Adoption

I am so behind on blogging.  I am going to try to catch up over the next few days.  First on the list...Scott and I have decided to adopt.  We have been talking about it for years--ever since we found out Lilly had a genetic disease.  We never could commit and then God blessed us with Emory.  Now that we have her, Scott and I both know that we want more children.  The risk of having another sick child has weighed heavily on both of us.  Adoption eliminates the risk and allows us to grow our family.  We haven't decided whether or not we will have anymore biological children.  We both felt God led us to have Emory with some very special words of encouragement and we are open to that possibility again.  Right now we are just really excited about adopting the next member of our family.

The adoption process is very long and involved and given the extreme financial burden it could place on our family, we have decided to adopt through DHS.  The child that we adopt will be in the custody of the state of Oklahoma and all parental rights will have been terminated.  The state doesn't charge anything for adopting these kiddos but as you may know, it is very difficult to get a healthy infant.  Due to our prior experiences and the fact that we have two kids at home, we have opted not to do foster care.  This would probably speed the process up somewhat, but Scott and I both think it would be too difficult for us and for Liberty.  We would really like to get a healthy boy between the ages of 0-18 months and of any race.  This is our dream scenario, but we are obviously open other opportunities as they present themselves.

Before the state will even consider placing a child with us, there is a ton of paperwork and 27 hours of classes we have to attend.  So far, we have mailed the adoption application, background checks, and our Texas Child Abuse/Neglect registry checks.  So, the process is underway.  I hope by this time next year we will be welcoming our new little one.