On a Monday afternoon just eight months ago, I sat in the same coffee shop that I am sitting in now, and wrote about why we were choosing adoption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have learned so much as we’ve walked through the process thus far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The agency we are working with, Lifeline Children’s Services, has been incredible. Our social worker has been excellent, and the whole process has been laid out clearly for us. Nothing has been left undone or unevaluated. Everything has been extremely thorough, personal, and we have ultimately gotten more out of the process than we put into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It has required a lot of nights filled with conversation, and talking through questions that aren’t easy to answer. It’s given us the opportunity to evaluate a LOT of things about our lives. Our marriage, our family relationships, our priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you put yourself in a position to become a parent in this way, you open yourself up to scrutiny. But it is one of the best things you could ever do. I believe that so many of the things that rob us of true joy lie in the things that we can’t see. So your social worker, your spouse, and any others involved help you to see those things and figure out how to get them out of the way. All in all, every conversation, every educational video, every phone call or form filled out is preparation for parenting this child that God has ordained for you. It is all for the child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In meeting after meeting, when I have answered a list of questions about my past and my current circumstances, I have been overcome with this feeling of privilege. Many hear the word “adoption” and imagine a family that is selfless, giving, willing to alter their lives to do something good. I do believe that most of the time the decision to adopt is divinely inspired. It is definitely used to accomplish the works of God’s kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it is not about the adoptive family, and about their decision. There is SO much more at play, and the family that is receiving the child is the one that is truly privileged, truly blessed, in a position to CHOOSE to parent. We, as a family, have been given so much. Our families raised us well. We each had the opportunity to get a great education, to have good jobs. We are privileged. We get to receive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I often wonder why. Why was I put in this position of such grace, to have such a life. So many others are born into a position that they can not change. And they do the best with what they’ve been given, and they still have to live day to day and focus on merely surviving. There is a mother out there that is facing the most difficult decision I can fathom: whether or not to parent the baby that is growing inside of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This mother is most assuredly the one who is sacrificing. We are not. We are merely stepping into what we believe we are meant to do as children of God, and we are opening our hands to the beauty of the gift that is to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have the easy job. Yes, parenting is difficult, and I know that every part of this is going to be emotional. But we are going to love this child to adulthood and beyond. We are going to be there with them day in and day out, as they cry, battle sickness, go to their first day of kindergarten. We are receiving. We are loving, and we are attaching ourselves to this child. Their beloved mother is doing the opposite. And that truly breaks my heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thinking about that mom brings me back to where we are in the process. We’re almost done with all of the prerequisites needed in order to start the “wait.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our home study is almost complete, and we are working on the details of our profile book, which will be sent to our agency for birth mothers to view, whenever a situation arises in which we could be matched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We get to attend Lifeline’s domestic adoption conference in a couple of weeks, where we will meet other families who are in the same process, and learn a lot more!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Please pray for the birth mother that we will be matched with, who will forever change our lives. And for the baby. The baby that will be a part of our family, in our arms, at some point. It could be merely months away, or it could be a year or two. We are trusting that God will continue to lead us. He’s never let us down before. Our baby is out there, and we know that we will meet him or her in due time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thank you to all of you who support us and love us. We are truly grateful to be in this position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On a Monday afternoon just eight months ago, I sat in the same coffee shop that I am sitting in now, and wrote about why we were choosing adoption. We have learned so much as we’ve walked through the process […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":92,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13,10,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganburkewrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganburkewrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganburkewrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganburkewrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganburkewrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/morganburkewrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93,"href":"http:\/\/morganburkewrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions\/93"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganburkewrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganburkewrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganburkewrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganburkewrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}