I'm a little unsure of just how to get started....This post might be long... I have a lot of backstory to share here :-)
As I write this, I know that no one will see it until we get confirmation and we can share it with our friends, family and the world!
Anyone that knows me knows that I have 4 little girls. Sooo, I think the title gives away the secret...
We will soon have FIVE daughters!! But this is all happening very differently from what we have done in the past.
Jon and I have been married nearly ten years. We then had our four beautiful sweet daughters within less than seven years. We have Gianna, age 8, Serafina, age 7, Juliette, age 3, and our little Frannie, age 1. Our life is very full. I own and operate a dance studio, I home school our children (that is also a very recent change in our house!), we have a Saint Bernard puppy (named Moose) , I teach CCD, and of course Jon works FT. So, when I found myself struggling to find a way to tell Jon that God had called me to adopt, I had no idea what to say....how he would react.
Adoption is something that I have always been open to. If you asked me a few months ago, I probably would have said "Sure! I'd love to adopt when the kids are a little older....". I recently reconnected with an old friend on Facebook. Gina, a woman who I worked for at her dance studio when I was a teenager, had sent me a friend request. So I accepted and then checked out her wall as I hadn't seen her in several years. Gina adopted four children from Russia about fifteen years ago, during the time that I had worked for her. She had JUST posted a story about Romanian orphanages, and the conditions of the facilities and the children. It was an incredibly difficult story to read. The images were even harder to look at than the words. And there was a small button on the side, that linked to a website called "Rainbow Kids". It was an advocacy website, with a photolisting of adoptable children from around the world. "Waiting children", they are called, because all of them have some sort of special need. Some have very minor, correctable special needs. Some have severe illnesses or disabilities. All of those photos are heartbreaking. But there was one little girl that grabbed my heart instantly. Her name was Mira. I found myself immediately emailing the agency that was listed to inquire about her. The next morning, I received her file, complete with photos, video, and her medical records. She had a list of special needs, but, I had already fallen in love. So began the next several weeks of praying, crying, talking to Jon, more praying and more crying. Eventually, he came around and we sent commitment papers in for her. We found out a day later that she already had a family waiting for her just a few days prior. We were heartbroken. WHY would God lead me to this child, spending weeks feeling more heartbreak than possibly ever in my life, just to find out she wasn't even available for adoption?!! I decided I would take a break from looking at all of those Waiting Children. I disabled the notifications for the Facebook groups I had joined that were about adoption. I just needed some space to breathe. But I knew that I would be back.
A few weeks later, I found myself not being able to not look at the websites an Facebook pages. I had convinced Jon once, but could I ask him to consider another child? Was I cut out for all of the waiting that comes with adopting? Would we have the resources? BUT, then I found her. Another child that grabbed me instantly. I found myself touching the computer screen when I saw her photo. She has Cerebral Palsy. Would Jon be willing to take that on? I prayed and then prayed some more. We were leaving to take the girls to Disney in a few days and I figured maybe on the (very long) ride down, I could talk to Jon about this while we didn't have the stress of work on our minds. He agreed to look at the photo and video that was on Reece's Rainbow. I showed him some responses on a post on their Facebook page when I asked the group who had adopted a child with CP. As he was reading the responses, I looked over and he had tears streaming down his face. You see, children with CP in orphanages, generally spend their lives in their cribs. They are not mobile on their own, so due to very limited staff, they basically exist. They are fed a few times per day, receive little to no therapy, and their only shot at not remaining bedridden for life, is to be adopted. So, on Friday March 13th, we submitted several documents to our agency to be translated and sent to Bulgaria. We are still waiting to hear back with official word on whether or not a judge has signed off on our request to adopt "Flora". I was SO hoping we would hear back by this past Friday. But, things move very, very slowly in Eastern Europe. So I am praying that tomorrow is the day. Once a judge approves our initial application, Flora will be put on "hold" for us for six months. We need to do a home study, get every document you can imagine rounded up, have our fingerprints done, get passports.... The list is overwhelming but we are most definitely up to the challenge!!! We feel that this sweet little thing is a perfect fit for our family. We will get her the best therapies, love her like she has never been loved, and show her the amazing world that exists outside the walls of that orphanage. Our older girls are so very excited...they want to bring her home NOW! ;-)
And now, because I'm sure everyone would like to see her.....meet Flora. She is four years old and is said to be sweet, loving and laid back. She loves toys that light up and she LOVES music!
