A Truly Amazing Family

I was on Facebook earlier this week and a friend of mine from back home posted in his status updated that he couldnt' wait for his new newphew and niece to come home and for him to meet them. I know his brother and they have 2 little girls and his wife had her tubes tied and knew it wasn't them and then I remembered that they had an older sister who lives in Ohio. He posted their blog link and I started reading from the beginning posts from the blog that started early this year.

This couple felt that God was leading them to give a home to orphaned kids from another country. They already have a daughter who is 12 (I think) and a son who is 8. Their daughter told them that she felt the same way and wanted to give someone a home that didn't have one. They started the long process earlier this year. Their blog chronicles their journey. It's also a great information tool for those who are going through the same process as them. In the end they ended up picking Russia as the country to adopt from.

In Russia if there are siblings you have to adopt all of the siblings and not just one. I think this is great for keeping families together but at the same time it must be hard to place a lot of those siblings all together. They had decided to take in a pair of siblings. Earlier this year they were matched up with a brother and sister whose ages are almost identical to their own kids. They visited Russia over the summer by themselves and met the kids and worked on the process with the adoption agency.

After delays they were finally able to go over in November for the 3 week trip to finalize the adoption. The entire family went and their own children were able to experience it with them. Their new kids are Peter and Kim. They let them help pick out their American names. It seemed to me that there was a list that the Russian's allowed them to pick from. The adoption 10 day waiting period was over this past Friday and yesterday the new family of 6 flew back to the states.

The story is very moving and is so amazing. I cannot imagine a family of four (as we were before Avery) opening our hearts and home to two kids as they have. I think they are such an amazing family. I have truly enjoyed reading the blog and seeing their adoption journey through their eyes. It has moved me. If you are interested in reading their blog you can find it here http://amerrickanfamily.blogspot.com/