Well, apparently not enough has changed in my life because I am embarking on a new and exciting adventure! My passion is adoption. I love to help people with adoptions. Getting orphans into loving and Christians is what I love doing! It is my heart beat!
My brother, Brady, once told me to figure out what my passion is--what I love--and then pursue that. He gave me that advice when I started AnNi Designs because it combined my passion for adoption with my love for designing clothing.
Well, with Andy's suggestion and total blessing, I am going to take that one step further. I am starting an adoption agency. Right now I am just researching how to do that. Colorado has many very state-specific laws for their agencies and I think it may be a long and potentially confusing process, but so worth it in the end!
I am working with a friend from our church and our life group, too. He is a child and family therapist and he and his wife are starting the adoption process from Rwanda!!! (Tiki inspired them to take that next step!) He is going to be my social worker for my agency. He has already looked into the requirements and for him it is just a 2 day course in Denver in March. So, I already have my social worker in place! (Thank you, Darren! I am so excited to journey along side of you!)
I just want to help! I want to help families and I cannot help families in Colorado without being an agency. Also, I have found (thanks to Darren's wife, Valerie) that there are no local domestic adoption agencies in Durango. If a teen girl gets pregnant and doesn't want the baby, her only alternative to abortion is to drive to Denver to get the adoption process rolling. How many pregnant teen girls want to drive thirteen hours (round trip) to get that ball rolling?
If one in seven Christian families would adopt, then there would be NO ORPHANS left in the world. ZERO! I want to be a part of that. . .a bigger part than just the two children from Rwanda I have in my home!
So, please pray! Please pray that I can figure out (quickly) what Colorado will require of me to become an "adoption professional." Please pray that I can get a business plan all drawn up with a thorough mission statement and everything that a business plan entails. Please pray that all of the pieces fall into place and that I can be organized as I gather may information. This is SO EXCITING for me, for Andy, for our family, for Darren and for a few of my friends wanting to get their adoptions started in Colorado!
I am thrilled! I feel revitalized! I feel like I have some purpose beyond my wonderful family! I feel like I can really help connect families with their children like I couldn't before! I will keep everyone up to date with the details! If you have any direction, I'd love some! This is a dream come true and it has all fallen into place (this far) over the weekend (two years of praying and then this shower of pieces in place this weekend). . .God is SO FAITHFUL!!!
My brother, Brady, once told me to figure out what my passion is--what I love--and then pursue that. He gave me that advice when I started AnNi Designs because it combined my passion for adoption with my love for designing clothing.
Well, with Andy's suggestion and total blessing, I am going to take that one step further. I am starting an adoption agency. Right now I am just researching how to do that. Colorado has many very state-specific laws for their agencies and I think it may be a long and potentially confusing process, but so worth it in the end!
I am working with a friend from our church and our life group, too. He is a child and family therapist and he and his wife are starting the adoption process from Rwanda!!! (Tiki inspired them to take that next step!) He is going to be my social worker for my agency. He has already looked into the requirements and for him it is just a 2 day course in Denver in March. So, I already have my social worker in place! (Thank you, Darren! I am so excited to journey along side of you!)
I just want to help! I want to help families and I cannot help families in Colorado without being an agency. Also, I have found (thanks to Darren's wife, Valerie) that there are no local domestic adoption agencies in Durango. If a teen girl gets pregnant and doesn't want the baby, her only alternative to abortion is to drive to Denver to get the adoption process rolling. How many pregnant teen girls want to drive thirteen hours (round trip) to get that ball rolling?
If one in seven Christian families would adopt, then there would be NO ORPHANS left in the world. ZERO! I want to be a part of that. . .a bigger part than just the two children from Rwanda I have in my home!
So, please pray! Please pray that I can figure out (quickly) what Colorado will require of me to become an "adoption professional." Please pray that I can get a business plan all drawn up with a thorough mission statement and everything that a business plan entails. Please pray that all of the pieces fall into place and that I can be organized as I gather may information. This is SO EXCITING for me, for Andy, for our family, for Darren and for a few of my friends wanting to get their adoptions started in Colorado!
I am thrilled! I feel revitalized! I feel like I have some purpose beyond my wonderful family! I feel like I can really help connect families with their children like I couldn't before! I will keep everyone up to date with the details! If you have any direction, I'd love some! This is a dream come true and it has all fallen into place (this far) over the weekend (two years of praying and then this shower of pieces in place this weekend). . .God is SO FAITHFUL!!!
Comments
Thanks for the encouragement. The first comment is my mother in laws adoption agency. Looking forward to the process.
Darren
Best,
Lindsay (my middle name is Jo, too)
They do foster parenting as well as adoptions! And did I mention they are an amazing Christian ministry!!!
My name is Liz. I suppose I just know about your family through Kamp, b/c I went to K-Extreme as a kamper (both years!) and worked at K-west. My friend Rachel Bennison recommended I contact you to talk about adoption, and then when looking on another friends blog I found your blog. Whew. Anyway, my hubby and I just applied to AWAA 2 nights ago. We are hoping to adopt one or two little girls from Ethiopia. I loved how you mentioned in your blog that you have an adoption group. I have been trying to find as many people as I can to be a support team as we go through this journey. If you have any advice or words that were particularly encouraging when you went through this process I would love to hear them. Thanks!
Liz Horn lizgrayce@gmail.com