Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Adoptive Imperative Introduction


Friends, Family and Blog visitors,

We have exciting news to share with all of you and it's news we wish we could share with each of you in person or at least over the phone, but that seems a bit impossible as God has greatly blessed us through several moves with friends and family that span the globe…
We are planning to adopt a daughter from Poland! Our calling to adopt a child developed through prayer, research, and a desire to complete our family. Thus, we would like to welcome you to join us as we answer the call and make this journey: The Briggs' Family Adoptive Imperative.


Choosing to adopt is a radical decision. Add the fact that we are planning to adopt internationally AND that we are adopting for a 4th child and it just seems just plain illogical. Well, it is. There is not a lot of logic going on here. The truth is, God has called us all to a certain place for a certain reason and we are following in faith that this is all part of His plan. We cannot explain to you, we cannot rationalize our desire to have another child and in such an “unconventional” way; we can tell you that we pray every day and every night that He would give us the desires of His heart and this is where our hearts are leading. Sometimes not even we can believe this is really happening. As far as we know, we are still perfectly capable of having children biologically, and yet our desire is to adopt our 4th child, our youngest daughter.

If you’ve never felt the call to adopt, as we have not fully until recently, it is exceedingly difficult to imagine the feeling of desire and expectation for a child you already love, have never met and is not yours biologically or by relation.


Most importantly, we believe that deciding to be a parent at all means deciding to accept whatever may come; that any child, biological or adopted, can be born with or develop any number of issues whether medical, mental or emotional and that as a parent, your role is to love and support them come what may.


Our adopted daughter may not make the honor roll ever, she may not be the best reader in her Kindergarten class, she may not be a tennis-pro or even a satisfactory swimmer, but she might be. She may not cure cancer, fight injustice from a courtroom, fight for our freedom or balance the company books, but she might. Whatever God has for her, we’re thrilled about already. She’ll be herself and she’ll be ours and that will be our dream come true.


We have put this adventure in God’s hands. Adoption is costly in a lot of ways. Adoption requires a lot of money, paperwork, prayer, preparation and most importantly, support. We will have to do fundraising, we will have social workers calling and asking some of you about us as parents and as a family unit, we will be emotional at times during the process when things are uncertain. As our initial application to adopt from Poland has just been accepted, we are prayerfully preparing for the next step, which is submitting our agreement contract to Saint Mary Adoptions in Charlotte, NC along with the contract fee. We will proceed with that step once the required funds are secured and not before, though we are anxious to proceed. Part of surrendering this journey in adoption means waiting and watching for His provision and timing and not relying on your own.


Jaime is going to do her best to keep everyone updated on progress and fundraising efforts through our newly created blog adoptiveimperative.blogspot.com. But, as she is obviously busy with the three little ones we have already, there may be times you feel out of the loop or wonder where things stand. We’d be so comforted and honored to know you care! Call us, send a text or post a comment. We would LOVE to chat anytime.


Love,

Bobby and Jaime

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