Here's where the long road of infertility has led us...
Adoption has sort of always been an option for us, but I have been reluctant for some reason. I suppose that I felt it was kind of like "giving up" on the hopes of us ever having biological children. I prayed and prayed and never could get a release to pursue it. Sara never pressed the issue, but she would bring it up from time to time. I would say that I became more open to it towards the end of 2008. We went for our second IUI attempt and were unsuccessful. We were done with doctors. After COUNTLESS tests on both of us and a quite unpleasant surgery for me, we decided to give it all a rest. We put it in God's hands and walked away.
We started thinking about and researching international adoptions. It quickly became apparent that it would take a small miracle for that to happen. We didn't have the $30k that it takes to make that happen. We then started to look at private adoptions. Those costs were just as exorbitant! What do we do?
That's where our good friend Kim comes in! She is an awesome woman in our church who adopted 4 great kids just a few years ago from an agency that we had not heard of, Arrow Child and Family Ministries. She asked if she could come over and talk to us about her journey and give us some things to think about. After about 2 hours, we were sold. Where do we sign up?
We immediately filled out the application and signed up for the Orientation class held in The Woodlands, TX. The first night, we didn't judge the traffic correctly and were 30 minutes late for the class. I was so embarrassed that I wanted to not go in and just head back home, but Sara insisted that we stay for the rest of the class. We were blown away by the stories we were hearing and the scariness of the process. The 2 1/2 hour ride back home was kind of quiet. Somewhere around the next few days, I was praying about it all and heard God speak to me that this was bigger than us and to just follow it through.
We decided to go all in and attend all of the classes. We spent almost the entire month of January, 2009 driving back and forth from Port Neches to The Woodlands. We were exhausted, both mentally and physically, but our trainer, Scott, was there to talk us through it and encourage us all the way. At the end of it all, we became a licensed foster home for 2 kids up to 18 months old. We wanted any race except straight African American. Our justification was that we didn't know how to raise a child from that culture and were afraid of the social barriers that we would potentially be up against. Little did we know...
About a month after becoming licensed, God sovereignly did a work on both of our hearts, and we had Arrow change our status to any race or gender. God told us that it was bigger than us, and we want to give any child in need a great home to be nurtured and loved, regardless of where they came from.
So, here we are. After months, even years, of waiting, we are about to become foster parents to identical twin African-American boys - 2 years old!!! More to come...
