I haven't posted in a while because we've been keeping a secret...we are becoming parents through the miracle of adoption!!! Grab a snack, drink and a box of tissues because this post is going to be a long one! We'll start at the beginning...the very beginning...
I struggled with where to begin our story and have come to the conclusion that our adoption story started over 2000 years ago, when our Lord and Savior Jesus was born to a virgin Mary and was adopted by his earthly father Joseph. Isaac and I were fortunate to be born into earthly families with both a mom and a dad to care for us. However, spiritually we were orphans. We were both adopted into the family of God when we gave our lives to Christ as children and our lives have never been the same...this acceptance into a new family ignited our passion for adoption.
Isaac and I met for the first time the day before the official start of my freshman year of college. We met at a BSU progressive dinner...Isaac was there to meet the freshman girls; I was there to make friends. We didn't reconnect until the following Spring Break on a mission trip through our church and we've been together ever since. Very early on in our dating life we discussed tough issues that face married couples, such as: "what would you do if you and your spouse were unable to have biological children?" We both answered that we would choose adoption. We fell in love and married on July 10, 2004. During the first couple of years of marriage we often talked about adopting our youngest child, my China baby girl. This discussion then turned to thoughts of adopting more than one child if we had a biological boy and girl first. Then the summer of 2007 came and with it the big move to Tampa Bay, FL. Around the time of our move I started dreaming about a little black boy with big brown eyes and in my dreams he was my child even though he looked nothing like me. I began to pray more about adoption and I prayed that God would open Isaac's heart to the possibility of adopting our first child. In December of 2008, Isaac and I began seriously discussing starting our family and he stated his desire for us to start trying to conceive a child the following December. For whatever reason, this fueled in me an even greater passion to adopt! We celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary in July 2009 with a trip to Savannah and Hilton Head Island. We looked at each other on this trip and both said, "I'm not ready!", and decided to postpone starting a family for a long time. As Christmas approached, the thought of "what if we were ready" kept playing in my mind. I also started dreaming about that little boy again, except this time his picture was on a Christmas card. He was sitting in front of a Christmas tree beaming with his arm around a little Asian girl and the card read "Treesh Family" on the bottom right-hand corner. Right after Christmas 2009, my adopted children were born in my heart. I just knew that adoption was God's plan for our family, but convincing Isaac was another story. I continued to pray, began sharing more of my heart's desire and quoting scripture from Isaiah 43:5, "Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the East, and you from the West." Through many scripture verses, circumstances and prayer, God confirmed over and over again to Isaac that this was His perfect plan for the start of our family and he could not deny it any longer. It was time for us to step out in faith.
Isaac agreed with me to submit an info sheet to Gladney Adoption Agency on January 24th, 2010 after seeing a picture of an Ethiopian baby girl flashed on the big screen at church who was being adopted by one of our fellow church families (again, confirmation!). Two days later, I got the first call from Gladney to set up our 1st interview which occurred on February 3, 2010. Debra put us at total ease during that call and we knew that we had made the right choice in choosing Gladney to help us navigate this road to adoption. When we hung up the phone, Isaac looked at me all misty-eyed and I knew that he was totally on-board and excited to become a father to the fatherless.
We officially started the mound of paperwork on February 5, 2010 to adopt from Ethiopia. We've requested a baby boy 0-12 months with the possibility of twins. If we adopt one boy his name will be Isaiah Roberts Treesh...if two, the second will be named Elijah Roberts Treesh. Roberts is a family name and it is important to us that our adopted children have family names to solidify their permanence in our family. Isaac fondly refers to them as "IRT" and "ERT". We are praying about requesting twins-only at this time. We've since begun sharing our big news...our family and friends who we've told have all been incredibly supportive and excited for us...it means so much that everyone would rallying around us, pray for us, laugh with us, cry with us, and look forward to the future with us. We are going to need all the encouragement we can get since this road is at least 14 months long and we only completed the first 6 weeks!
The adoption process hasn't been all peachy though, last week we got the bad news that we will be required to travel twice to Ethiopia. The first trip will include a court date and meeting our child/ren. The second trip will be to bring our child/ren home! I cried for 3 days over this change, not because I mind traveling twice or am worried about the extra expense but because I cannot imagine meeting and loving my babies and handing them back to the orphanage, getting on a plane, and leaving them for weeks until I can return to bring them home permanently! I told Isaac that I might have to leave him there during the interim and he can work remotely from Africa and visit his sons everyday. Poor Isaac knows that I'm halfway serious too! I'm praying that this rule will change back to only one travel week and that all of the families that are facing a huge financial mountain over this change will be comforted and that the funds will be provided.
Thanks for letting us share the beginnings of our next big adventure with you! If you have questions, please leave a comment...I'll do a Q&A post in the future. God bless!
