The journey of adoption

This entry has been waiting to be written for a few months now and as I think about it today I think there is no time like the present. So let me share a little bit with you about a journey we are taking right now, the journey of adoption...

I have to admit that before having Jennifer I never really gave adoption much thought. It was never really something that I thought Bill and I would do, it was something that was never really in our hearts. How that has changed and it all began with our sweet little girl, Jennifer. As you all know we found out that Jennifer had Down syndrome when she was about two weeks old. The days after finding that out were the days that our hearts began to grow for adoption. I remember one specific morning sitting in our living room, all the curtains were drawn, we were all still in our jammies, Bill was rocking Jennifer on his chest and the first conversation about adoption came up. In those moments we talked about how it broke our hearts that some families would receive the news that we had received only days earlier and decide they could not live with their baby. Although they probably would love their baby, there would simply be something in them that couldn't care for that baby forever. As we looked at Jennifer we simply saw our daughter (we still do), we have never or will ever look at her and see Down syndrome. It was in the those moments during that conversation that we decided that someday we would adopt. We would adopt a baby with Down syndrome, we would open our arms to a baby that someone else had decided they maybe could not take care of. We decided we would love that baby as our own, that we would simply continue on with life and their diagnosis would not be a problem, not in our house. That conversation took place almost three and half years ago. Over the course of the past three years we have gone back to that conversation, wondering when and if it would really ever happen. Well shortly after the beginning of the year we began to talk about our family growing. Jennifer was almost three and the time seemed right to add another McLeland to the craziness we call our home. After much discussion and prayer, lots and lots of prayer, we decided that instead of "having" a baby, God was calling to adopt a baby. So over the past few months we have been filling out paper work, filling out more paper work, doing some visits to our adoption agency and last week we had our home study. And the waiting game can begin. It is amazing to me how my heart can ache for a baby that I do not even know yet, a baby that someone else will give birth to, it is truly a God thing. Something only He could do and something that only He will fulfill. Over the past few months Bill and I have talked that God knows exactly who our baby is, only he knows when our baby will be born and where our baby will come from. We are very excited to meet that little baby and welcome them into our home, into our lives. I can't wait to find out all that our baby will have to teach us. We will keep you posted as the time comes for our family to grow from three to four. The journey may be long but what a sweet journey it is. And who knows our journey could only be starting!

Hate to write and not put on any pictures so here are a few...

Playing outside while it was still nice, sadly those days have gone away.Helping dad work on the kitchen. Our stove use to be in that hole, Jennifer thought it was a great place to play, she was kind of disappointed when the cabinet went away.

Shoveling the snow already! The sad thing is that we are just getting starting!