Two Countries, One Family: a New Adventure
In early summer this year, I kept asking the Lord a question most days. God, you have clearly given me a second chance at life for a reason (Read the last blog post here to understand what I mean by second chance).
God, what do You REALLY want me to do with my life? I feel SO deeply thankful and my heart is full just being William’s wife and Koen’s mommy, but I have this feeling you have even more for us…? What is it? He answered that question when I opened an email on the last Wednesday of July and I saw two photos of 2 sweet kids who needed a loving home.
When we were first married, we were not sure if I could have babies because of some health issues at the time, and my congenital heart defects. So the topic of adoption came up and we said if God ever had this in our plan down the road, that we wanted it to be international.
We have both loved learning about and experiencing other countries and cultures since before we were married and throughout our marriage. Something else we considered many years ago was being short or long term missionaries. We even took a survey trip to New Zealand in 2010. And even though we loved the country and the people, God showed us that was not His plan. We didn’t understand at the time, but we do now. And we have recently learned, international adoptions have drastically gone down within the last decade, mainly because of the length and depth of a very long process.
So fast forward about 8 years when I Google searched for international adoption agencies. I signed up to receive one agency’s weekly emails and for over a year they came into my email box—some opened and some not. Until the last Wednesday in July this year, I opened one. I saw two sweet faces—a brother and a sister—who melted my heart. I felt something stir inside me, almost like a magnet drawing me to them. So I immediately forwarded the email to William. He replied with—what does this mean?! Ha! See, when we’d talked about adoption over the years, our plans were always to adopt a baby from another country. But we know now, God’s plans are ALWAYS better than our own. He sees the BIG picture, and knows what is BEST for us!
So, we sent an email to the contact agent that evening, and she replied the next morning with the kids’ files. We read the over the pages of detailed files and prayed over all of this for almost 3 weeks, and asked a few close friends to pray intentionally with us, too. The Lord clearly showed us multiple times that we were meant to adopt these two siblings. So we went forward with the initial application, orientation, letter of intent to adopt to the country of origin, etc. over the next few months. There are a million steps to international adoption—and every country’s requirements are different. We are now in the “long middle” phase of beginning our home study and dossier. This can take 3-5 months of collecting documents, appointments, home study visits, adoption parenting certified education and trainings, etc. Once this phase is completed, the dossier paperwork will be submitted to the U.S. Government and the South American country for approval. After the approval, the South American country will make a reference for the children, and invite us to go to the country. Then, we will stay in the country with the children (and Koen is going with us) for 3-4 weeks. During this time we will go to adoption court, go to the US Embassy for the children to become US citizens, and then travel back home. We will have a lot of resources upon coming back home to help the kids transition into life here, as well as several post-adoption home study visits for the next 2 years.
Our agency has very specific rules put up as privacy protection for the children. We are not allowed to share publicly what country we are adopting from, nor their real names or any personal details of their story at this time. After the adoption, we will be able to share the country and the children’s real names. For now, we will refer to them as “Tyler” and “Jess.”
Why? Why are we doing this big, scary out of the box adventure? Three simple reasons.
1-God is leading us to this for some big purpose that’s HIS purpose, and bigger than ourselves. We trust Him and surrender to His plan for our lives. This is the mission work He has called us to do.
2-To be one for someone. At Young Living Essential Oil’s convention in 2020, the focus was “Be one for someone” in advocating for the many direct charities that the Young Living Foundation sponsors. But this can be in anyone’s life, especially children.
When I taught first grade for many years, I could tell the impact that just ONE positive role model or mentor had for my students—it made a difference! Matthew West has a song “Do Something” in which he is saying that people see others in need and asking God, why won’t someone DO SOMETHING?! Then by the end of the song, he’s had humility poured over him and realizes, I (ME) need to be the one to DO something! We both have a passion for ministering to others, especially children, and make a difference in others’ lives!
3–To leave a legacy. The humble feeling that you have unselfishly forever changed the life of one or more people, to guide your family to the Lord is worthy and priceless and giving God all of the glory! These kids will hear the message of Jesus, and have the hope of Heaven.
We would be humbled and appreciative of your prayers, love, and support! We see this as the mission work God has called us to live out!
Some specific prayers—
—for the whole international adoption process to be smooth with processing times and travel without restrictions
—for the kids, “Tyler” (11) and “Jess” (8), that they will transition well and feel joy and love, their courage and trust would be strong, that God would comfort them in their grief of leaving their foster family and home country, and that they would be able to learn English with ease.
—for mental and emotional strength as we go through specific international parental education courses and as all three of us learn Spanish in the next few months.
—that God will abundantly bless our family financially in following this mission both in adoption fees and immediate needs of the children upon bringing them home.
With this mission, it would be very beneficial for our friends and family to join our support team! If you feel led to help, these are some ways we have thought of so far:
—volunteer your time, skills, or talents in helping organize fundraisers and bake or make items to sell for fundraisers
—if you can speak Spanish, welcoming “Tyler” and “Jess” home and volunteering to befriend them and make them feel loved and wanted in their own language as they transition to speak English.
—donate items like gently used clothing and shoes
—give financially—2 options:
donate directly through PayPal or Venmo;
donate using this adoption funds organizations which is tax deductible (has a small fee for credit card processing)
PayPal or Venmo: tingleadoption@gmail.com
Link: https://adopttogether.org/families/?fundraiser=2-countries-1-family-a-new-adventure
We’re also having a kick-off fundraiser! Read the graphic below for info on how to participate and please share!
We hope that by inviting you into this process, you will see yourself as part of the community we hope to build around our children as they grow up. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at tingleadoption@gmail.com. And if you wish to be a part of our private Facebook group to follow along on more details of our journey, send us an email, IG or FB message, then I will add you to the group.
Thank you for your love and prayers, they truly mean a lot to us!
