How we became a family.....a shortened version :)

 So this is Jason and I back in 2000 our very first of 3 homestudies that have been updated each several times :)  A visiting camp friend took it for us, and at the time we were in Iowa serving at a Christian Camp.  We had been married 4 years which at the time was the allotted time frame you had to be married to adopt domestically.  Of course God opened our hearts to foster care, and a camping friend that had another friend was fostering this precious little girl from the time she was 5 months until she was 14 months.   They were grand parent age though and wanted to find a great family to adopt her.....

 We just got our foster care license in February 2001 and we just got back from a National Camp Gathering when we got a phone call about a beautiful toddler who would eventually become our Abigail.  Of course there was a possible biological father that stepped in the day of the termination hearing....BUMP....and then we had to pass an interview......BUMP....in which they told us they were interviewing people who had darker skin.....BUMP!  Praise God we were chosen and she came to live with us permanently. 

 This is a day trip to France we took when we flew to England to show off the new grand daughter to Jason's family. 

 In January 2002 after initial BIG BUMP of Andrew not being placed with us until he was 7 1/2 weeks old (he was not with his biological mom it was a political type thing). 

 He then came home to us and we celebrated in a big way later that year Abigail Marie Wright officially joined our family June 19th!!!  Yeah!!!  Of course there were a few more BUMPS in the system as we waited to hear if Andrew would join our family forever or not. 

 But we kept believing, loving, caring, and praying......

 And staring at these 2 precious faces.......and then we found out that year that another little baby would be joining us later..........

 Matthew came to join us at the end of year November 27th he was born :)  He came home with us 2 days later a day after Thanksgiving!!  YEAH!  And we found out that for a gift in 2003 in January 6th we would officially adopt Andrew James Wright!  YEAH!!!!  Another huge blessing.

 Oooops these next two photos are out of order sorry......but these were in 2003 & 2004...of course you can kind of tell because Matthew can't walk in the photo below, but up above he is walking around Silver Dollar City with my parents :)

 So here we were and then at the end of 2003 and after a few more BUMPS.....and bruises we were able to adopt Matthew December 22nd, 2003.  YEAH!!!  Now most people would look at our family as complete....wonderful....cute....one girl two boys......all very squeezable!

 I mean really look at these three charmers! 

 Then in 2004 after moving to Louisiana we took the foster care classes again....I mean there are sooo many children that still need homes and we could help out if only temporarily.  So we signed up leaving our children with volunteers from the camp so we could take the weekly classes. 

 And 2 weeks before our summer staff arrived in May of 2005- Joshua weeks shy of 3 years old and Sarah who had just turned 1 came to us.  Can you see the mischief in their eyes?  Yeah me too.  Our hands were full, we were a lot of times overwhelmed, but we were loving every minute of it!

 Oh yeah, just to make it more fun we had Hurricane Rita blow through our neck of the woods and had to evacuate 4 months after they came here!  You know just to make things more interesting!  he he he he :)   Just to make it more interesting after we returned to find our home with little damage Praising God and getting electricity back.....we had to leave for England.  This was a trip we had been planning well before we knew of our placement of Joshua and Sarah.  In case you are wondering, yes this caused a few setbacks, but in the end we overcame that.  But it broke our hearts to leave them for 2 weeks nonetheless. 

 Then in May 2006 Elizabeth 5 1/5 months came to us.  Now after TOO MANY BUMPS TO COUNT in Joshua, Sarah, and now Elizabeth's case and 2 years later we were still hitting BRICK WALLS EVERYWHERE!!!  Praise God their smiles and love kept our hearts on them and not the world who by then thought we must be out of our right mind. 

 But I mean look at this cuteness!!!  Elizabeth was a doll and by now we really had thought we were getting closer to the end of the journey. 

 Well......that didn't happen.  And instead MORE AND MORE BUMPS  came along.  Did I mention any and everything that could happen in a foster care case did.....on and on......

 And yet again......we couldn't get enough of our crazy life!  And by then you must be thinking they are done- right?  I mean 6 children! 

 Here we are at my younger brother Scott & Amy's wedding day.  We traveled back up to Iowa to share in their special day. 

 FINALLY!!!!!  In March 19th 2008 we were able to adopt Joshua David Wright, Sarah Joy Wright, Elizabeth Anne Wright!!!!!!!!!!!!!  This was a long time coming and believe me it was a time of GREAT rejoicing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  As God would have it this special day came the week of Easter- how perfect! 

 Here we are at the Smokies...enjoying our hiking!  :)  Then the day after the adoption (ok truth be told it may have been a few day before the official day) we sent in our application to All God's Children to do an Ethiopian adoption!  Oh yeah, by this time we were already nuts and just heading down the slope :)

 We were matched with our Hannah Grace (upset because I couldn't find her picture right now in the archives) within a couple of months of signing up and we weren't finished with our home study yet.  God matched us anyway and we worked like crazy people in the middle of summer our busiest time to get our dossier and homestudy completed!  She had spina bifida and scoliosis....but we didn't see that we saw a perfect baby girl that was meant to be in our arms forever. Whew....we did it....we got a court date for August 4th.....and then Hannah Grace went to be with Jesus July 18th.....  BUMP!!!!

 After getting away from it all on vacation we were matched with this handsome man.  Of course if you know about Ethiopian adoptions you know that the courts in Ethiopia close August September timeish.  We had 3 court dates before we finally passed.  Ethiopia started a new government agency called the Central Agency.  BUMP!!!  So rather than flying in October, November.....

 We flew December 26th, 2009 and met our Jonathan on December 28th....flying home January 2nd. 

 How can you fly to Ethiopia and not be changed forever?  After seeing the beautiful, kind hearted, loving people that are our brothers and sisters. 

 At the Ethiopian dinner night out with our travel group.  By the way for those adopting now you have to make two trips, but back then it was one. 

 Our hotel.....

 Jonathan's family- aren't they beautiful people?  YES!!!!!!  A meeting and day we will never forget!

 The now "old" Hannah's Hope building (our agency's transitional home) for over 60 children needing a home. 

 Just got home....and yes at this time Jonathan still didn't want anything to do with me really.  That has since changed :)

 Later in 2009 at my cousin's home :)

 Our pics for our updated homestudy for our next Ethiopian adoption........or so we thought.  The minute Jonathan had been home 9 months (ok ok a little sooner than that by a couple of weeks) we sent in our second application to All God's Children International. 

 But this next adoption that should have officially happened at the end of 2009 or at the latest the beginning of 2010 for our Naomi....would never happen.  Thanks to technicalities of the uscis (even though they approved us a year prior?? not that I am bitter or anything).  BIG BUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Then in March we heard about the fact that it is indeed possible to adopt domestically even if you have several children from a bloggy friend.  We signed up with Christian Adoption Consultants on March 22nd.....we were given a possible situation right away of a little boy who needed a home and we thought this was it.....but BUMP the agency started asking all kinds of accusing questions of our large family and on March 23rd Joanna Faith Wright was being born.  We got a call from Tracie Loux again saying I know you may not be interested, but.....and when we called Mother Goose Adoptions we did it out of - well maybe. (*****UPDATE: we now work with CAC :).

 By the morning of March 24th it was Deb O'Kane calling us from Mother Goose Adoptions saying she is yours if you want her.....want to fly out today.  Well let's just say after the other agency's hesitancy and our hearts saying "is there a reason not to?"  And well within 24 hours I was on a plane to go meet our Joanna Faith Wright!

 Everyone meeting us at the airport when she was just a little over a week old at Houston's airport.

 Here we are as a family of 10!!!!  Easter morning :)

 And of course here she is.....our little doll! (not the one on the left :) he he he)  Just blame it on my husband's sense of humor :)

And here we are in October 2010!  With GG (my grandma).....and all our precious gifts.  Now if you notice that is 8 children in February 2001- March 2010!  You will also notice my bold print BUMPS in the road.  Lots of them.  BUT the BLESSINGS of our family are sooooo much more than all of those!  I wouldn't trade any tears, any stress, any craziness, any deep dark canyon times, for a single minute with my babes.  They are our world.  They are our ministry!  God has placed each and every one of them in our home.  Not easy, but worth it!

For the first time since 2001.....we are not in the process for our next adoption- I KNOW SHOCK!!!  I am still in shock.  I keep feeling like I should be getting some paperwork done of some kind or going to the court or something????  Will we adopt again.......always!  But for now....we are taking a break.  Of course there is a reason why.....but that will unfold over the 2011 year.  So keep tuned to the crazy happenings of The Wright Family and Have a Blessed New Year!!!

Giving Thanks To God For Our Hannah Grace

What a roller coaster ride we have been on over the last year or so. We finalized Joshua, Sarah and Elizabeth's adoption in March 2008, and by the end of March we were already applying to adopt through All God's Children.

In May of last year an email was sent from AGCI about a little girl that they wanted to find a family for. She was only a few weeks old and she had multiple special needs, including severe scoliosis (curvature of the spine) and spina bifida. I have to admit that Dawn is the one who sees the faces of the children and falls in love first, then she leaves their pictures on the computer screen for me to see, or she shows the kids how beautiful a child is, wins them over, and then I have to cave in!


After seeing this little girl for a few days and letting the Lord speak to our hearts, we felt moved, and with joy asked AGCI about her. At that time we were informed that another family were interested and were gathering more information about the medical prognosis. After feeling so moved we were disappointed for ourselves that maybe we were too late. We waited (impatiently) and after what seemed like forever we got a message on our machine saying that the other family had chosen not to pursue adopting her. We were so overjoyed, ran back to the computer, looked at the pictures, and kept dreaming again...... (Ever done that over your child?)
So, one year ago, this very week, after falling in love with a beautiful baby girl, we requested the referral of Lidya, whom we chose for her the name "Hannah", which means "Grace", so we felt the name Hannah Grace would be perfect.

Knowing the medical situation was serious, doubled with excitment, we moved as quick as we could to do everything. We're talking Homestudy, dossier, training credits, fingerprints - you name it all achieved in a matter of just about 3 weeks (Thanks to Dawn's amazing ability of pushing it to get it done, as opposed to my gift of procrastination). We were on the way! Our doctor was very concerned that we needed to bring Hannah home as quick as possible, as she would need lots of specialized medical attention, including surgeries, so with her help, and the gracious help of AGCI, as much as possible was being done to bring her home.

The next few weeks of the summer were hard (The waiting), not that we had much time to twiddle our thumbs as we are in full time camp ministry, so July was busy, and with bugging our senator, and USCIS to make sure everything was being done, as well as having to make changes to our letter of favorable determination to include a child with special needs! We were at least on the home stretch! We had notification that we had a court date!!! It was to be on August 4th. We knew we'd be traveling and holding our baby girl within weeks.

On Friday July 25th, just 10 days before court we received a call from AGCI to let us know that they had received word from Almaz that Hannah had become very unwell, and they were very concerned that she would not survive. This is an excerpt from the email we sent that afternoon:

"Our hearts are just breaking right now, and we have been on our knees as a family praying this lunchtime for her, for those giving her care and for strength for our family. Why does this happen so close to us bringing her home? We are yearning to hold her, to tell her she has a mommy and a daddy and six brothers and sisters, and that God loves her, made her and has a beautiful plan for her life. We have pictures of her in our home, we've been buying pink outfits for her, our kids talk about Hannah Grace all the time and are so excited to meet their new sister. We are wanting the best out of this situation, but fear the worst. We know she's in God's hands, and right now there's nothing physically we can do about it, just pray and wait.."

We felt so helpless, yet utterly dependent on God's strength. Isn't it crazy that after we heard the news about our Hannah that on that very day in the mail came our I-797C/Letter of Favorable determination form the USCIS. I forwarded a scan of it to Julie at AGCI, and she prayed with us on the phone - wow - an agency that prays with you! The plan was to wait through the weekend and talk again on Monday to see how she was doing.

Then before the day was through we received another call from Emily at AGCI, a call I know must have broken her heart to make, telling us that they had received word from Almaz that our sweet, precious, beautiful Hannah Grace had gone home to be with Jesus.

The utter grief that tore our hearts was the worst feeling we've ever had. We loved this baby girl with our whole heart. Why had we been led by God down this road? Why did he bring her into our lives? Why did we fight so hard and pray so much only to lose her? Why couldn't we have held her in our own arms? I know it sounds selfish, but even now as I type I have tears in my eyes and a sadness in my heart that Dawn and I never got to hold her and tell her we love her.

We know fully now that God took us on this journey to make sure that this little girl, who in the world's eyes did not hold much value, would not leave this world without having a family willing to fight hard and pray much for her, and to claim her in their hearts. Isn't this the mission we all share on our journey together - that each and every child has someone who claims them in their hearts? It's so important for us to do this, not so that we receive the "reward", but that we give selflessly and unconditionally out of joyful obedience to God. In turn the rewards are real and truly "out of this world", and we have a special connection to God through this obedience, however tough and heart-breaking it can be along the way.

So, we will always feel a deep sense of loss over our Hannah Grace, but a deeper sense of joy knowing that God entrusted our family with the responsibility of being a mommy and daddy, brothers and sisters to His precious child. What a privilege and an honor he bestowed upon us. Not only that, but I can barely fathom that through this journey he blessed us not only with Hannah, but also our sweet baby boy, Jonathan Caleb. We could not imagine our lives without him, yet if Hannah had come home with us, we would not have brought Jonathan home. I see it this way: God planned our journey - a special, unique and tough journey to strengthen and deepen our relationship with Him, to not just bring one child home, but to give us the gift as a couple and as a family of two precious children of God: Our Jonathan to bring home into our arms, and our Hannah Grace to hold in our hearts and hand into the arms of our Heavenly Father.

Introduction to our family

So exciting to have a blog. Our first attempt...after 7 adoptions already....we look forward to our next as well as celebrate our 7 other miracles. So here goes. My husband and I started our journey over 8 years ago when we signed up for a foster/adoptive class. Through the foster care system in Iowa we fostered & adopted 3 beautiful children- Abigail now 9, Andrew now 7, & Matthew now 6. Then moving to another Christian Camp (Uskichitto Retreat Center) in Louisiana we stepped out if faith and took the foster adoptive class again. Three years later (March 19th, 2007) we finally adopted Joshua now almost 7, Sarah turns 5 next week, and Elizabeth 3. As soon as we finalized their adoption - you guessed it- we jumped in again and filled out our beginning paperwork for All God's Children to begin another adoption from Ethiopia.

So within weeks we had an e-mail about a little girl that needed a family. She had some special needs - she had spina bifida as well as severe scoliosis, but she needed someone to be her mom and dad, and we said yes! We rushed like the wind through all the paperwork. We wanted to get her adoption done before the Ehiopian courts closed. Almaz the director of Hannah's Hope Ethiopia had helped push her case forward. We had a date August 4th for her Ethiopian adoption. The week before her adoption her little body started to have problems with circulation, and our baby angel went to be with our Saviour! We grieved deeply over the loss of our little angel girl- our Hannah Grace. Telling our 6 children that their baby sister had died was the hardest thing we have ever had to do. On the other hand we prayed for a complete healing...which took place that day! Now her brothers and sisters talk about how they are happy that when they get to go to heaven they will get to meet their baby sister.

All God's Children was the best through everything! They prayed with us, cried with us, and supported us. We couldn't have asked for more!!!! Almaz's e-mail about our precious daughter just makes me cry everytime because you can sense that she must be an angel herself...after meeting her- I know it's true!!

Then we were matched up with our precious Jonathan (almost 2) on August 14th, 2008. He had the best "cheeky" face ever and we knew he belonged in our arms. After waiting for the courts closure in Ethiopia for a month and a half, and then for the "system" to make some slight changes.... we got the call on December 9th saying that our 3rd court date had finally gone through (December 4th). We were flying on December 26th to pick up our son!!!!!

So we started our new year with 7 beautiful children! So when people ask us- are these kids all yours? Our answer is an emphatic - YES!!!! We have gone through a lot of emotions, heartache, paperwork, social workers, extreme pride, hard curt dates, love, joy, and sooo much more. They were each born in our hearts with the seeds of love planted by God Himself. We will gladly have as many children as God calls us to. Our obedience so far has lead us to a home full of joy, craziness, fun, crying, loving, pinching, pulling, diapers, and so much fullness we could not even conceive it all.