Freshly married, Dan and I were sitting at the kitchen table when I sprung it on him: “I’ve really been feeling like we should reconsider the timeline we’ve talked about for adopting. I think we should do it soon.”

I’ve always felt my primary ministry in life was to be a mom to adopted kids. Even above being a mom to biological kids. I had previously sprung the general idea on Dan after only two months of dating, when I asked if he would be willing adopt in the future and if he was interested in adopting before choosing any other method of becoming a parent. He was completely on board, and I had fallen fast for this guy.

I’m the dreamer of the two of us. I regularly picture little scenes in my mind that I end up truly believing are a glimpse of our future. Walks with my husband, with kids riding ahead of us on bikes along tree-lined streets at dusk. All my kids dancing with Dan in the kitchen while indie and classic rock records play. Baking sugar cookies with my girls with flour on our noses in matching aprons from Anthropologie. Dreamy stuff like that.

Dan is the realist of the two of us. He considers the logistics of attaining goals and making plans. He puts my dreams into motion. If you hadn’t guessed, he’s kind of great at budgeting our money.

When adoption actually came up as something to do right now, we jumped fully and stubbornly into our primary roles as a dreamer and a realist. I could not have cared less about the logistics of income and marriage length and a husband in med school, as they related to adopting. Dan couldn’t have cared more about those things. I cried and shut down when he brought up how we’d pay for it. Lesson learned: Clue your husband into the fact that you want to start the adoption process much earlier, before you aren’t ALL the way set on it.

We prayed about it a lot. We prayed about it a ton. We talked about it later. And we talked about it again even later. And more tears were had. Nothing like working out the kinks in the communication habits you’ve set during your few months of marriage by talking about the pros, cons, possibilities, and logistics of adoption. It’s my understanding that adoption becomes the only option for some people. They want children badly, they’ve waited a long time, and it’s clear what they need to do. For us, we had other options. Good options, even.

Because we so strongly desire to adopt, we soon realized it was a matter of doing it now or doing it later. We sat down with a green Moleskine — again at the kitchen table — and I wrote boldly at the top of the page: NOW? Pros. Cons. We threw out everything we could think of while I jotted it all down. When we finished, it was so dang clear: Now was better. There were a few logistics to look into more closely, but it was absolutely doable. We’d felt that tug from God, for sure, but making that silly pros and cons list gave us the extra confirmation we needed.

We made dinner. I sat across from Dan on the side of the table closer to the living room, like I always do. “So we’re gonna do it?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said, smiling nodding.

And yet again, the tears started to well up.
Hi, I’m Natalie, and I’m 24 years old. My husband is a med student, and he plans to be an ER doctor. We got married in December 2011, and we started the adoption process in May 2012. We set out to only adopt one baby, but we recently and joyfully accepted a referral for twin baby boys from a big country in Africa. Some may say we’re crazy, but all I can say is: God is good. I’m also social worker doing foster care/adoption work while living in St. Louis. I like film photography, trying to be crafty, Google Reader, new music, Real Simple, and road trips to new cities.

During National Adoption Month you’ll get to hear from some amazing people. Today’s guest post is from John Vogt. I love hearing from adoptive dads!

Our adoption story began back in 1949. I was an orphan with no hope and no future. But the Lord promises to be a Father to the fatherless and care for the orphan. In His great mercy and love God cared for me and gave me the best Dad and Mom that any kid could have.

Sara and I were united in marriage August 21, 1971. Sara’s doctors told that she would never be able to have children. We both love kids and dreamed of having a son and a daughter. I reassured Sara that God could help us build a family through the blessings of adoption.

Then one summer night in June of 1973 I was lying on the floor of our living room in Arlington, VA in great pain. I had ruptured two disc in my back and I could hardly move. I could not sleep in a bed. That night as we embraced we realized that we had very little going for us… no home, just a small one bedroom apartment, no money, employment threatened because of my ruptured discs and no children with Sara’s womb closed. It was in this darkness and total frustration that I spoke these words… “If God wants us to have a baby we will have a baby”. The docs had said, “no way… that would be physically impossible.” But on March 28, 1974 the God of the impossible gave us a son. We named him John Regis Vogt. We call him Regis after my Dad the man who took me in his arms and loved me to life when I was an orphan.

The Lord blessed us with a son but where was our little girl? As the years went by our hopes for a daughter began to fade. We had moved to Washington, DC and life was very busy. We poured ourselves into loving our son and working hard in our broadcasting careers. We came to the place in our older age where we were no longer thinking about more children.

Then one morning while doing an interview with America World Adoption I heard about these little orphan girls in China. As AWAA’s founder Brian Luwis shared with our listeners my heart burned within me. Later that night I asked Sara, “Do you think that the Lord may be calling us to go to China and rescue one of these little orphan girls and bring her home as our daughter?”

We had to wonder if this was why God allowed Sara’s womb to be closed? And so, after much prayer and lots of encouragement from family and friends we began a great adventure in love.

On May 21, 2002 they placed Johanna Renee in our arms and life has never been the same. What would we do without her? She is the most loving, kind and talented child that any parent could have. Johanna loves God and loves people.

But God was not finished with our adoption story. The process of bringing Johanna home only made us more aware of the millions of children around the world that desperately need a Mom and Dad.

We began our paper pregnancy for daughter number two in 2005. Five years later we got the call from Living Hope Adoption Agency that our referral had arrived. But things were much different for us now. With the economic downturn the Vogt family was out of money and had little time before we were scheduled to leave for China. When we adopted Johanna we had plenty of resources to cover our adoption expenses. With Julianna it would turn out to be one of the most humbling and encouraging experiences that we have ever been through.

Like many other families who adopt we needed to raise our support. For most of our 40 years together Sara and I were able to reach out to others who were in need. Now the situation was reversed. Our total expenses to bring Julianna home was around $33,000.00 and we were about $15,000.00 short. We will be forever grateful to Vineyard Church of Wellsboro and all of our family and friends who helped us bring Julianna home. It’s never easy to have to depend on others for help but looking back now I see God’s hand in this chapter of our adoption story in ways that I could not see at the time. Our church has embraced Julianna in a very unique and special way. I think that one of the reasons for this is that the Lord had orchestrated the financial side of her adoption so that others could participate in the process. Even today when members of our church family see Julianna in the context of church life I sense that many of them are thinking… there she is… that’s our girl… we helped to bring that little one home.

On July 26, 2010 in Nanchang, China Julianna Elizabeth was rescued, saved and redeemed. She was chosen by us and received a new name and family. She was no longer an orphan without hope or a future. She was now a joint heir with her big brother Regis and older sister Johanna. She would now be bathed in love. Old things had passed away and all things had become new. She was given a new life through the blessings of adoption. Sound familiar?

This is what Papa God does for each of us who put their hope in Him. We don’t deserve it. We can not earn it. By Him and through Him we receive the Spirit of Adoption and cry out Abba Father… Papa God… Daddy. Oh, how He loves you and me.

John and Sara Vogt
Wellsboro, PA

November is National Adoption Month! Yay!

If you’re just beginning to think about adoption, I know how overwhelming it can be. I was there a little over 5 years ago. I was so fortunate to have friends already in the process. They were a lifeline to me. And, of course, I met more along the way.

When I get questions from people about where to start, the first thing I ask is:

Do you know what type of adoption you are interested in?
Do you want a newborn baby from the United States? Or are you interested in adopting from foster care? International adoption? Older kids? Younger kids? Even those questions can send someone into a tailspin. Most of the time people have an inclination toward one or two areas.

If someone is interested in adopting from foster care I usually point them to adoptuskids.org or Google “Christian foster care” and then their state. There are great Christian agencies who work with foster kids in most states.

For families interested in private domestic adoption, here are a couple resources:

• The Adoption Guide
• Creating a Family – 25 Factors to Consider When Adopting from the United States

If international adoption is where your heart is, I always have families start with the State Department adoption website. They have information on every country that allows intercountry adoption. The list is quite long but obviously some of those countries are very difficult to adopt from. Still it will tell you exactly what the specific country requirements are. This is helpful because you will probably later discover that some agencies like to layer their own requirements on top of the country and you may or may not meet those. For example we had an agency turn us down because we did not meet their income requirements of having $10,000 income for each person in the family. That was not an requirement of the Ethiopian government so we found a different agency.

Later this month I’m going to blog about some of the most helpful adoption books.

What other websites or organizations would you add to this list?