Welcome to our adoption blog! The journey has officially begun! We wanted to start this blog to create a platform where we could share with our friends and family about our journey, to have something to look back on someday, to hopefully help others along their journey to adopt, and to share our thoughts and feelings while we wait. We are both looking forward to sharing updates along the way. This first post is written by Tad. 

Beginning the adoption process brings about a variety of emotions.  Here’s how we would describe them:

• Excited: I mean come on… the idea of Baby Sherman coming into our lives, how could we not be excited! We are excited to know who they are, where they are, and when we’ll meet them. We are excited to bring them home and experience the joy and unity of parenting together.  We are excited to watch all the milestones and amazing experiences they will have as they grow. We are excited to celebrate their accomplishments and pick them up in their times of despair. It will be an honor to play a primary role in shaping their life. 

• Anxious: Neither of us ever could have imagined the idea of adoption! We’ve done a ton of research (honestly it’s been mostly Kristen doing the research.  Haha!) There are so many scams out there that you get concerned about choosing the right people and places to explore. 

• Fearful: It truly is a leap of faith for us to begin this journey. While we are fortunate enough to be in a position to take on some of the financial implications that come with adoption, we are trusting that this is part of God’s plan and that He will provide for us and fill in the gaps. We really struggled with the idea of seeking financial support. We are used to being the ones looking to provide for others so this is uncharted territory for us. If you feel led to help financially support our efforts to adopt (no matter how small), you can check out our Go Fund Me page by clicking here. If you aren’t able to do that, by all means please pray for us. We’ll take that just as much, if not more, than the financial support.  

• Hopeful: Prior to meeting Kristen, I did not anticipate any more children in my life. However, when I met her and I knew how important it was to her, that all changed. I know her deep desire to be a mother and my love for her helped me to find that same joy. We now talk regularly about our family being incomplete. Adoption has given us a new hope that we will someday be able to complete our family and Kristen will have the opportunity to become a mom.

After much prayer and research, we are now officially working with Christian Adoptions Consultants and they have been absolutely wonderful to work with.  We work directly with one person, Susan, who has already provided so much guidance.  She has made us feel at peace with the process and we’re looking forward to getting to know her more.  

While going the consultant route did cost a little more money, we are glad we went that route.  They have a multi-agency approach, so we have the potential to be connected with anywhere from 4-6 agencies, which will prayerfully help us find Baby Sherman sooner rather than later. 

After filling out (mostly Kristen) pages and pages of information about us and our entire lives, along with submitting hundreds of pictures, they are now working on creating our profile book.  We’ve seen an initial draft and it’s pretty neat.  We can’t wait to see the final product.  Once it’s completed, we’ll share some of it with you here on our blog.  

This book will be what they present to birth moms as they make a decision about choosing the parents for their little one.  It’s a life-changing decision that starts with this very book.  Needless to say…it’s a pretty important part of the whole process!

We are also in the process of completing our Home Study! We were hopeful this would already be completed, but we’re waiting on the actual home visit portion because they are behind schedule.  Let me just tell you how weird it was getting fingerprinted, asking for FBI background checks, etc.  Good news…everything came back just fine 😉

Another big part of the process is choosing your preferences. Aside from wanting a baby (birth up to one year old), we have decided to keep our preferences completely open, meaning any race or gender. We are also willing to travel anywhere in the United States. We truly believe God already knows who our baby is, so we are hoping that by being open to every possibility, it will help us bring him or her home sooner. 

So what now??? Well…we wait!  We anticipate the home study and profile book will be completed around the same time, which is exciting because we can then officially be presented to birth moms. 

So, as we close out our first post you may be asking, “What are we doing in the waiting?”  Praying…lots and lots of praying!  We are praying for baby Sherman wherever he/she may be or is yet to be. We are praying for the birth mom who will make the most incredibly difficult decision of her life.  We are praying for guidance and patience as we navigate this journey.  Please continue to be in prayer for us, baby Sherman, and his/her birth mom!  

We can’t wait to come back soon with our next update! Please feel free to leave a comment, ask us questions, or whatever you want. And if you’d like to get updates when we share a new post, subscribe below by entering your email. We are excited to bring all of our friends and family along with us on our exciting adventure to find #BabySherman!