India + Adoption

Hello friends!

It's been a LOOONG time. Apologies. Life has been busy and we've had major changes in our family over the last 2 years. Let me wrap up all that has happened in our family and what we are looking to walk through in the next few months.

The last thing I shared here was that we were officially licensed foster parents in the state of Texas and that we were waiting to welcome kids into our home. Little did I know that I actually posted that update on our daughter's birthday! That's right 2 short days later we welcomed a 2 day old baby girl, Miya, into our home and heart. That is when our journey of foster care began.

Foster care is a crazy roller coaster ride of emotions filled with uncertainties, heartache, joy and redemption. The kids are truly gifts from God and all 4 that we've had in our home have brought so much joy. We are thankful that we have been a part of each of their stories. Amongst that joy though there is so much loss and brokenness. For the children, for there birth families, for the foster families. Its tragic loss muddled with brokenness amidst hope for redemption and reconciliation. Its difficult, but beautiful. God definitely has wrecked, convicted and stretched Tanner and I over the past 2 years and for that we are grateful. This journey has forever changed my heart.

Here we are almost 2 years later and she isn't going anywhere. Praise Jesus! She is our sassy and sweet petite daughter and her adoption will be finalized in May/June! Right after we celebrated Miya's 1st Birthday we welcomed a little boy into our family. He was the biggest 2 year old I've ever met and he didn't say a word. A very quiet Kyler came into our life and is now a rambunctious, loud, big, squishy 3 year old Levi, who is tender hearted, kind and doesn't stop talking, laughing and singing. He will also join our forever family in May/June! We'd love to share their adorable faces but we are unable until the adoptions are finalized, these photos will do for now :)

We've had quite a few people assume that we are no longer pursuing our international adoption because of our choice to grow our family through fostering to adopt. We want to clear things up, we are still adopting internationally although things do look a little different now then when we began.

Originally our plan was to adopt from Ethiopia. In fact, we submitted our dossier in May 2013 and have been waiting/updating ever since. Wait times continue to increase for the country of Ethiopia, and we were faced with a difficult decision. After looking at the amount of referrals over the past several years, we realized we could potentially be waiting another 7-10 years to bring our child home from Ethiopia. Let's be honest, I'll be pushing 40 at that point, and that just seems crazy. We were given the opportunity to switch countries and we decided to make to move to adopt from India.

So what now? We are in the paper chase process, assembling our dossier documents for India. Essentially starting over. The timeline for India is much different. After submission of our dossier it will be 12-18 months time for us to bring home our child. We are adopting a little girl and we could not be more excited!

Be on the lookout for a new adoption fundraiser tee featuring a fun design of greetings from around the world!

XOXO

The House Family