The "Official" Beginning of Our Journey

On May 21st, 2007 we signed a contract with Bethany Christian Services to start the process of adopting from Kazakhstan. Thus, began our journey. So, how did we come to the decision to adopt from Kazakhstan? First, we had to decide whether to adopt domestically or internationally. After spending a lot of time in prayer and in discussion with our friends who have adopted, we felt that God was calling us to adopt internationally. Plus, deciding to adopt internationally made a lot of sense to us because we travel a lot and have grown accustomed to feeling like citizens of the world. Since 2003, we have traveled to many foreign countries both individually and together. We also had the opportunity to live overseas for 14 months in 2005-2006. Because of this lifestyle of traveling that we have adopted over the last couple of years, we have developed a level of comfort and ease with traveling and living in foreign countries that has lead us to feel very international. So, we decided to pursue international adoption.
Next, we had to decide which country we wanted to adopt from. We were originally thinking that we would like to adopt from a South American country like Colombia or Guatemala because I speak a little bit of Spanish. However, after speaking with friends of ours about which adoption agency to use, they told us that Bethany Christian Services adopts out of Kazakhstan and that we might be interested in signing up with them. Well, as soon as I (Jaclyn) heard that, it was like my heart jumped out of my body and got on a plane and flew to Kazakhstan and has remained there since that day.
So, you're probably wondering why I (Jaclyn) would have such an intense reaction to hearing that we could adopt from Kazakhstan. Well, we really believe that this was God's plan all along because our first international missions trip together (and my first time out of the country) was to Kazakhstan in 2003. We were part of a bible study for young married couples and our leaders wanted us all to go on a missions trip together. So, from July 3rd through July 13th, the sixteen of us traveled to Almaty, Kazakhstan to minister to a group of new believers (or as they say, "followers of Isa"). This was an amazing time for us and we absolutely fell in love with the Kazakh people. Our whole team made some amazing friendships that are still going to this day. So, you can see why we got so excited about the possibility of adopting out of Kazakhstan. It's especially comforting to look back and see that while we thought we were just going to Kaz for a week, God knew that it was just the beginning of a life-long connection with the people of Kaz! We are so excited to welcome two Kazakh children into our family and to incorporate their culture as our own!