Four years is an amazing small amount of time in the grand scheme of things. I am 38 years old now and four years is nothing. A president can serve a whole term. You can go to college and graduate. It’s longer than most celebrity marriages. People do not even keep cars that long anymore. I have had friends move across the country and have developed new friendships that I hope do not end.
Four years ago Theresa and I started on a journey together. The exact date was November 15, 2012. This journey has had its ups and downs, twist and turns, and curve balls thrown at us. It is seen the birth of our daughter, Ella, one of the most beautiful gifts I have ever received. We have also had tears of frustration, fear and of joy. This journey has been about the dream of adopting two children. And it is almost over. We have officially signed our Letter of Acceptance for two children from China, you know them as Charlotte and Jack. This is one of the last steps in the adoption process (not the last though, there is still more paper work we are filling out). We are a matter of a few months from seeing, holding, and kissing our two children from China.
Four years has taught me a lot about life. The most important thing is patience. Adoption by no means a quick process. It has taught me to have trust in a great many of things. Trust that in the end, it was all going to work out even when I was sure things were falling apart. My prayer life has gotten stronger because of this journey. It has also taught me to be humble. Before this, I never accepted handouts. But I learned to do this. These have come in many forms form buying bundles of lollipops, tickets for gift baskets. You guys have bought cookbooks and stuffed animals. You wonderful people have given us many items to sell at our many yard sales. A group even had a Dinner and dance to help us on our finical journey. Some of you have given a shoulder to lean on when we were at our breaking points. Some have helped guide us in the process of filling out the many pages of paperwork we have had to fill out. You have given us your time and your prayers, two items I cannot thank you enough for. Many of you have also been recruited by us to do paperwork in the form of references.
I have no idea what will happen in the next four years. I know that we will start the next chapter of our life. It will be nice to move forward with our lives. We have been here for so long, I am not sure where we will begin, but I do know that we will be one of the happiest families you will ever see.
The past month has been challenging for us financially - long story short we ended up having to spend $12,000 to fully replace our roof. Because of this Theresa and I have decided to create a GoFundMe account to help on this last leg of the journey. The link for the site is here and there is more information about the financial strain that we have right now: https://www.gofundme.com/bringing-jack-charlotte-home