Gathering the info.

Psalm 9:10 “And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.”

Will and I have started to gather our information for the adoption process. It's so much and so overwhelming, but I'm so excited at the same time!  I felt this way the first time we did In Vitro Fertilization. This amazing excitement of something great to come. Even thought the IVF was unsuccessful, I don't regret going through it.  

Just some statistics about Haiti and why I feel such a need to help one (or two) of these babies. I feel that Will and I are so blessed to have what we have, and to just bring one of these babies home and give them such a great life would bring us such joy. 

• Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere 
• Haiti Population - 9.6 million
• 50% of Haiti's population is school age
• Literacy rate is less than 50%
• 70% of population is in poverty
• Average annual income is $400 per year
• Approx 750,000 orphans since the earthquake

Orhpan girls at One Vision orphanage in Haiti

So what we have done to get started so far is very little, but I hope we are on the right track. We know we need to save about $20,000 give or take. This will take us a few months, so in the mean time we will just do a lot of research and take our time going through all of our information.  We have both joined a Haiti Adoption Facebook page which has tons of information and resources. We live in NC, and I have seen there are two or three other family from NC who have already started the adoption process, so I will be contacting them soon. 

We also have the list of IBESR approved adoption agencies in Haiti (see below). We will gather info from all of them and then narrow down to the lucky one.

1. A love Beyond Borders
2. Children House International
3. Carolina Adoption Services
4. European Adoption Services Consultant Inc. (EAC)
5. Bethany Christian Services Global, LLC
6. All Blessings International/ Kentucky Adoption Services
7. Wasatch Adoption
8. All God’s Children International (AGCI)
9. Holt International Children’s Services, Inc.
10. Love Basket
11. Dillon International, Inc.
12. Adoption-Link
13. Building Arizona Services
14. Lifeline Children Services
15. Sunny Ridge Family Center
16. Chinese Children Adoption International (CCAI)
17. Nightlight Christian Adoptions
18. America World Adoption Association
19. MLJ Adoptions Inc./Giving Hope Rescue Mission

I'm leaning towards Giving Hope Rescue Mission, but I don't know what path God will take us on. 

Tuesday we will attend an adoption/foster care information session through Social Services here in Raleigh, NC. This is mainly for families interested in domestic adoption, but we are attending just to find out what it's all about. We also registered for a Haiti Adoption Information Webinar through Carolina Adoption Services on February 6th. Hopefully we will be a little more informative after hearing from people who are actually experienced in the process. I am really interested in talking with families who have been through the haiti adoption process. I feel like all the advice I'm getting is from people who want me to do what THEY think is best, but have never adopted a child. It's very frustrating because we are going into the unknown and putting so much time, money and effort into bringing a child home from another country, I just really hope everything turns out okay.

About Us

ABOUT US...

The night he proposed-2006

Me: I was born in Norfolk, Va and lived in Chesapeake until I graduated from high school in 1997. Went to college at NC A&T State University and Virginia Commonwealth University. Majored in laboratory animal science. I worked in hospital and veterinary labs for several years. I was tired of being a lab rat all day, so I decided to go into management. I'm currently a lab manager for the health department in Raleigh, NC.

Will: Born and raised in Henderson, NC. Will is the oldest of three boys. He was pretty smart in high school and was kind of known as the school nerd. After high school Will went to NC State University and majored in electrical engineering. He currently works in the Research Triangle Park (RTP) as a Senior Network Engineer.

Our Furbaby Rocco :)

San Francisco (Alcatraz Island) - 2008

Will and Rocco - The Outer Banks

                                                                                                                

We are a pretty normal couple. We love going to the movies, eating out, and traveling. Since we have no kids to care for, we have the luxury of doing what we want, when we want too:) That is one benefit of being married and having no one else to be responsible for. That's onething that I do love, but I still want to be a mom. We will do whatever it takes to be parents! This could be a ten year journey, but lets hope not!

I almost forgot about our little fur baby Rocco. After trying to conceive for two years or so, I thought that if we can't get pregnant, maybe we should get a puppy for the time being to get our minds off of infertility. I did my research and decided that I wanted a beagle. They are very calm, loving, affectionate dogs. In the beginning, Will was totally against us getting an animal. Of courseI had the final say, lol!! I adopted Rocco from Triangle Beagle Rescue when he was 9 weeks old. Today we have had him for almost five years and Will and I love him dearly. He is definitely part of our family and always will be. I just wish I did not spoil him so much. He is definitely our little child to care for:)

Where do I begin....So much has already happened.

Tonight at the spur of the moment I decided to start a blog of this journey my husband and I are about to begin. Actually, we have been on this so called journey to parenthood for many years now, but have not been very vocal about it. I decided I want to document this experience so I can go back years from now and cherish the moments. Also to help others that may go through this process, considering that we are successful with our own. 

Will and I have been married for 7 and 1/2 years now. I have always wanted to be a mother ever since I can remember. After Will and I had been dating for a while, the conversation of marriage and kids came up. In the beginning Will did not care either way about starting a family. He basically said, if I want kids, then he is cool with it, but if I didn't then that would be fine too. So we decided to wait a couple of years after we were married then we would start to try to have a baby. I just knew that the "trying" would be an easy process for us. Boy was I wrong.

To make the long story short, I discovered in our journey to become parents, I was diagnosed with stage IV Endometriosis. This diagnosis pretty much means that my chances of conceiving a child on my own is less than 5%.  I could have written an entire blog about our past four years of trying to have a biological child of our own but it was too depressing to have to deal with day by day, let alone write about it. After multiple IUI's, 2.5 IVF's, 2 surgeries, a gazillion needles being stuck in every part of my body, many ultrasounds, thousands of dollars, and much heartache we have decided on adoption.

I was so against adoption in the beginning because I wanted my own biological child, but it was like out of the blue one day something came to me, I truly believe it was a calling from God. I had this feeling inside or this instinct telling me to adopt, but not from the U.S., from Haiti. I can't explain what or why this thought came to me, but I had a good feeling about it. My husband, not so much, lol. That took a little more convincing on my part. So a year and a half later we have decided to start our research on adoption agencies and rescue mission groups. We will officially start the process in July (2013) once we save up all of our money. 

What the future holds will be the story of this blog.