We are now the proud parents of two new sons – Lukas (age 8) and Michael (age 4)!!! After  1,698 days (4 years & 7 months)  of living in a Polish orphanage/institution, these two brothers are finally home as members of our family. The adoption journey of Lukas and Michael is one of the hardest, most uncertain times of our lives (second only to Mike’s deployment to Iraq in 2006-2007). The joy of having them home now, especially as we prepare to celebrate our first Christmas as a family of 7 is not easy to put into words.

First of all, this has been the hardest secret to keep. Due to many restrictions placed on our family and the sensitivity of International adoptions, we were not able to share this news until it was official. Believe us, we have wanted to shout from the rooftops how incredibly blessed and grateful we are. As most of you know, we’ve been in the process of adopting two precious brothers for the last 20+ months. We were officially matched in January 2018 and spent 7 months waiting, worrying and fearing the worst. Every US family seeking to adopt in Poland received denial letters between March and August this year. In mid-August, Poland informed us via letter that “it was no longer in the best interest of the boys” to be adopted internationally. For over 2 months we prayed and worked closely with our agency to build our case requesting reconsideration.  On October 29th, the ministry reversed their decision and we were granted approval to continue proceeding with our adoption.  We finally traveled on November 16th to meet the boys for the first time and after two weeks of bonding we came home on December 1st. Due to the extreme sensitivity of our case, and because the adoption was not final until December 16th, we haven’t been allowed to share any of this publicly (until now!).

We look forward to sharing more of our story with you – it’s one that should be told. There are still many families who were also given no chance to appeal who need much prayer. We only hope that our story will also give others hope.