I Dreamed a Dream

In August of 2015, Andy and I had the privilege of buying our first home. It was such an exciting time. As we were looking at homes, we of course considered how many rooms there were and how many children we wanted to have. We even wrote a letter to the former owner of our home telling her how we envisioned building a family there.

Not long after we moved in, I had a dream. You know how sometimes when you dream there are places and things in the dream that make zero sense? Well this one was different. I dreamt that Andy and I were at home - in our new home! It was early in the morning and a little black girl ran into our room and jumped on our bed. She was urgently telling us that we needed to get up and get her ready for school. She was about 4-5 years old. And she was ours. Our daughter. Our adorable, beautiful, happy daughter.

I have always had vivid dreams, but never put a lot of stock in them. We briefly talked about the dream that morning and noted that it could have been God's affirmation that we should one day pursue adoption, but that was it, and we got up, showered, and got ready for the day. I've never forgotten that dream though.

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After a couple of initial, minor setbacks with our adoption application, we finally submitted all the documents needed for our application to be official in early November. Two days after submitting the application, our Adoption Advisor sent us an email asking to set up a brief phone call.

She informed us that adopting from Colombia would no longer be an option. Andy and I are both currently taking anti-depressants. The country of Colombia is very reticent to accept families into their program who have mental health issues. You may be thinking, "What? At least you're taking care of yourselves!" and you'd be right, but Colombian children suffer an immense amount of mental health trauma by way of neglect, drugs, and alcohol. The country works hard to ensure that these children are being welcomed into stable homes that can help them combat their mental health issues that they inherited at birth. Obviously, we can provide a very safe, warm, and welcoming home, but our advisor shared that the Colombian government is less likely to place children in homes that already face mental health issues.

There it goes again, hope crashing and wearing us out...

Initially, we were devastated. We had set our minds on Colombia; we were dreaming of books to buy, brushing up on our Spanish, and learning more about the Colombian culture. Then we talked further with our advisor and she gave us hope again. She reminded us that our second choice since the beginning was to adopt from Haiti. And then I remembered the dream. I remembered that cute little girl and smiled.

Andy and I have always dreamed of having a girl first. In Colombia, we were not allowed to choose a girl over a boy. In Haiti, we can. And, you may recall, that in my dream, our daughter was black. While we thought that just meant that our child would come from another country, this switch to Haiti made the dream even more real.

The transition to Haiti has changed the adoption process a little. Here's the deal:

Apply for adoption

Create dossier (family portfolio): Within 90 days of application, pay for your dossier to be compiled. This can take about 6 months. We’ll have a home study, psych evaluations, write letters, be interviewed, etc. Then the package will be translated and sent to Haiti. (We're in this process right now.)

Wait for a referral: This process could take 2-3 years.

Travel to Haiti: We are expected to go to Haiti to meet our child and stay in the country with the child for 2 weeks. While there, we will be interviewed by government officials, receive court approval, obtain birth certificates and passports, apply for an adoption visa, be evaluated by a social worker, etc.

Return home to the states and wait for additional legalization and approval processes. This process can take 9-10 months.

Apply for a visa for our child.

Travel to Haiti for the second time and return home with our child!

We're bummed that it'll take a little longer before we actually have our child in our home, but we know that God's plan and timing are perfect. We've been comforted by His goodness in the process and know that we will likely face many more setbacks. For now, though, we are celebrating and clinging to the hope of that vivid dream from five years ago.