September 15th 2011 - The Green Couch and BT 3500

One of the prayers that ascended the previous night was to the essence of the idea that we’d be able to sit down and actually do some researching online without interruption. This may seem like a small thing but to have space where there are no other distractions is not the most common occurrence. A bit more background here would probably be helpful to understand our story better. For many years we have contemplated and prayed about adoption since we have desired a family and it has not happened naturally as of yet. The timing never felt right while living in Indiana and then we found ourselves moving to Hampshire and living in the south of England. The door was now closed on this particular dream of ours, or so we thought. In an attempt to keep our heads above water in a new culture, home, church, side of the road etc… we never felt the urge to look into adoption while being in Overton for the first 2 ½ years. Around February 2011 we did a bit of looking online and found an agency that dealt with international adoption. Basically each time we attempted to find out info, email, pray, talk about it, distraction, argument and frustration ensued. We didn’t this as a ‘no’ rather as a ‘not yet’. Fast forward to 15th September and the fact that we actually researched, made an email inquiry which was answered within that day, a couple of phone calls later the time on the green couch in our living room was a relaxed couple of hours. This was an answer to the previous night’s prayer, seemingly insignificant but in actuality the jumpstart and confirmation we needed to press forward with this potential amazing journey.

Our green couch

     The other key factor of why the 15th is so important was a phone call that I had with the emabassy in London. We were attempting to find out about us using an American agency and how that could possibly work since with presently live in the UK. The answer made our heart jump as the other end of the line confirmed that we could in fact use the American system and not have to go through the UK system. While many of the national systems in this country are effective, the adoption process is extremely tight and the number of adoptions has plummeted over the last few years. The door is certainly closed to non UK citizens residing here, so to hear that we could circumvent this system and legally use the American one we were to say the least elated. That phone call while sitting on the green couch was another piece of good news and further confirmation to us.