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The experts say there’s a honeymoon period after you bring your adopted children home. This is a period of time when everything is going great, everyone is having fun, the issues you have to deal with are at a minimum….until some time later when the real, raw emotions come out. We’re still on the honeymoon phase – we haven’t hit that next phase yet. For the most part, things are going great. We hope this time doesn’t end, but have to face the facts that it will. Actually, we’re trying to bring on the end of the honeymoon period by picking away at the scabs by talking about things a little bit at a time – so we can start to handle the fears, sadness, worries and other issues that our girls need to face. Until then, enjoy some more pictures!

How can some new children come into your life and I love them almost immediately? How can I see them as daughters so fast? Some may say this is not possible, but I think that God gives this ability to some. No, that doesn’t make anyone better than another, just different. I already see Jessica and Erika as daughters. To me, they are the same as Holly. I would suggest that they are not really new to our family. God had this planned out at the beginning. He knew that Jessica and Erika would be our daughters, so this isn’t really a new thing, is it? These hurting, innocent girls need to be overwhelmed with love, compassion, caring, time and attention because they are children of God and because they are our children. They deserve everything our biological children have had.

They’re here!!

Click HERE for the proof!

OK, I’ll spill the beans.

We’re adopting Jessica (13 yrs old) and Erika (9 yrs old). They came from Colombia, via Minnetonka. I’ve written in the past about our friends, the Hedstroms. They adopted 4 children from Colombia to go with their existing 5 biological children. They’ve been making headway, but still struggling for a year and a half trying to make it work. Hopefully, we’re going to relieve some of their pressure by adopting the 2 girls.

This is definitely not what we had planned. It’s what God had planned. We are very happy to have Jessica and Erika come into our family. We’ll be picking them up tomorrow afternoon and can’t wait!

I added some pictures of them – check them out.

We can see the finish line!!!!

We should have our children on Saturday. No, we’re not going to the Philippines. Part of me is sad about that. I did have hopes of adopting from CSC, but God has different plans for us. The way all of this came together is clear to us that He is in control and that it was God that made it all happen.

We are adopting 2 girls from Colombia. More accurately, they were born in Colombia and previously adopted about a year and a half ago. They have been living less than 10 miles from us! I drive within 1 mile of their house every day I work. It didn’t work out with the family who adopted them so they decided to do a dissolution (most people call it a disruption). This was not a failure on anyone’s part. The family who adopted the girls made amazing progress with them. It is astonishing how much they’ve accomplished in just a year and a half. For various reasons, the adoption just didn’t work out. I think it’s better to look at it this way: the family who adopted them from Colombia were meant to be a foster care family until our family was ready to bring them home. If you’ve read the first few blogs, you’ll remember that we originally wanted to adopt children from Colombia, but would have been denied due to indiscretions in my past. Though we tried, and failed to see if there was a way for us to adopt from Colombia, God had His plans put into action. We tried, and failed to adopt from the Philippines, again, because God had different plans for us.

I’ll put some pictures up after Saturday. If you see me in person, you can be sure I’ll be a proud father with pictures on my person at all times – in the Palm® of my hand.

It’s amazing how fast this went in the end. From a phone call to children in 3 weeks! We knew about the possibility of us adopting these girls in the summer, but that was put off and we were resigned to it not happening. We weren’t trying to adopt the girls. We were hoping and praying that it would work out for them to integrate in the other family and for them to work through their issues. But, we had that possibility of adopting them in the back of our mind for some time. Many of you know the family I’m talking about and also know some of what they’ve been through. Do not look down on them or judge them. You really need to realize how long they’ve tried to make their adoption work. I doubt if any of us could have done what they have for so long. Be glad for what they have accomplished with these girls. Pray for their family to heal after this loss, because it will affect them for a long time.