Welcome - ยินดีต้อนรับ

Hello all family and friends!

With great excitement, we started our adoption journey in August 2008. We are now first time parents through adoption of an 8-year-old son from Thailand. We have chosen to build our family through the adoption of a son from Thailand because this is where we feel God is leading us right now.

It took 1 year and 9 months to bring Ray home and it was totally worth it!

We appreciate all of your love and support. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
Ann & Bryan

Monday, September 28, 2009

Fall Doubts

Still no news and no paperwork from Thailand. We have another new social worker at WACAP named Liz and she lived in Thailand for a little while and speaks the language. Hopefully this is a good thing and perhaps she'll be able to pull through with our paperwork. We can only hope and pray. But, still, the way things are going it looks like we may be waiting until early 2010 to bring Ray home. We were really looking forward to Christmas with him this year and we're saddened to think it may not happen by then.

So, until we hear something...we'll continue to prepare his room, read up on parenting and bonding, read articles online, chat online with other adoptive families, attend adoption conferences, learn the Thai language, and cherish the photos and videos we have of him all over our house. We already have some bilingual books and CDs to send to him with WACAP's upcoming trip, in time for his 8th birthday on November 4th. We even got a new family-friendly vehicle (Vibe) so we're ready to haul him and his friends around to school activities. Gotta keep moving forward...even if the paperwork is at a halt.

Please keep those prayers going Ray's direction!
Why are we adopting internationally and not domestically?
While we think adopting domestically is extremely important, our hearts are drawn to the waiting children in other countries. Some of our closest friends and relatives have adopted, are adopted themselves, or are planning to adopt internationally. This has been a wonderful experience for them, as I am confident our adoption will be for us.

Why are we adopting from Thailand?
The number one reason is simply...that's where our son is living right now. Also, the Thai people are extremely laid back and friendly and the adoption process is very straight forward in Thailand and has been around for decades so there should be no surprises or corruption. After researching our other options, the requirements to adopt from Thailand fit our requirements. If we decide to adopt again, we will reevaluate the different countries and domestic programs.