There was a little girl that led us to inquire about special needs adoption in Tobi's country. She was not meant to be for our family (although she does have another family on their way to get her!), but she caused us to really research and pray about the special needs orphans in her country. This sweet face and another little boy on a documentary (that I'll post on the bottom of the post) confirmed our need to act. One of the biggest draws for us (before we laid eyes on our boy to be) was the fact that it is very easy and inexpensive to adopt 2 or more children at the same time. Many countries that allow 2 unrelated children to be adopted at once charge double the fees to do it. Tobi's country is not this way. There is a very minimal fee to adopt a second child. We felt called there, and it was confirmed when our boy was listed. We knew immediately that he was for us. I emailed Reece's Rainbow to find out about him. Within moments we were informed that he was located in the country that we had been looking into. This was confirmation for us and it did not take us long to move forward. The question we had to answer as we began our official paperwork was would we be adopting "Fletcher" alone or would we bring home 2. We sat down and looked at the qualifications we needed to meet first. We easily met financial/space qualifications for adopting 2 children. The question then was could we really raise 2 more children, 2 more children with special needs? The answer 6 years ago would have been a resounding NO! But, you see, that is exactly how we felt the moment that we discovered our 4th baby was actually 2 babies! We could not fathom meeting the needs of 5 children so close in age. How could we possibly give all of them all that they need?! And then we had them. Life was crazy and chaotic, but it was more wonderful than we could have imagined. You see, we experienced first hand that God provides exactly what is needed. We experienced first hand the joy that comes when we live beyond what we think we can bear. It is a LOT easier to jump into that pool a second time because we have seen God's faithfulness already. And so, we moved forward with 2 children on all of our paperwork.
The hard thing here is that Tobi's country is VERY concerned with children's privacy. Exact birth date, birth name, birth place, and current residence is not passed on to Reece's Rainbow. Only our team in Tobi's country has access to that information. So, finding another child in Tobi's orphanage became nearly impossible. We were told that the team was aware of our desire for a second child and that they would check on it. Nothing is submitted with any child's name until our paperwork was fully complete, so there was no hurry. When our homestudy was almost finished and had been reviewed by the team in country, we were informed that there was only one other boy that might be available for international adoption in Tobi's orphanage. This little boy was in the process of being cleared for adoption (a 6 month process). We had no other information about this second boy. However, we both felt complete peace about adding him to our family. That is a miracle in itself if you know me and my need for control. We asked God to hurry things through for this second boy and if it absolutely wasn't His plan, that the door would be shut. When we could not get our dossier submitted before the Christmas holiday (which is months long in Tobi's country), we were both encouraged that this might allow the second boy to get through the red tape. We had no idea who this boy was, we had nothing to even begin to form dreams for him, but we knew he existed. We prayed for him daily as a family. In the early hours of the morning when I could not sleep for anything, I would pour my heart out for this boy that only God knew. During those times of prayer, he was knit into my heart as a son. All I really needed to know is that he was. I knew in my heart that God would not give me this love for this boy if He was not going to give him to me to hold. About a month ago we were informed by our team that this boy had been cleared and would be ready for us. We had to wait for for them to tie the loose ends before we could announce it. The only information we got at that point was that he has down syndrome and was born in 2012. It took another week before I was given his picture. When I saw our boys' pictures side by side, they just looked as though they belonged together. At that point, it was confirmed that they should be brothers :)
And here we are. Almost a week closer to holding our sweet boys! There is so much more that I just don't have the space to write all at once. I will look back often over the next week. It helps make the time go faster as we wait to move forward. It is important to me to document the many things God has done to bring us here.
This is the documentary that convinced us that now was the time to act.
Little Sasha was the one that caused us to act. I just recently saw his picture now and was amazed at his transformation.
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