It’s been more than three years since we formally embarked on the journey of adoption. We filled out the initial application with our adoption agency in September 2018. But long before this first formal step, the vision for growing our family through adoption was sparked in us. Even before we married in April 2000, Rod and I knew adopting children would be part of our family story. We knew we wanted older kids and a sibling group because these are the kids who are hardest to place with adoptive families. We held that vision for nearly 20 years before the timing was right to make it reality.

Along the way, we prayed for our children, wherever they were, and asked God to bring them home to us. At one point, the Holy Spirit whispered that these were children of promise. God had promised that they would be grafted into our family, and he would make it come to pass. And their names would be Joshua and Jordan. I didn’t know if these names were literal or figurative representations of God’s promise to us, but I stored these details in my heart. We still hadn’t even applied for adoption.

Officially, we asked for 2-3 siblings ages 0-10. This was the child profile we were approved for by our social worker and submitted to Haiti in our official dossier. Seven months after submitting our dossier we received the news that we had been matched. A 10-year-old boy and his 8-year-old sister would join our family. We were ecstatic.

They sent us their official files, which were predictably thin on background details. But it didn’t matter. We knew these were our kids, our children of promise. The next steps included official letters and documents to formally accept the match and move the adoption forward. Then on September 12th, 2020, we met our precious children over Zoom for the first time. They dressed up to meet their new family. My smile was likely big enough to be scary.

It’s been more than a year since that first meeting and we’re painfully waiting for the paperwork to be finished so we can bring our kids home. In the meantime, our kids had birthdays and we’ve interacted over Zoom as often as the orphanage is able to facilitate. We feel the discouragement of the wait acutely. Yet, we know with absolute certainty that these are OUR children – Joshua and Jordan. God promised and he is faithful to make it so. And so we keep walking out each long step of the paperwork process until the day they tell us to travel.