Ok, now that we have that covered...take a deep breath, because this is a long post :)
I have really gotten into blogging. Its like always have a new short story from your favorite author! Several weeks ago, I stumbled across a blog post titled "An Adoption Math Problem". It basically stated how imbalanced the demand is to the need. UNICEF has reported that of the millions of orphans in the world, 95% are over the age of 5 or are considered special needs. She boldly called out those who say they want to "help", to balance this equation. Needless to say, I spent the next several hours scouring the internet for a contradictory statistic. There wasnt one. It is true.
Our dossier has been in Ghana since mid-October. Each month since then we have received a group email that includes a list of waiting families with the gender and age range they have selected. Reading it in January, it stood out to us more than before that the majority of families were waiting for something similar to us: young children (under 5) and most likely healthy (although I am making some minor assumptions here). Something just didn't sit right. It didn't feel right.
We realized that we had stopped asking the question. We had gotten comfortable and now we were on a slow-moving waiting list...one that we weren't sure necessarily needed us. So we scheduled a phone call with our caseworker and asked the question again. What is the greatest need? I think she was a little surprised but she patiently explained that 3 groups of children wait the longest, sometimes indefinitely. They are kids who are over the age of 5, have sickle cell anemia, or who are HIV+. Hearing this information we began to explore, research, talk and pray through each one. What would it be like to go from just the two of us to being parents of an 8 year old...? How would a child with sickle cell fit into our fast paced, active lifestyle? Are we strong enough to raise a child who has HIV- the most stigmatized, discriminated, taboo disease in the world?
As we talked through these options, one began to stand out among the rest. It began to feel more uncomfortable and exactly right at the same time. Through casual conversation with other friends who are adopting from Ghana (and who in some ways, had planted the original seed about exploring adopting a child with HIV) we found out about projecthopeful.org. We poured over this website and many others absorbing as much information as we possibly could. The very next day, we were meeting these friends at Costco and they introduce us to another friend, who just 'happens' to work for Project Hopeful and has adopted 2 children from Africa, one of which is HIV+. The entire drive home Chad and I talked about how crazy the timing of this meeting was. No way was that a coincidence!!!
A week later I was blown away again as I found myself at Friday's with a group of women, most of which I had never met, but who were all somewhere along the adoption journey. They talked opening and confidently about how God calls Christians to care for the "least of these" and how perfect a fit is an orphaned child who is dying of a incurable disease, in an impoverished country with little access to lifesaving resources.
Fast forward a few weeks. We feel confident that God is calling us to broaden our "request" to include a little boy that may have HIV. While weeks and months have been passing since our dossier arrived in Ghana, God has been building up this support network all around us for purposes that we didnt even know yet! We got the sense from our caseworker that things will move along quickly. And we are ready.
The first two chapters of the book of James contain some of my favorite scriptures. Reading them again yesterday, the fear and uncertainty that creeps up every now and then was put back in its place as I was comforted in the promise that God is there when we call for help...and that the fullness of life is promised to those whose faith and works align.
We are so excited to share as we learn more and move closer to bringing home the little guy that God choose for us, even before he was conceived! Please continue to pray with us and ask us questions. As a place to start, check out this totally rad video by Project Hopeful:
