UNTIL DECEMBER COMES...

Hello Everyone,

We realize that it has been awhile since we have last update, and I think we have said that it every post thus far. Our intention was to post once a week with updates, but once we began blogging, we learned that updates for the adoption process don’t come that quickly. So again here we are, sorry we haven’t posted in awhile!

As for news, as you all probably know by now, Jen is pregnant and her due date is June 28th, which is coming upon us extremely quickly. We couldn’t have planned it any better, being that we both have the summers off.

And for the adoption, things have definitely become frustrating, as if they weren’t already. We had finally received a referral that we were going to accept. It was for a five year old boy from Taiwan. We originally wanted siblings, but since the process was taking so long and this referral came in, it was difficult to say no. So our intention was to adopt this little boy then adopt another child later on. So upon saying yes to the referral, our agency got back to us and informed us that Taiwan would not allow us to adopt. Their policy (meaning Taiwan’s policy) is that our biological child must be at least six months old before we are allowed to adopt from their country. Their rationale is that they want to make certain that all children, biological and adopted, will get equal treatment. Needless to say, we were and still are furious. We wrote a long letter to the president of our agency stating that we should have never been sent the referral then told that we were not allowed to adopt. It is extremely unethical, especially when considering all the emotions that go into viewing the photos and medical records of these children.

And so here we are, waiting another half a year to adopt. It has been approximately 1 ½ years since we began the adoption process. With all the children out there without families, you would think the process would go much smoother and quicker. I guess that’s what happens when politics and money become a motivator to help homeless children.

As for our supposed weekly updates on the blog, we are going to postpone the blogging until December, which is when we are legally allowed to continue the adoption process. So until December, we hope everyone’s year is going well and that you enjoy life!

Izzy & Jen

Good News Will Come Eventually

Well, Jen and I received some more news and unfortunately it is not the happy good news we were hoping for.  We had originally thought that the two sibling girls we received information on were going to be the children that we adopted.  We received a number of pictures of them and we were very excited.  Originally we thought the girls were five and nine, but we have just learned that the information was wrong.  After speaking with the agency, we found out that the pictures they had sent us were older photos from a few years ago.  So their ages are actually thirteen and nine.  We thought long and hard and realized that those ages just were not a good fit.  We know we want to adopt older children, but we felt that it was something we wanted to do when we were a little older.  This was a difficult decision to make, especially after looking at the photos so many times.  We actually began to consider them our children.  This is truly one of the most difficult things either of us has ever done.  Every time we don’t accept a referral, we always wonder what will happen to those children.  The only solace that we take is that there are many people out there adopting, and there is the right family out there for every child.  

Just When You Think You Have Life Under Control

Sorry we haven’t updated the site in quite some time, but it seemed that no one was really checking it for updates and to update on a weekly basis when there is no news becomes very difficult. 

Since it has been awhile, we actually had a few updates.  We received a referral about a month and a half ago for siblings from India.  We are not registered for India, only Taiwan, but since it was a rare and tragic scenario, they decided to contact everyone who was in the process of adopting siblings.  The referral was for four siblings, a five year old, four year old, two year old and a one year old.  We were not given too much information, but we guessed that the children must have lost their parents and family during the earth quake that occurred over a year ago.  We thought long and hard about these children, we even discussed it with our financial planner (Jen’s dad).  After days and days of discussing it, we realized that we would not be able to adopt them.  We were just not in the right place financially.   We even bought a few Mega Millions tickets in hopes of winning enough money to raise the children, but of course we didn’t win.  So as hard as it was to say no, we had to.  We can only hope that someone was able to adopt all four children so that they can stay together, especially after everything they have been through. 

So that was about a month and a half ago, then about a month ago we received word that there are two children, a seven year old girl and a six year old boy that the agency was waiting on medical records for.  They told us, just as the previous times, it would be any day as far as receiving the medical records.   Well if this process has taught us anything it is that any day means any month and that patience is something that can be learned when it has to be learned.   We are hoping that these will be our children and we thought and hoped that we would receive word around the holidays, but I guess that only happens in the sappy made for TV movies.

It has been about two years and eight months (not that we’re counting) since Jen and I began attempting to start a family and approximately a year and three months since we began the adoption process.  And with that, to everyone who said this would happen, you were right.   God really does have a sense humor.  For those of you who need to be hit with a hammer to understand the subtle hints, JEN IS PREGNANT!  We were shocked when we found out.  We know that some people may think that we will stop the adoption process since Jen is pregnant, but we won’t.  Even though we don’t know the kids yet, we already feel that they are ours.  We have also always wanted to adopt, whether we can have biological children or not.  So now the running joke is that we have outgrown our house and it only took us three months!  Well these are the things that make life fun and worth living, it’s the unexpected that keeps us guessing and the unexpected that makes us laugh, smile, cry and hope and without those emotions life becomes boring. 

We hope everyone had a great holiday season and the New Year brings a little bit of life to everyone.