs.  They live with a foster family - building bonds, and being loved on in the time before adoption.  (Just what I had been praying for!)  Though there will always be loss and heartbreak as a part of adoption, these children are able to have (at least some) information about their birth families, and have potentially have the opportunity to meet their birth families some day.  How amazing is that?!   The greatest thing that came after seeing "Jagger's" face?  The peace.  Ross and I talked about how, for many different reasons, this program could be a good fit for our family, and how we could be a good fit for one of these children.  It just felt right.  Ross said "so we're not adopting from China?" and I said "I can't go back. I don't think our child is there."
Last week, we received "Jagger's" file.  A little boy, who will always mean a great deal to us, especially in steering us to adoption from South Korea.  We saw more pictures of his precious face.  We learned about his background.  We watched a video of him.  We still don't know if we are the family for him, as there are many hoops to jump though, medical evaluations of his file, home study appointments, and a psych evaluation to complete before we even know if we are ready to be matched with a waiting child (or another child!). But we do know, that Jagger was the turning point for us.  He played a large role in our adoption journey, and I strongly feel that God placed him in our lives to direct us down the path we were meant to go down.
  This week we turned in our huge stack of paperwork, and had our first, of two, home visits.  This weekend we hope to finish up the psychological evaluation, to be turned in at our last home visit next week.   We strongly feel God's hand in this journey, and we could not be more excited to watch where this journey takes us.   We have so much love for the little boy (or girl!) that will before too long (about a year and a half!) join our family forever.

I'm big on music, and lyrics.  I have so many songs that remind me of all my babies, but #3, this one is yours! 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQGI4lzkv58

Snow... er... cold day!!

When it is negative in the teens degrees, with wind chill, you get a snow/cold day!  My beautiful morning view, with two kids chatterboxing away! 😍