Allie has greatly enriched our lives and further fortified our desire to adopt. Over the last 7 months, we have watched her grow, learn things, have lots of fun, meet new people, see new things, be upset, be happy and adapt to her new life in the world. There were definitely some late, long nights and some early mornings when it was easy to question ourselves as parents and wonder if we were doing it ‘right’. However, during those nights when I was up holding Allie while she cried or while she slept on me, my mind often reverted to the thought or where my son was at that moment. Being the man’s man that I am, I instantly teared up at the thought that no one was there to hold him, comfort him, give him a bedtime bottle or rock him to sleep. It breaks my heart to think that there are so many orphans in the world, over 200 million, that do not have a parent to care for them and make them feel special. We know when Allie cries that she needs something and it’s always something simple that she needs and we can fulfill it easy. However, when you read about Eastern European orphanages, you find that they are severely understaffed and not able to provide for the needs of each child. Children don’t have the benefit of bedtime stories, cuddling or even clean diapers because there simply aren’t enough hands to go around and help out. When I think about that it makes me want to do everything possible to get Dane in our arms as fast as possible.
Throughout this process, Nik and I have been focused on bettering the life of an orphan, our child. As we have researched countries, agencies, funding, etc. we have begun to realize that as much as our future son needs us, we need him. God made us for each other and he has selected a little boy for us out there in the world that will enrich our lives in ways we could never imagine. We only hope that we can return the favor to our little man.
Just as an update, now that Allie is 7 months old (most agencies require your kids be at least 6 months old) we feel God pushing us forward in our adoption and telling us to get a move on! We are planning on adopting from Eastern Europe and have narrowed down our agency to either Little Miracles or Adoption Ark based on which country we end up adopting from. No matter where or when, one thing that doesn’t change is the need to fund this operation. We’ve been saving and raising money over the past year and half; we can never adequately thank those who have made donations to our adoption! The outpouring of love and support has been amazing to see and we have truly been blessed by all of you. Thank you all so much! We have raised about half of the funds we need and we have a goal to be 100% funded by the end of the year. With that goal in mind, we have launched a new venture to help us fund our adoption….
We’re proud to introduce ‘Click! Photo Booths’ as our new, exciting endeavor/fundraiser for Dane! Nikki and I have been to a few events over the last couple of years where photo booths were used and have always marvelled at how awesome and fun they are. We talked about starting this business about a year ago and somehow became distracted with other things. Since Nik is such a talented photographer, it’s a natural extension of her business but also a fun way to reach our financial goal! Our plan is to use 100% of the profits from our rentals to fund the adoption until we are fully funded =) The booth is excellent for birthday parties, weddings, corporate events, rehearsal dinners, etc. We have had so much fun setting this up together. This is the first business adventure we have taken as husband and wife and our common goal of getting our son home has made it that much more exciting. Our first booth itself is truly awesome... Thanks to the designing talent of my beautiful wife. She sketches, I build. We’re interested in delivering the full package, all the way down to custom event graphics printed on each strip. So look us up on Facebook or on the new website click-photo-booths.com for more information and help us reach our financial goal by the end of the year!
Our good friend Christie and her fiance Bryan were married this past weekend and we were able to give our new booth a trial run at the wedding. Here are some shots of all the fun we had!
We are planning our home study for November of this year. Thanks to everyone again for the support and prayers! We are in awe of the power of adoption and how it has moved through our community. We congratulate our friends and lifegroup members the Bakers and Fickeys as they have made big strides towards their own adoptions in the past few weeks. We know there will be many more families to follow. If you’re interested in adoption yourselves, they have also started an adoption ministry called Reclaimed to walk with families through the adoption process. They’re meeting on Thursday nights and I know the Bakers or Fickeys would love to give you more information about it. If you haven’t already, you should check out their blogs, here and here, and read all about their journeys.
-Josh
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