What to Say?

I've been contemplating writing a blog for some time now. I spend so much time reading others blogs and commenting that I thought that I should start my own. The reason I have waited for so long is that I can't really write. You may ask, you can't write???? You are writing right now. However, after reading many many blogs there are ones that I keep coming back to because of the way the author writes, the things they write about, and the pictures they take of their kids. Well, my life is pretty average, I don't write in a way that is humorous, inspirational or insightful, and I don't really want to post pictures of my kids for everyone to see. So we will see how my blog writing goes.

For the most part, I am starting this blog to begin to document a new stage in my family's life. We are seriously considering adoption. I have always mentioned adoption to my husband, through getting married, getting degrees, working jobs, having kids, but we never really seriously considered it. Then January 12, 2010 happened. To most people it was just another day, but for me when the earthquake in Haiti happened it was like something clicked for me and I couldn't stop thinking about helping. I googled blogs in Haiti and came across the Livesays, http://livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/, a family who lives in Haiti and has helped many families there. They were there when the earthquake happened and have been back many times since and are hoping to return there soon. They inspired me to help. My first donation was to their daughter Paige who was running a marathon to help build houses in Haiti. Donating money didn't feel like enough though.
I wanted to be able to help a specific child. I then started researching orphanages in Haiti and came across God's Littlest Angels Orphanage. My nights were consumed with reading all I could get my hands on. I let everyone know about what they could do to help Haiti. I still felt helpless. A little girl named Jerrensia pulled at my heart. I wanted to adopt her. I talked to my husband. At first he said no way. Now even though this wasn't a surprise to him that I would ask, he was not ready to adopt. Then one day he came to me and said, Am I the only obstacle standing in your way? I was like, well yeah that and money. He said ok let's do it. It took a few months of research but I found out that Jerrensia has been granted a medical visa and she was going to be helped by a family in Michigan. She had been born with club feet and seemed to be paralyzed by the waist down. When adoptions finally started up again in Haiti I looked at adopting and found out it would cost about $12,000. We didn't have $12,000. I then began thinking about the children in our own county that didn't have families. Were there any? I didn't know. We live in a very affluent community and I wasn't sure. I started researching adoption in our county and found through the Livesays blog, a blog written by Kristen Howerton, http://www.rageagainsttheminivan.com/. She is local in my community and I read all I could on her blog about her fostering to adopt journey with her first child. It turned out that she was going to be at the same church the Livesays were going to be at the following weekend up here where I live. I decided that I needed to go listen to the Livesays speak. I met Tara and Troy as well as Kristen. It was a short visit but made quite and impact on me. Soon after going to the church, I went to the orientation class through the county and then went on to take the foster/adopt classes. My husband is now in the process of taking them.

I am not sure where this is going to lead us, but I am hoping it will lead us into something great that we would never have had if it weren't for fostering/adopting.