Nine is Divine!

The end of October brought us a beautiful picture and much anticipation and preparation as we hosted an 8 year old boy who couldn't speak English and, as far as we know, had never experienced a Christmas with family.  We wondered if he would love us the way we already loved his picture.  If he would think we were insane or just absolutely crazy...

Yeah,  he fit right in.

December brought that boy to our home and our hearts...well, they melted.  With each smile and simple request and heart attack (the boy would jump down several steps at a time to go downstairs, I honestly wondered if he would make it without an ER trip or two), we melted more.  He took our hearts back with him when he got on that plane in January and we knew that we needed to move heaven and earth to make sure he came home to us soon.

Our Y the Brave!

And here we are.  Starting our home study.  Starting this journey.  Scared, thrilled, nervous, and anxious.  The kids are thrilled that we are seeking to adopt Y.  As we started hosting they all agreed to host him and when we asked them if they would like for him to live with us forever there was a resounding yell of approval.  We have a great agency and tremendous support from family and friends.  

So, with all that said, we are happy to announce that we are praying to add #9 to our family by the end of the year!

There are a lot of unknowns so we are taking each step slowly and carefully.  We are anticipating everything yet expecting very little (the same way we walked through hosting).  

We would covet everyone's prayers as we walk this journey.    

Our first step is to get our home study done.  We are anxiously awaiting on that paperwork to make it to us in the mail.  After that is a commitment paperwork for our agency and then dossier paperwork and fingerprinting etc.  We're hoping to start our travel by the fall but we know that nothing is predictable and nothing is planned when it comes to adopting.

Our goal is to do this debt-free.  We obviously don't have $30,000 lying around to do that so we are praying that God will provide.  Within the week we will be setting up a crowd funding site and planning fundraising events.  So, keep your eyes and ears peeled!

And Y, well, he's a part of our family, now and forever, no matter what, no matter how goofy we all are.