Adoption

After dreaming of adoption since my sophomore year in high school, Zach and I began the process of adoption through Oregon's foster system in the Spring of 2009. We took our time filling out the application, finally getting it sent in at the beginning of January. At this time, we hadn't even been considering international adoption.

Recently, we have become aware of what has been happening in the Congo these past years. Our church does a lot of work there, and we have grown to care about the people who live in the Congo. When the earthquake happened in Haiti, we (like so many other people, I am sure) wished that we could adopt an orphan from Haiti. We quickly realized that it wasn't possible. Not only is their government completely unable to process adoptions presently, but we don't even meet the age requirements. This started us thinking about international adoptions, and it didn't take us long to realize that while, yes, there is massive devastation in Haiti, they are not the only ones in the world who are suffering. And while they have lost around 200,000 people, the Congo has lost 5.4 million and there are so many children who desperately need homes in order to survive. In fact, there are 5 million children who've been orphaned due to all of the unrest.

A few weeks ago, I was reading a World Relief Next blog by Matt Smith about the Congo, and felt a deep longing to help the children of this country. I called Zach saying, "This is going to sound crazy, but I really think we should adopt from the Congo." You can imagine my surprise when he replied, "Well, I was on a web page last night about Congo adoptions, and I've already sent them an e-mail requesting information." And so here we are! A wonderful organization called Our Family Adoptions (which operates completely through volunteers!) is helping us with our adoption. On their web page is an answer to the question of why one should adopt from the Congo when there are children in our own country needing homes, and the answer that was given is really what solidified our decision to go this route. It answered, "While adoptable children in the US might not have families, they will still get food and care. The children in DRC are dying."

So that is the beginning of our adoption journey. If you would like more information about the Congo, both of these websites are loaded with information.

http://www.ourfamilyadoptions.org/
www.worldreliefnext.org/learn/congo.php