There are big changes afoot at the Yancey house. Life has taken us on a huge change of course. I thought our little family was complete after Silas was born. Heck, I thought it was complete after Maren was born. Just recently I was starting to feel pretty good about life with four kids. I was settling into a good routine and I was feeling in control again. I should have know something would hit. Anytime I start to feel like I'm getting into the groove of things some kind of change comes my way. I'm rambling. I'll just spit it out. We are going to adopt a child. Crazy huh? I think so.
Back in January I was reading a blog about a family that was adopting two children from China. Both children had achondroplasia like Silas. This feeling came over me that Ben and I needed to adopt a child with achondroplasia. I laughed and thought, well that was a crazy thought. Several more times the prompting came. I really tried to ignore it thinking that it was just my imagination or something like that. As I think back, the promptings came more subtly months before, I just ignored them. Then BOOM! It was like I was slapped upside the head. I know it's called the "still, small voice" but at that moment I felt like I was being screamed at. "Wake up and pay attention! This is what YOU are supposed to do!" I was dumbfounded to say the least. I sat on these thoughts for awhile. I decided to share the blog I had read with Ben. He didn't say much. I finally told Ben what I had felt. I expected him to laugh or tell me I was nuts. Nope, he said that he had had the same promptings. He first felt it when we were at the geneticist last May. So, after much prayer, we decided to follow the promptings and explore the world of adoption.
I messaged a woman I met through the Utah LPA (Little Peolple of America). She and her husband live in the same city as we do and they both have achondroplasia. They have adopted two little girls, also achon. I asked her where to start. She told me to talk to the adoption liaison at the LPA. I sent her an e-mail and was granted access to their facebook page with photos of waiting children with dwarfism. As I looked through picture after picture of darling children with dwarfism, my heart melted. I was in love with every single one of them and thought if I could afford it and had a big enough house, I would bring them all home. I started looking at different countries and what they required for adoption, China totally overwhelmed me. I also thought about all of the issues that come with adoption, bonding, medical issues and so on. My head has been spinning. I finally thought that the younger the child, the easier it should be. While searching I kept coming back to the picture of Diego. I really felt that he could be the one that is waiting for us. Ben and I made it a matter of prayer and we both spent time at the temple. We both felt good about our decision and we requested more information. Diego Alejandro is a beautiful little 2 year old boy who has achondroplasia just like Silas. He lives in a foster home in Colombia. Long story short, we have signed up with Heartsent Adoptions in California. They were the listing agency for Diego. I'm leaving out details that hopefully I will remember later. Ben and I are working on getting our home study done. We have been filling out tons of paperwork and scrambling to figure out how we will afford this. I've traded 9 months of morning sickness for 9 months of paperwork. Things are going good so far. We should know pretty soon if Colombia will allow us to adopt Diego. If they give their nod of approval, he will be reserved for us. Meaning that no one can adopt him while we are working on things. This is definitely not the path that I would have chosen in life. Once again I am reminded that I am not in charge. Ben and I are taking a huge leap of faith and we know that everything will work out somehow. We also know that if we work hard Heavenly Father will help us to find the funds for our adoption. Wish us luck, because here we go!
