Jason and Jen's Journey

Since Jason and I decided to move forward with this second adoption, there are many things we have learned that compel us to share why right now is an incredibly amazing time to adopt orphans from C Country. (We are not giving the name of the country to protect adoptions from this country. Countries have shut down adoptions because of blog posts that were misinterpreted. We are just playing it safe. Contact me and I would be happy to tell you the country.) Please keep in mind the information we are providing is what MLJ Adoptions is currently experiencing and with any international adoption process, the process can change and there are no guarantees.

- About a year ago, Sonja Brown from MLJ Adoptions, started researching a new Africa adoption program for MLJ. This past October Sonja and her colleagues went to C Country to talk to government officials about adopting from C. They also toured orphanages and interviewed their foreign staff.

- Of the 10 million people living in the capital city of C, there are 4.5 million orphans. Of the 4.5 million orphaned children in the capital, 90-95% are abandoned on the streets with no histories available. These numbers are staggerring.

- The officials told MLJ Adoptions, "You are the solution to our problem." The government wants the orphans to grow up with families and not in orphanages, so they are very willing to assist in finding these children homes. So many governments are NOT WILLING to allow their orphans to be adopted.

- Adopting from C takes about 9-11 months. An incredibly SHORT waiting time for any adoption, much less an international adoption.

- The US government changed the adoption tax credit this past spring to also include a tax refund. The government will now give you $13,170 PER CHILD as part of your tax return the year after you finalize an adoption. WHEN IN THE WORLD HAS IT EVER BEEN POSSIBLE TO GET THIS MUCH MONEY BACK TO HELP PAY FOR THE COST OF AN ADOPTION???

Never.

- If you take the federal tax credit into consideration, it is quite possibly cheaper to adopt TWO orphans from C instead of one. The cost to adopt one child from MLJ is $26,000-$30,000. The cost to adopt two kids is around $38,000-44,000. So, say you adopt two kids. When you file your taxes the year after your kids arrive, the government will give you $26,340 ($13,170 per child). Again, WHEN IN THE WORLD HAS IT EVER BEEN POSSIBLE TO GET THIS MUCH MONEY BACK TO HELP PAY FOR THE COST OF AN ADOPTION???

You would end up paying around $11,660-17,660 for two kids. Not even considering the grants that are available, that is E-X-T-R-E-M-E-L-Y. affordable for adoption. EX-TREME-LY! We are talking $5,830-8,830 per child! If you adopt one child, you would end up paying around $12,830-16,830, after the adoption tax credit, which is still VERY reasonable. Imagine if you were crazy enough to adopt three kids?! The cost would be $50,000-63,000. BUT, you would get back $39,510 from the US government, leaving you with the final out-of-pocket expense of $10,124-24,124.

- Did I mention adopting from C takes only 9-11 months? Not only is this a very short time for you to have to wait emotionally, but it is very significant financially. You cannot get the adoption tax credit/refund back from the government until you have finalized your adoption. In our case with our first adoption we had to wait 6 months after Abram came home with us to finalize. This is very typical. Sometimes you have to wait more than six months. Waiting this long to finalize could bring you close to the end of December 2011 when the incredible tax credit/refund is set to expire (there is a chance it could be extended, but there is no way to know at this point). (Your adoption has to be finalized by December 2011 to qualify for the tax credit/refund.) B U T . . . C Coutnry adoptions are finalized the day your child(ren) arrive in the US. HELLO!?!?!? That means if you start now, you are nearly guaranteed to get the adoption tax credit/refund back. And it means many families have the opportunity to start the process several months down the road and still get the $13,170 per child.

- We asked Sonja what she thought if more families were interested in adopting from C. She said would take as many as apply. She told us her personal mission in life is to place as many orphans in homes as possible. She said if she gets too overloaded she will just hire someone else to help her. (In case it is not already clear, we feel like we struck gold by finding MLJ and Sonja!)
I guess what all of this boils down to is this:

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world" (James 1:27).

There is an orphan crisis in C Country. The C Country government is very cooperative. The US government is giving back large chunks of money to help families pay for adoptions. With MLJ and the federal adoption tax credit it is likely cheaper to adopt two instead of one. MLJ and Sonja are incredibly wonderful to work with and are willing to take many, many more families.

There, my friends, is the window of incredible opportunity for us to make an eternal investment.
Will it be all wonderful and glorious when these beautiful kids come into our homes? Nope. Not at all. The transition will be hard. Horribly hard. Perhaps excruciatingly hard. These kids have rarely, if ever, had anyone to love them and care for their every need. It could be hard for them to get used to your love and care. You won't be able to spend time with other people for awhile because you will need to help the kids bond with you. You might not leave your house for awhile. They will speak French. You will speak English. It will take money to raise them. Just the normal day-in and day-out parenting will be tough. Bringing more kids into your family will mean sacrificing things you like to do.

But, in five years from now, or ten years from now, or in eternity, will you regret displaying God's love to the least of these on earth and sparing an orphan's life?

That is what it comes down to for Jason and me. It is not going to be easy or comfortable. We may not see our friends for awhile. We have a smaller house. We don't even have a vehicle right now that fits four young kids and an adult. But the God who created the universe, as well as these orphaned children in His image, made it clear to us that we need to take this step of obedience and faith. And through Jesus, we have the capacity to love, sacrifice and care for three more kids. We are depending on Him.

(I am working on a list of questions and answers about the adoption process that I hope to post soon. Until then, please feel free to contact me if you are interested, have questions, or want more info. Jason and I would love to talk with you!)

Once upon a time there were six kids and an adult named Jen in a downstairs bathroom for 20 minutes because a tornado siren was going off!!

The kids were troopers.

Brady was holding down the toilet.

Mya and Sydney were having fun on the counter.

Abram and Callen were toddling around.

And Greysen had his paci, so life was good for him.

That was the story of this past Friday. I was watching all six kids at my sister's house. The two littlest boys were upstairs sleeping and the rest of us were downstairs playing when sky got very dark and the siren in Huxley went off. I freaked out for a moment, called Jason, hung up with Jason, raced upstairs with Brady so he and I could each get a sleeping boy and herded everyone into the bathroom downstairs!

I found out by phone about 10 minutes later that they had the siren on for the strong winds. This makes no sense in my mind. If I hear a siren when the sky looked like it did, I think the tornado is about to hit us! Oh well, I was definitely glad to be more safe than sorry. We stayed in the bathroom another ten minutes until Jason gave us the clear.

It makes for a funny story now!

After lunch and while the little boys were sleeping again, I let the older kids make a tent with furniture and blankets (again, another fun thing I remember doing as a kid).

Cute girls being silly.

Sydney brought her dress-up clothes into the tent and put them on. My mom made this (and matching one of course) for Kate and I for our towns centennial celebration many moons ago.

Just have to show off more of Kate's work. She painted these sticks on her basement wall. There is usually something sitting in front of it (but it was being used for the tent!).