This past March, we listened to a Francis Chan message....Tony and I. And we came away convinced that we needed a total spiritual overhaul! Our lives had become too comfortable and predictable. We felt desperate for a life change....and Francis Chan's sermon was the catalyst that compelled. Tony said, "what do we need to do?" I said "adopt". He said, "Let's do it." So I began researching adoption in general, and then I started looking at lists of waiting children. I always thought that if we adopted, it would be from Haiti, since I spent a year there in 1986 and have made a few trips there and also have connections. But all of a sudden, I came across a picture and a story on the blog of an adoption agency here in Illinois that captured my heart. Staring back at me from our computer screen was a 12 year old who I just knew was "our girl". I tried to get her out of my mind. I would think I was being successful at "pushing her aside" and then she would resurface in front of my spiritual eyes....and there were times I broke down sobbing. The battle within was on! I shared her picture and story with Tony, wrote to the adoption agency, received information on her. At this point, we thought she was from Russia. We joked that she kind of looked like us. When the information came in on her, we were stunned to find out that she was from Hungary, a stone's throw away from Czechoslovakia, which is where all of Tony's family is from!!!!! Coincidence?? We don't think so!
Anyway, we continued to drag our feet. Rachel's wedding was coming up. I had the hospital move from Lincoln Park to downtown. We found every excuse in the book. Finally, we asked the adoption agency if they could find out if she was available to be adopted to the United States. It was "iffy" because of an incident that Hungary had already had with the U.S. concerning this little ones adoption. But...finally word came in that yes, they would allow her to be adopted to the U.S. Can you believe we still drug our feet??? We continued making up excuses to the God of the Universe. How comedic is that?
Last week, on July 10th, the Adoption Agency wrote to tell us we had to make a decision about this child within 24 hours or Hungary would pull the referral. We prayed, we cried, we stressed, we were tormented. And then, we decided to go for it! We wrote the Adoption Agency and gave them our verbal commitment and the emails started flying!! We got the paperwork filled out within hours, transferred money for our first payment and Anna and I ran high speed into the Fed Ex on our way to her Dr. appointment and got the whole package overnighted! Then...the wait was on.
The Adoption Agency emailed me at work the next morning to say the package had arrived, but they still did not know if Hungary had already pulled our referral for this child. They were waiting for word from the Hungarian Government. We waited and waited. It was torture. Part of us desperately hoping she was still available to us, the other part of us thinking if she wasn't, we could just forget the whole thing and say "we tried". At 11 a.m. on Wednesday, July 11th, we got word through an email titled "GREAT NEWS FOR ALL OF US" that she was still available to us and that we could now officially pursue bringing her Home!!!! Thus, the title of this blog.
Thank you for joining us on this adventure of a lifetime!!! We are scared, overwhelmed, questioning our sanity...but most of all we are "over the moon" excited. And we are looking forward to seeing how God is going to calm... and gather together..... this breathtaking sea of details ......to fulfill His wonderful plan of bringing home our girl.
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