Darryl and Amanda's Adoption Journey

Why do I get so surprised??

2012-02-20T16:34:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure why I am continually surprised when God meets our needs through this process. We have always felt this was something God wanted us to do so why do I ever doubt or get worried? Probably because I don't have nearly enough faith. After finding out we are on the waiting list I started to worry about what would happen if we didn't raise the money needed at the time of referral. I knew it was about a year away but still it was something that concerned me. Then in one day we had 2 families donate money to help us. Both were unexpected and completely sacrificial. I am so grateful and still somewhat in shock. I am just so thankful that people want to help us. The good news is we just need to raise money for the travel now. GOD IS SO GOOD! People listening to God and being willing to be a blessing are amazing. We will never be able to express just how grateful or how big of a deal this is to u. It not only helps us actually get through the process but keeps reaffirming our faith that this God's plan for our family. When the wait seems long or when times get trying after we pick up our child I will be able to look back and remember how God provided. These time will be a continual reminder that there is nothing He cannot handle for us if we are just willing to trust Him.
Another lesson I am learning through this is just how little we actually need. I am learning to analyze my purchases. It's really very humbling to realize just how blessed we are to be able to have good food to eat and plenty of clothes to wear. We have never had to go without anything and so many people do. I am looking forward to the day when we have the adoption fully funded and I can start using our money to be a blessing to other people. This adoption process has already been a chance for me to grow in so many ways and we are only 6 months into it. I'm sure that I cannot even imagine how God is going to use this child to change my faith. Adoption is definitely not just about helping a child have a family. It's a process God uses to show us just how great He is and to bring glory to Him.

#22... this is very exciting news

2012-02-16T14:28:00.000-08:00

We received a call today from Thao at Holt and she said we are #22 on the waiting list. She said that means we should get our referral either in December or next March. Thao explained that the referral board in Thailand meets every 4 months. So every 4 months we will get an email letting us know our new number on the waiting list. I know that it is a long time away but I cannot express how excited I am to just be on the list! This is a huge step. God is so good we were originally told it would be about 1 1/2 till our referral so it's nice that it will probably only be a year at the most.
Now I can focus on getting all the grant applications done. I would appreciate prayer that we will qualify for some grants to help offset the cost of the adoption. I know most people are not going to be able to donate to our adoption but praying we get a grant is the best thing you can do as our friends.

Dossier done and mailed!!!!

2012-02-14T22:16:00.000-08:00

Today we received our Dossier back from the DC. So I went straight to the bank to get the certified check for Holt and then to the post office. We mailed our Dossier to Holt and they should receive it on Thursday. I am so excited about this being done for so many reasons but mainly because once Holt receives our document we are officially on the waiting list to get our child. YAY! I also completed everything for our I800 (permission from the US government to travel overseas and adopt). I'm just waiting on a few things from our home study agency and I can send that off also. I love seeing things happen but I also know that now that "my part" is done it's a whole lot of waiting from here. We are told it should be about 18 months before we are matched with a child. I am okay with the wait though because it means we have time to save more money. I will also be spending this time filling out every application for grants that I can find. I included a picture of Gavin and I after we got all the paperwork filled out at the post office. He loves helping with the adoption process.

"Fun"draising

2012-02-14T10:21:00.000-08:00

One of the things that has been on my mind since day one of this adventure that we are on has been the insane amount of money that this adoption will cost us! God has blessed us beyond measure every step of the way so far. Many people have given towards our goal and we are so humbled by the generosity of the people in our lives. I wish i could say that we are completely funded but we are far from our overall goal. We've been able to make every payment so far but there are some huge payments coming up. I've been looking for some ways for us to be able to make some money easily and help us get our child. I've even had a little fun doing it all!

I've made this shirt to wear at a Youth Pastor Conference that I'm going to next month.

Here is a list of other ways for you to help us out financially:

Donate here via Pay Pal: https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=GtqBWakoB3w9rFdgQ6ZkdUR4-DInDCRgI-jl5KuwdmiOdw0MPEzLAs5cg1S&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8d4026841ac68a446f69dad17fb2afeca3

Purchase Clothing and we receive a portion of the proceeds: http://www.zazzle.com/darrylandamanda

Buy Coffee and we receive $5 per bag of coffee purchased: https://justlovecoffee.com/nelsonadoption

Every bit helps! Won't you consider helping us?

-Darryl

Homestudy Approval!!!

2012-01-15T17:02:00.000-08:00

We received an email this last Friday that our homestudy was approved! This is very exciting. Our paperwork should be in the mail. As soon as we receive the paperwork we can start the process of getting everything notarized and certified. When our Dossier is finally done we can officially be on the waiting list for a referral. This is really a big step. It's also the last thing we have any form of control over. After we turn this in it's all waiting.

Homestudy complete... well sort of

2012-01-11T00:12:00.000-08:00

We received our completed home study in the mail today. We were very excited to see the envelope. SO I ripped it open and started reading. Which I had already done at least twice during the revisions part. I noticed they spelled my maiden name wrong... in every section of the report that it appears. Even when it is attached to one of my parents names. I have no idea how that got missed when we were correcting all of the other misspellings with the first two drafts. So I sent the email tonight letting the home study agency know and hopefully it's a quick and easy fix.

On the positive side I do have all of the paper work done for our Dossier. I am just waiting on some licenses from Holt and depending on how long that takes we will need to print off the first page of our new tax report. After that we start the process of sending the Dossier to get authenticated by the state and the US and Thai embassies.

I am excited the home study is done??? Please pray that there won't be any delays and we can get this Dossier to Holt to send to Thailand by March. If it's not done by then it won't get submitted until June I believe.

Completely honest post

2011-12-20T20:49:00.000-08:00

Well it's Christmas time and I couldn't be happier. I love Christmas. I love celebrating the birth of Jesus and teaching my kids about it. I love baking and watching Christmas movies. I love our church celebrations. I just love all of it. Some people get caught up in the business but that doesn't bother me. If we are to busy to enjoy it we are missing the point. I am looking forward to the someday when we will get to celebrate Christmas and teach the joy of this season to another child.

I spent today baking all day while the kids played. This allowed me a lot of time to think and pray through some things I've been working through lately. When we started this process a friend who has adopted before told me the process would challenge us in ways we never imagined. I believed her but wasn't sure were God would bring about those challenges. I knew the wait would be hard but we knew that going into the process. So far God has challenged me with the question that keeps coming up on every form we fill out... would we accept medically challenged children and which ones would we accept. This is harder than you would think because if God gave us a child from my body with any challenges I would love that child so it feels very unnatural saying "no, I don't want that child please leave that one without a parent". I was unable to mark no to most things on the list of medical conditions without feeling convicted. After much discussion with God I have come to the point of saying God if that is the child you bless us with than I will not turn the child away. This may be God preparing me for our referral or it may just be God showing me He wants complete control in this adoption. I don't know which and I no longer worry about that. God will decide.

One other thing I've been praying about quite a bit lately is the reaction of our friends throughout this process. Yes, on the outside all our friends say they are supportive. However, there are different reactions to different things people don't agree with. Anything from our decision to adopt from another country instead of America right down to the way we have to raise money to cover the cost. I wrote a blog about why we chose to adopt from a foreign country earlier. In a nutshell... because God asked us to. This is His plan for us not His plan for you. If you are convicted about adopting in America that is wonderful. God asks people to do different things that's how he gets all his work done. Everyone has different jobs and different callings. As for the fund raising if you don't like it ignore it. We are going to need around $25,000 to cover the adoption. When you give birth to a child insurance covers most of it and the rest you can usually pay off month by month. That's not the case with adoption. We have to come up with the money before we can travel to Thailand to pick up our child. About 1/4 of it we have saved already from just tightening the budget and using my retirement from when I worked. As soon as our home study is complete I will be applying for every grant I can find on Google. I am confident that since God has called us to do this HE will provide and so far He has every step of the way. And He just keeps showing me every time I think there is no way we can save for the adoption that month because of something unexpected, like blowing a tire on my car, God provides more hours at my part time job. We, of course are still going to ask for your financial support but that's only because to us that is a really big number and every little bit helps.

So from our friends we ask for prayer that we will not grow weary in this process. I ask for prayer for more emotional toughness when we do get hurt by things people say because this is going to happen now and after we have our child with us. I also ask that if you don't agree with something keep it to yourself. This is not what God has called you to it's what He has called us to do.

Adoption Home Study

2011-11-07T12:31:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was National Adoption Sunday. It was also the first meeting for our home study. The meeting went very well. The questions were what we expected from the paperwork we had already filled out. Both children did very well with few interruptions. Our homestudy worker was very helpful and you could tell she really enjoys her job and has a heart for orphans. We have our second appointment next week and after that it should only be about 2 weeks until the homestudy is complete. Then we get to complete our Dossier and start the process of waiting some more. :)

Patience

2011-11-01T22:15:00.000-07:00

So some days I am better about waiting during this process than others. Today was not one of my good patient days. I started the morning with another email from Holt about the flooding. It's nice to have the constant updates from them but it also just really makes me want to go get our child and bring them home. I can only imagine what it's going to feel like once we actually have a child assigned to us and I have a picture and a profile of our child. I have also been reading a book about Thailand recently which again just makes me want to go get our child. The verse I constantly hear in my head on these days is "Be still and know that I am God". God knew about the flooding and he knows when we are going to be able to go pick up our child. He has everything planned out.

Our homestudy agent called today and we have our first 2 interviews scheduled. I am excited and nervous all at the same time. I am excited to be getting things done but nervous to meet one of the first people that can stop this process or let it go forward. Prayers would be appreciated.

Flooding in Thailand

2011-10-29T23:55:00.000-07:00

For the past few weeks we have been receiving email updates from Holt about the flooding in Thailand. It's the worst flooding they have had in 50 years there. Many of their Holt families have been displaced. Holt is a very involved organization and they are doing their best to ensure the safety of all their families and help out as many other people as possible. This is causing delays of course for the families that have been ready to travel. Please pray for the families that are waiting to go pick up their children and also for the MANY people affected in Thailand.
We are still waiting for our adoption study to continue. Last I heard from the coordinator with our local agency she was working on getting our file together. We have turned in all the paperwork she needs she just has to get the fingerprint reports back and other time consuming things done. Hopefully we will hear back soon though so we can move forward.

Thai program acceptance

2011-09-14T00:09:00.000-07:00

Today I got the email that we had been accepted in the Thai adoption program through Holt. I actually deleted the email the first time because it went to my junk mail and I didn't see the name till after I hit delete. So I had to email her and ask her to resend the email because I deleted her first one! She immediately resent it and I just about fell off my chair when I realized what the email was. We just sent the application last week and they had already reviewed it and sent it to the proper country adoption program. About 5 min. later I received an email from the director of the Thai program welcoming us to the Thai program. We are VERY excited to be officially starting the process now. We have a phone interview tomorrow with the director of the Thai program. The next step is to get our homestudy done. We have do to that through Catholic Social Services. The lady that runs that program seemed very nice when I talked with her and I hope to hear from her soon to schedule our 1st appt. That process takes on average 3 months I am told. We are attempting to gather all of our paperwork right now. There are so many pieces of paperwork we need to gather. It's kinda weird though to basically sum up our lives in paperwork.
That is our exciting news for now. God is so good to get us this far. Every piece that falls into place is one step closer to our next child.

God's plans are always perfect

2011-08-28T15:28:00.000-07:00

Well so much has happened since our last post almost 1 year ago. It took 11 months but the house finally went through. In June of this year we closed on our house and moved into our own home. It was a long process but completely worth it.
On the adoption front things have changed there as well. In the year we have waited the waiting times for China have gotten even longer. God has been preparing our hearts for a change and I (Amanda) started researching other countries that need adoption families. I came across Thailand and decided to research that country. I discovered we are already old enough (no waiting till we are 30!) and they have a great need for adoptive families. As I was researching Thailand I decided to check up on China just to see what was going on with that country. Well the 2 adoption agencies we were looking at using have closed standard adoptions to China. I decided to research more on why there are so many orphans in Thailand. I forgot about the major tsunami there in 2004. That left not only orphans at the time but also so many families can't afford to raise children now with the devastation left by the disaster. They also have a huge child trafficking problem in that country as a result of the poverty and desperation of some families. As I was researching this, I felt very strongly that God was moving us toward that country. So I requested an application from Holt International. When we received the application we found many more things that were perfect for our family. The average wait time is 12-36 months and the average age at adoption is 18 months - 3 years. That puts this next child around 2-3 years younger than Makayla. Which is exactly what we were hoping for in the beginning. We wanted to be able to raise all of our children together. It is important to us that they can play together and grow up together. When were looking at China it was looking more like Makayla would anywhere from 6-8 years older than our next one. That was a little more of an age difference than we were hoping for.
Everything is looking like it is falling into place for us to change countries. At first, it took some prayer on my part because I had wanted to adopt from China for so long. Slowly God showed me that with a 5 year waiting period just for placement that obviously He has enough parents for the babies in China and He wants us to move on and help other children. So after a slight redirection from God we have received our application and are hoping to have all of our paperwork done so we can send the completed application to Holt by the end of the week. We are asking for prayer as we continue our journey. Prayer for our family, the adoption agency, our future child, and also for the finances to complete the adoption. We are extremely excited to begin this new direction in our journey.

Update from Darryl

2010-09-11T16:06:00.000-07:00

Well as Amanda posted earlier this summer we are in the stage of getting our financial requirements in order for our adoption. Part of that was buying a house. We have since placed an offer on a house. We are waiting for the official word but it looks like the deal is going to go through!!! We are very excited...first off because we'll have a house...but secondly because this just means we are one step closer to picking up our little girl from overseas!

Please continue to pray for us in this adventure! Also please consider being a financial sponsor! The cost of international adoption is extremely high! Over the next two years or so we will be trying to raise anywhere from $20K-$30K. Ever little amount helps! We promise to put the donation in a separate savings account that we have set up for the adoption, any extra money that is raised will be donated to a ministry that deals with international adoption.

Thank You...Blessings!

Darryl

Progress towards the goal

2010-07-14T23:42:00.000-07:00

After doing some research into some of China's financial requirements we discovered we needed to increase our assets. We decided the only for us to increase our assets to their standards would be to buy a house. We currently live in a church provided house which is such a blessing but does nothing for our assets. This is a huge and exciting decision for us. We are praying for the right house. We have been looking at houses for the past week or so and it's quite the process. So this is our next step in the process. Once we get the house situation settled then we are one more obstacle closer to picking up our little girl.
As it turns out our having to wait to turn 30 is going to be a good thing. We will have time to find a house and get the finances settled there. We are hoping to find a house sooner rather than later so we can go back to saving for the adoption rather than saving for a down payment on a house.
Please keep us in your prayers as we enter yet another new stage.

Adoption Account

2010-06-18T15:51:00.000-07:00

We just went and opened our separate adoption account. It's in the form of a savings account so we can get some interest on it too. Any money that we are given, we fundraise, or we save off of our pay will be put in that account which is totally separate from our regular account. We felt this was the best way to keep the finances from overlapping. So now have no fear if you choose to help us along our way we are not spending that money in any other area of our lives. We greatly appreciate what anyone wants to give us and would never want that to be for us. It is for our little girl. And in case anyone was wondering we are putting any extra from our own checks into this account also. We are not expecting other people to do this for us. We just know that there is no way we could save enough on our own.

The other nice thing about having a separate account is if God decides not to give us our little girl we can now donate whatever we have put into that account to either Steven Curtis Chapman's fund or to a couple the adoption agency may know of that is close to their goal. Of course, we are praying this doesn't happen but we can't know what God has in store for us.

Good News and Bad News

2010-06-08T23:48:00.000-07:00

We just got a phone call from the adoption agency about our application. The good news is we are approved on the American side of the process. However, we have already hit our first hurdle. We aren't old enough according the Chinese government. We have to be 30 to pick up our child in China. I did know that but I thought we could get the process going on this side. The adoption agency said they won't let us go any further until Darryl (since he's the youngest) is 29 and 3 months. This does still put our total time within the original estimate of up to 5 years to complete the process. This just means we will have to be very quick on our end of things getting paperwork in and mailing checks as soon as Darryl is old enough.
So where does this leave us now? Well for the next 2 years we will be working hard to get all the money together so that as soon as Darryl is old enough we can go through the process quickly. We hopefully won't have to wait to gather the money before moving through each step. It also means we have time to learn some Chinese history so we can teach our daughter about where she came from. We also plan on starting to get involved with the Chinese adoptive community up here. We apparently have a pretty good size community of adoptive families up here so it will be nice to have that support system. The Dr. I used to work for is going to get us in touch with some families she knows that have gone through the adoption process already.
So the next 2 years are all about preparation for us. We were of course disappointed because we want to go pick up our little girl now but God has a purpose for everything. He is ultimately in control of this process and knows exactly which little girl He has for us and we can't rush His timing. I just keep praying for our little girl and for her family that God will keep her safe and will comfort her parents since I can't imagine having to give up my child. Please continue to pray for us and for our little girl wherever she may be. Also if you have any great ideas for fund-raising that we could do we would love your suggestions.

Family Introduction

2010-05-26T14:06:00.000-07:00

I figured that it would be a good thing for you all to know who we are:

Darryl: (Blue Shirt) Husband/Father/Jr High Youth Pastor

Amanda: (gorgeous woman with long hair) Wife/Stay at Home Mom/Nurse

Gavin: (Shaggy headed one-3 years old) Son/Big Brother/Nap time fighter

Makayla: (gorgeous woman with no hair-9 months) Daughter/Little Sister/Stealer of Brother's Toys

Well that is our family...i think we have room for one more!

Please support our cause!

It's a crazy thing to think about...

2010-05-25T20:22:00.000-07:00

I caught myself earlier today daydreaming about the day when we get to fly to China (or where ever we end up adopting from) and pick up our child that we are adopting. I imagined holding her in my arms for the first time and looking into her eyes and telling her that I love her...it was then that i was reminded of the amazing love that Jesus Christ offers us. The picture of adoption is so much like the picture of Jesus Christ coming into our lives and saving us! When we call out to Jesus He grabs us up in His arms and looks into our lives and says "I love you!"

I am humbled on a daily basis by the undeserved love that i receive from Jesus...I want to be able to provide just a glimpse of that love to a little orphan who has no other option. My prayer is that through our adoption we can provide a stable God-fearing home for her to grow up in under the teaching of God's Word. My biggest prayer is that while she is living with us she will come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and get to spend an eternity in Heaven with Him.

Would you help us achieve this dream for this little girl who we don't even know yet. This adoption process is going to be expensive and without your prayer support and financial support i know we could not do it. Please consider adding us to your prayer list and possibly donating to the fund! (The average adoption from China can cost anywhere from $15,000 to $35,000) We need your help and support! You can donate by clicking on the Donate Now button on the side of the blog or by sending a check to us:

2311 Chandalar Drive
Anchorage, AK 99504

Why we chose International adoption

2010-05-21T00:54:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be nice to let everyone know why we chose adoption and why we chose international adoption specifically. Whenever I tell people that we want to adopt a little girl from China the most common question I get is, Why China? usually followed by why not a domestic adoption. We are not anti domestic adoption at all. It's just not where God is leading us. He works in everyone's hearts differently and for us it's China. I feel it is pretty clear that this is where he is leading us.
Long before Darryl and I met God had been working on our hearts about adopting someday. Specifically about adopting a little girl from China. After we met, we discussed the idea of adopting someday. I definitely felt that it was God's doing that he brought us together and had been working on our hearts separately but we were still in the someday stage. Shortly after we got engaged, I had the opportunity to work in a wonderful Pediatric office as a nurse. It just so happens that one of the Dr.'s there is Chinese. Her father came from China when he was younger. She has the unique opportunity to be the Dr. for many of the families in Alaska who chose to adopt from China. So throughout my working experience I was constantly reminded that this was really something I wanted to pursue. Every time a family would bring in a little Chinese girl I would stop and think about the girl God had in store for us and pray for her and her family (even though most likely she wasn't born yet).
Well, over the last 4 years we were blessed with 2 beautiful children. After our daughter was born we both really felt that we were done having biological children. Over the next few months God continued to work in our hearts and we came to the decision it was time to pursue the adoption idea a little more aggressively. We found a great adoption agency (through the suggestion of a friend) that is a Christian based organization. I have read through their website and read stories from families who have adopted through them and feel that they truly care about the orphans and the families that want to adopt them.
We both realize that this is something God has to do through us. International adoption is pretty expensive and has no guarantees. The Chinese government could decide for no apparent reason to us that they do not want us to have a little girl. However, this does not scare me. I really feel that this is supposed to happen for us. So maybe some people would think it's foolish of us but I like to think of it as faith.

Here we go!

2010-05-20T10:32:00.000-07:00

We are officially in the process! Paperwork has been sent off! It's all so real right now!

This also mean that we are officially starting our fundraising campaign! An international adoption is not cheap and we only way we can take part in it is through the support of our freinds and family! If you feel led to please donate towards the cause! You can give online by clicking the DONATE button on the side bar or by sending us a check:

Darryl and Amanda Nelson
2311 Chandalar Drive
Anchorage, AK 99504