Time Line

Our home study and psych evaluation went a little bit slower than we had hoped so I modified our time line. We have not done anything on the adoption in the last couple of weeks due to Hurricane Ike. The Houston INS office who is processing our petition to adopt a foreign born orphan has probably lost a week or two so our time line might end up needing to be extended a little more. We wish it would go faster but realize God directs the timing to achieve exactly what he wants...

Our Daily Prayer

Back in June we picked out the names Marty and Makai for our new boys. That might be the names we stick with but our daily prayer in the Shoulders house has been that God would take care of Marty and Makai...

Our Passion

We are stepping out on faith to adopt 2 boys. Our agency, Hand In Hand International Adoptions, is steering us towards the Bryansk region of Russia. Bryansk is one of the few regions in Russia that is still willing to adopt more than one un-related child to a family. That along with the fact that Bryansk does not give families any advance information about the children they are matching makes us ideally suited for that region because we learned a long time ago that ultimately we had to trust everyone involved in the adoption process in Russia- not for the feint of heart!

This adoption is going to cost around $50,000. We prayed for over a year about the financial piece and the Lord continues to focus our attention on adopting the boys. We are taking out loans for the agency and US fees which is about half. An organization called Kingdom Kids is helping us raise the money to help cover the orphanage and Russian support fees. We are seeking people to partner with us in this adoption journey. You will find a link to Kingdom Kids below.

Application Sent to Hand in Hand International Adoptions

It has been upon our hearts to go back to Russia for 5 or 6 years but it was in October of 2006 that God made it clear to us that we would adopt again. Since then we have been praying and considering when and how. The passion to adopt grew to the point that we began praying and talking about it with the kids. Once we pulled the name books out it was a done deal! The application to Hand In Hand International Adoptions in Tucson, Arizona is in the mail as of May 20, 2008. HERE WE GO!