Two Years In The Making (Nathan)

Stacy and I attended The CAFO Summit in 2014.

It was exactly two years ago this week when Stacy and I decided to adopt. Our family was in Guatemala on a mission's trip, and our team decided to spend the last few days, relaxing, at a beach. Both Stacy and I had been asked numerous times if we were ever going to adopt, while Stacy was open to the idea, I was not. I thought my reasons for not adopting were valid such as it cost too much and we can't afford to support another person. Also, I had grandiose dreams and visions of becoming early empty nesters. In hindsight, my reasons now seem selfish and immature.

After saying "yes" to adoption, it took another six weeks before we decided the country we would adopt from and the agency we were going to adopt through. These are critical decisions to make and will determine how long the process will take. We decided to stay away from Africa and Eastern Europe as the adoption process was slow, unpredictable, and in some places corrupt.

At one point we thought we would adopt from Haiti, but in the end, we chose Costa Rica. Our family loves the Latino culture. We have traveled to Guatemala (all five of us), Mexico (Stacy), and the Dominican Republic (Nathan) over the past few years. Latinos possess strong familial relationships and assume the responsibility to take care of one another. These are traits that are also important to our family.

As we continued the process, there were other important decisions to make. Would we adopt children with known physical or mental disabilities? Would we adopt older children? Would we adopt a sibling group? Would we adopt a boy or a girl? We made each decision after much prayer and deliberation. After all, these decisions were life-altering choices for us and the child(ren) we would bring into our family.

In the end, we chose to adopt two sisters, "D" (12) and "E" (8). Some of the decisions we intentionally made were to adopt an older sibling group of girls. In a later post, I will share why we made these decisions.

In three days, we will meet our daughters, in person, for the first time. We have been able to speak with them, via Skype, on three different occasions. Each time the conversations are longer and filled with greater anticipation of when we can meet face to face.

These last two years have been filled with many ups and downs, hurry up and slow down, tears of joy, and angst. Each day that passed meant that we were closer to meeting our daughters, but also represented another day that our family was incomplete.

We cannot wait to share our daughters with you! They are precious and very beautiful. We are not allowed to post any pictures until the final court date when they officially become a Tatman! Until then we will continue to update you on our journey and stay in Costa Rica.

Are you thinking about adopting? Here are some great resources to help get you started:

• Loving Shepherd Ministries' Assessment Form will help you identify which countries you are eligible to adopt from. 
• The CAFO Summit is an annual conference filled with all things in the world of orphan care. Stacy and I discovered our agency and country at this conference in 2014. 
• Lifeline Children's Services is the adoption agency we decided to use. We would highly recommend them to any family thinking about adoption. 
• There are many children in Indiana's foster system who are waiting to be adopted. 
• Gateway Woods completed our home study.