Then...

On March 14th, 2008 we sent off our application to begin to work with Children’s Hope International (CHI). If approved, they send you a detailed packet of information about all of the programs they work with, an explanation of the adoption process, and the fees associated with each country’s program. On April 2, we got an email that we were approved by their program director, and on April 7th that packet of information arrived in the mail. Justin and I read it all over and over and over again. The next step was in our hands. We needed to commit ourselves to the Russian program and send in the first payment to really get the ball rolling. Again, we were asking each other.. Are we sure? Do we really understand the risks? Were we really ready to give up on the idea of me getting pregnant again? Would we be taking anything away from Brady and Madison? etc… For three days straight we rehashed all of the conversations we had had over the past two months, and on April 10th we mailed off our first payment and commitment to move forward.

On a side note, we have involved Brady and Madison in our decision from the very beginning. They both have been asking for a brother or sister for quite some time. When we posed the idea to them that perhaps instead of a brother or sister coming from mommy’s belly that maybe he or she would be coming from an orphanage. Brady caught on to what this meant right away. Madison on the other hand could not wrap her mind around the idea that a child may not have a mommy and a daddy to live with. We used portions of an informational video on The Cradle’s website to help them understand what adopting from an orphanage was like. Both Brady and Madison are excited to welcome their new brother or sister into our home. The problem they have is they wanted this to happen like YESTERDAY!