Adoption Update: June 2020

When we first began our adoption journey in January of 2019, with a tentative timeline, we imagined we would be preparing to travel during the summer or early fall of 2020 to bring home our child. However, a year and a half into this journey, and it seems we have little to nothing to show for it. In the summer of 2019, we sent our completed homestudy off to India to be approved by CARA (Central Adoption Resource Agency). As per India's policy, until your homestudy has been approved by CARA, you cannot be matched with a child. At the time we applied, this process normally took about 8-10 weeks. At this time, CARA not only had some staff turn over, but the new administration began to implement many changes to their policies and procedures concerning adoption (both local and international). Weeks turned into months, and as of March 2020 we still had no word from India on the status of our homestudy. In addition to CARA approval, timelines for almost every step of the adoption process in India have almost tripled since we originally applied. Alongside of this, as well as the uncertainty of the program in general, Mitch and I spent several weeks researching, praying, and talking with our social worker and program director about how to proceed.

 At the beginning of May, Mitch and I decided to withdraw from the India program and as of last week, Mitch and I officially closed out our account with Lifeline. We have spent a lot of time in the last few months grieving: grieving a specific dream that has not come to fruition like we originally hoped, grieving having to leave a WONDERFUL Christian agency that we have loved working with, and grieving the loss of all of the time and work we have put into our adoption so far.

 However, the Lord is always faithful and does not ever leave our hopes and dreams in ashes! When we first began praying and researching adding to our family again, we were leaning pretty heavily towards fostering and/or fostering to adopt. At the time, we estimated we would only be in the Columbus area for another few years while Mitch finished his PhD program. Because of this, we felt that fostering or adopting locally would be unwise as we would have to move away from the area and thus, the birth mother of our child. In February of this year, as we were getting more and more disheartening news about our adoption case, Mitch applied for a job at Impact 360 in Pine Mountain, Georgia. In April, despite all of the upheaval surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, Mitch accepted a job offer from them, ensuring that we will be laying some deeper roots here in the Columbus area. Much to our surprise (but certainly not the Lord's), just as one adoption journey was falling apart, a previous closed door seemed to be opening for us at the same time.

With this news, we made the decision to officially shift our focus from international to domestic adoption. In addition, we have decided to pursue this through foster care! Currently, our timeline is uncertain. We will need to redo our homestudy (which needed to be redone this fall anyways) and also do an 8-10 week training class to certify us as foster parents. Because of the ongoing pandemic, it's hard to stay when these things will be up and running again. However, we can guarantee, as soon as we can get a green light we will be moving forward!

 Our hope in this ongoing journey has always been to add to our family through adoption. And while that continues to be our hope, our ultimate goal is to serve the Lord by loving any child he places with us in the future- no matter the duration or finality. There are many days where we are tempted to feel discouraged about our "lack of progress" over the past year and a half. We may not have a child in our home yet, but the progress the Lord has made in our hearts and in our direction is anything but lacking.

 We are SO incredibly thankful for all of the support we have received from those around us thus far, and we pray that you will continue to walk with us in this journey!