Home Sweet Home

The journey begins...

We got approved for a loan to purchase a house here in Pittsboro. They laid the foundation this week and will start working on the frame next week. We are very excited and very scared. We are excited because we have never owned a home but also scared because everyone keeps giving us advice.

We were surprised when we got approved for the loan because we went in to apply on a whim. Literally. We just drove up to this neighborhood, picked out a house and applied. It has been a long process and there were times that I had given up but Karin continued to believe that it would work out. Finally, we got a call last week saying everything was a go. So what does this mean for our time in Pittsboro?

I would venture to say that we are not going anywhere anytime soon. I guess it depends on who you are whether this is good or bad news but for us it's great news. I am having a lot of fun at my job, Karin loves working with Bethany Christian services and Tayler loves school. We are in a very good place right now.

With Karin working at Bethany (it's a Christian adoption agency) we have begun looking at international adoption. We have always talked about having a large family made up of biological, adopted and foster kids. It was actually one of the things that drew us together. However, after almost six years of marriage, we have not had any biological children. We were foster parents and have had over a dozen children live with us.

While I value that experience and would never change it for anything it did leave me with a lot of pain. We had two girls that we absolutely loved and had the hope of adoption. That hope was crushed as we chose to place them with another family in order to move to Indiana. We made our choice because it was the best one for our family. I'm glad we made it too because the girls still are not eligible for adoption (which can be a whole other blog).

But, this did leave me angry and bitter toward the foster care system. It has taken me several years to allow God to start opening and healing that part of my heart again. I just cannot ignore the need and be honest to who God has made me. I did not want to make any decisions about adoption or foster parenting until we knew something about our house. Now that we know we are moving forward with the adoption or foster parenting.

This is extremely scary but I do trust God's plan. We will be going to a couple of information meetings over the next couple of months to decide which we want to do first- foster parenting or international adoption. I know eventually we will be doing both but for now I believe we can only handle one or the other.

I am glad that God has opened the door for us to stay in Pittsboro a little longer. This was a great (and unexpected) move for our family. But, I can look back over the past three years and see how we have grown as individuals, a couple and as a family.

We will be journaling more extensively about our home and adoption (with all of us commenting and pictures) at this blog address if you want to walk with us on this journey. We are excited to see where this journey leads us.

-Brian