Our lives have been abundantly blessed.  We have challenging jobs that we love, teaching mathematics at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.  We were brought up in loving families, who have supported us throughout our lives.  Our family is healthy and we have the resources to live comfortably.  We have a wonderful network of friends with whom we can share our lives.  We have a big old house that keeps us happily busy, in spite of the high heating bills.  Best of all, we have a son Joseph, who has brought more joy to our lives than we could ever imagine.   In a fortunate country, we are among the truly fortunate. 

As rich as our lives have been, we recently began to feel as if something is missing.  As Joe grew older and became more independent, we got a sense that our family is incomplete.  This feeling gnawed at us for over a year.  While we were and continue to be happy with our lives, we started to consider the possibility of adding to our family through adoption.

A good friend of Jen's from graduate school first put the idea in our head when he and his wife adopted a beautiful little girl from India.  Their experience made us consider international adoption, but our personalities made us hesitate.  We're both very cautious, and it seemed risky, we couldn't do it.  In short, we were too afraid, and the process seemed overwhelming - where do you start?

Then we found out that our friends Melissa and Joe were adopting a son from Kazakhstan.  They navigated through all the paperwork and challenges involved in the process, and they kept us up to date as it went along.  In many ways, it felt like we were receiving a direct message from God: "Ok, so you two weren't able to put the plan in action on your own.  Here you go, then.  Just follow Melissa and Joe's plan and all will be well.  Now you don't have any excuses!"   No one can accuse us of acting quickly, however.  It still took us another 8 months to commit to the adoption journey. 

Melissa and Joe definitely blazed a trail for us.  Their son Sam came from Kazakhstan, and we found out through them how much the Kazak people love their children and how well they care for them, even in their baby houses.  Melissa and Joe used World Partners Adoption as their adoption agency and spoke very highly of the organization.  We have followed much the same path that they took, adopting a son from Kazakhstan, using World Partners and even choosing the same adoption coordinator to facilitate and help us through our adoption.

We began our adoption odyssey on March 20, 2003, when we embraced adoption and started down the road leading us to our son.   Since then there has been mounds of paperwork, medical exams, a "home study" of our family, immunizations, fingerprinting, lots of reading, language tapes, packing, purchasing of gifts, and waiting.  and waiting.  and waiting.  (You can read more about our adoption process on the Pretrip Preparations page of our Photo Journal.)  Through it all, though, we've had tremendous support from our families and our friends.

As of this writing in mid-October, 2003,  we are in the last stage of waiting.  By the end of the month, we are hoping our documentation will "clear Kazakhstan" and that the Kazakhstan government will invite us to the country.  At that point, we will likely still have a couple of weeks to go before our trip, but the waiting will be over.  At that point, we will commence the frantic preparation (picture lots of flying clothes) that should have all been completed during the waiting period!

We are expecting to spend much of the month of November in Kazakhstan, finalizing the adoption and meeting and getting to know our new son.  With God's help, we will be home in time for Christmas with a great gift showing His love for us.