We are very excited to announce
this wonderful blessing to our lives. We have had an interesting
journey getting to this point, but sometimes the plan is not
what WE planned at all. Because we are about to travel this road
less traveled, we have encountered many questions. Some people
immediately ask, and some we could tell wanted to ask. Because
we think this is “God’s perfect plan” for us, we are very
excited to share our story. That is the main reason why we made
this website, so we can share this journey with our many friends
and family.
Why Adoption and Why China?
Well, the simple answer would be “Because God told us to, and
China is where our son or daughter is!!”. The more complex
answer would involve our long decision to finally have a child.
As many of you know, we have never thought children would be a
direct part of our lives, but little did we know, our hearts
would tell us otherwise. As you know, Shawna works with children
everyday, many with disabilities or worse yet, are from parents
that have lost their way and ended up in the foster system.
These everyday stories (shared with Ben every night), led us to
a decision to foster/adopt. Little did we know how broken the
foster system is, and how our desire to make a difference was
not going to happen. We applaud all the families that have
adopted through this system, but we weren’t able to do it. After
a heartbreaking journey with DSHS, we again thought maybe
children are not in our future. But, our hearts were saying
something different. After a couple more years of wondering
“if”, we decided to go for it again, the natural way. Well, that
didn’t quite work out either. And to be honest, our hearts have
always been drawn to the children that need a forever family,
not necessarily our own biolgical children. As husbands go, Ben
is the best, because he just wants me to be happy! I keep
telling him, he will be adding “World’s Best Daddy” to his
resume! We decided to do some research on domestic (open) and
international adoption. Little did we know how “open” domestic
adoptions are through private agencies. There were a few things
we didn’t want to endure, especially the birth mother’s right to
change her mind at anytime, even after the birth. Our hearts
have already been broken, so this was not going to be an option
for us. As we were researching international adoption, that’s
when God really spoke to us. We were at church, and the next
series was to focus on a book called “A Hole in our Gospel”. It
really dug in deep, focusing on what God wants us to do for Him
and for our “neighbors”. It especially focuses on the New
Testament, which essentially paves the path of WWJD. We are all
called to do different things, but our hearts were really drawn
to the 143 million orphans in the world. How heartbreaking to
know how poor other countries are, without clean water, a warm
home or worse yet having to give up your child because you can’t
feed them or provide them with simple health care. This is not a
big secret, but we really went through a moment of feeling how
very blessed we are living in the country we live in. It just
happened that we signed our contract with Great Wall China
Adoption a few weeks before we read this book and our hearts
started to REALLY ache for a child, and a child that needed a
forever family. Before we chose China, we looked through a long
list of agencies, and countries that we felt comfortable with.
Because we wanted a baby (under the age of 2), our best options
were China, Ethiopia or Rwanda. We also looked at a special
program called “Waiting Children”. This group of children have a
variety of physical differences that are sometimes very
expensive to manage in countries that don’t have health
care/insurance like we do in America. Which is one reason why
these babies are abandoned. Because China has a “1 child rule”,
they have encountered abandonment of mostly baby girls and
babies of all genders with “differences”. This has resulted in
China’s desire to take care of these children the best they can,
and adoption to other countries is a very thoughtful choice they
have fostered. Their adoption program is very predictable, and
very well managed. We kind of like that :) And, the Chinese
people take great pride in their culture and traditions, their
health, children and families. This is very comforting when
faced with the unknowns of prenatal care and biological
histories.
This is our story in a nutshell, we hope you are now as excited
as we are! If you ever have any questions about ANYTHING, please
ask. We are anxiously waiting, and we don’t want to do it alone! |
Shawna and Ben in Montana
Shawna and Ben in Spokane
Shawna and Ben at Cougar football game
Indi, our first born
Canyon, our second born |
