So, finally, we did it. We applied online on July 14. The application was pretty easy. But in those few minutes and hours after you submit something this big, you find yourself asking "what in the world have we done?" and "How are we ever going to afford this?". We knew this decision was not made quickly. It had actually taken several years to get us to this point.
Throughout this process, I have been reading a lot of family adoption blogs and one theme that tends to run throughout many of these are the different ways that Satan seems to attack around the time of application. I was really hoping this would not happen to our family, but it did. Less than a week after applying and less than a week before heading on a long-planned and well deserved trip to Austria, we learned that my airline tickets had been booked in my maiden name. No big deal, Adam said. We could just take my marriage license and be ok. Not so!! Since my tickets and passport did not match, I could not fly. After spending 2 days on the phone with our travel agent, all 3 airlines, immigration, etc, etc, the only option we were left with was to cancel our tickets and rebook them at that current day's prices. Mind you, this was Tuesday and we were scheduled to leave on Saturday. (How did this happen, you wonder? Adam finally found out that when he booked the tickets, he logged in to the website and it pulled up my maiden name, maybe from booking something for our honeymoon. He clicked the box next to my name verifying I was a passenger, but didn't look closely enough to realize it was the wrong last name. He said he realized it a few months after booking, but called and was told it was ok for me to bring my marriage license. Now the airline's story changes. Why can't all airlines have a simple $50 name change fee?!) So, back to the story, since this was our only option, and I was not going to give up this trip, we cancelled our tickets, which cost $450, and rebooked new ones 3 days in advance. In order to get the best deal, we ended up extending our trip by leaving a day earlier and coming home 2 days later for an extra $1300. Lesson learned: Do all adoption paperwork TOGETHER and proofread EVERYTHING. This was a costly lesson, but one that we hope will be valuable to us during this adoption process.
Well, our trip to Europe started off a little rough with 3 missed flights due to weather delays and then ended in Austria with no luggage to be found anywhere. Fortunately, it arrived the next day, out of nowhere, I guess. As we were picking it up, Adam admitted that he had a really hard time with the luggage ordeal because he wasn't in control of the situation at all. Lesson learned: We are not going to be in control of this adoption at all. We are going to have to get used to that feeling and trust that the One in control, has it all taken care of.
We had a great trip, but spent A LOT of money, because it was Europe. We have traveled to Asia several times, where you can have a really nice dinner for $2.50 a person. The exchange rate goes the opposite way in Europe and they like to charge you for everything (parking in a mall garage- $25!). So, we came home with a nice bill to pay (in addition to the tickets we had just charged to get us there).
When we arrived home, we had a letter from our agency saying that we were officially approved and as soon as we sent them a large amount of money, we could move forward with the process. Sure thing. Just add it to our tab.
The week after we got home and settled back in, my brakes started making a horrible grinding noise, so we took my car in and brought it home nearly $800 later!
Somehow, in the past month, we have still managed to put food on the table and gas in the car, but have definitely felt the attack in our finances. Of course, those questions arise again, "What in the world are we doing? and "Did we make a mistake?". But when I came across 2 Cor. 5:7 "For we walk by faith, and not by sight" I know we made the right decision. God clearly led us to adopt from Korea, the most expensive program in Asia, and He has quickly taken away our financial safety net in order to get us to COMPLETELY trust in Him. We know He can provide financially. We have seen Him do it before in a very big way, so we know it can happen again. So, we plug on and move forward, several thousand dollars poorer, but more excited every day about the journey we are on and the little one we will soon meet and bring into our family.
This journey is going to require some creative fundraising, so if anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear them.
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