The Journey Begins, as does the blogging! Jan 22, 2011

I'm sure that everyone is curious as to how things are going to be happening with the process of our adoption, and it seems to me that the easiest way to get the word to anyone who happens to be interested is to try this blog thing, so here I go!

Ron and I have always talked about adoption and what a wonderful thing it is - the chance to give some children opportunities and a family that they might not otherwise have.  After years of trying to have children of our own and being very unsuccessful, even with the help of fertility specialists, we decided - to make a very long story short - that it is time to take that next step.....we are going to adopt (insert cheering here)!

But how to begin this process?  I spent many, many hours pouring over the internet - looking at different web sites and at different pictures of children available NOW - that is very misleading by the way.....no child is available now.....and trying to figure out how to start.  One thing we knew - we were very interested in adopting children from Poland.  It seems like such an obvious fit for us, and Ron is so in love with the country and it's people that I also thought, "sure, sounds great!"  But then what....?

First I made some email inquiries....no responses (how rude!).  Then, we made an appointment about three years ago with a local agency and after we walked out of that office, both Ron and I thought that there is no way we can do this.  These people made it sound like we were on our own, and that their assistance would be minimal....this seemed so impossible to me....how in the world could we do this and not have tons of help?  I closed my heart to it and thought that I guess this is just not going to happen.

But then after three years had passed and we arrived at July 2010, Ron came home to find me on the computer looking at pictures of orphans on a site called Rainbowkids.com.  He said, "okay - call Lutheran Social Services, we need to try this again."  So we met with a wonderful woman named Beth and knew that this time it was the right place at the right time.

We began our paperwork in August of 2010 and are awaiting our finalized home study....talk about hauling on that paperwork!  There is so much to do it's unreal.  We are grateful for the unfailing support of our families and our close friends.  It's an ivestment of not only time and money, but of heart as well and I can't believe that someday - perhaps soon - we will be more than just Ron and Carla, we will be the Dul Family!

More to come later!  Thanks for reading!