As we began our second adoption these were two of the most common questions we were asked. Well, originally we had requested twins from China. So Grace and Haven have been the names of our daughters for a long, long time. As many of you know, Grace is named after my maternal grandmother. It was the perfect choice. Our darling Grace has so many personality traits in common with her Great Grandma Grace.
Haven was a more random choice. It is the first name of one of my favorite authors--Haven Kimmel. She wrote the hilarious autobiography "A Girl Named Zippy". You should all read it. It will make you feel good. Even you, Alicia! So Grace turned out not to have a twin, therefore, not long after bringing her home we started looking into getting her a sister. Initially we had assumed we would return to China. But the circumstances in China changed a great deal and the wait for a baby girl is now up to 4 years or more. And we are just too stinking old to wait another 4 years. So we started researching other countries and domestic adoptions.
I think that God just dropped Our Family Adoptions and the Democratic Republic of Congo in our laps. We were researching Ethiopia and I came across their website. Around the same time I had seen some work that another favorite author, Eve Ensler (a totally radical feminist playwright), was doing on behalf of the women of Congo. Something about it just kept calling to my heart. Many experts feel that there is no worse place in the world to be a woman. The war, the disease, the exploitation is all epidemic. So I knew our next daughter was going to come home to us from DRC. The picture above is a shot of several orphans in DRC taken during the most recent round of fighting on the border.
And so here we are, waiting for Haven from DRC. We have asked for a girl under 1 year old. Or maybe twins...or siblings... who knows. Parenthood has taught us to always expect the unexpected. And God has shown us that this is not our plan it is God's plan. So whoever Haven turns out to be, we already love the daughter we pray will be coming home to us soon!
Haven was a more random choice. It is the first name of one of my favorite authors--Haven Kimmel. She wrote the hilarious autobiography "A Girl Named Zippy". You should all read it. It will make you feel good. Even you, Alicia! So Grace turned out not to have a twin, therefore, not long after bringing her home we started looking into getting her a sister. Initially we had assumed we would return to China. But the circumstances in China changed a great deal and the wait for a baby girl is now up to 4 years or more. And we are just too stinking old to wait another 4 years. So we started researching other countries and domestic adoptions.
I think that God just dropped Our Family Adoptions and the Democratic Republic of Congo in our laps. We were researching Ethiopia and I came across their website. Around the same time I had seen some work that another favorite author, Eve Ensler (a totally radical feminist playwright), was doing on behalf of the women of Congo. Something about it just kept calling to my heart. Many experts feel that there is no worse place in the world to be a woman. The war, the disease, the exploitation is all epidemic. So I knew our next daughter was going to come home to us from DRC. The picture above is a shot of several orphans in DRC taken during the most recent round of fighting on the border.
And so here we are, waiting for Haven from DRC. We have asked for a girl under 1 year old. Or maybe twins...or siblings... who knows. Parenthood has taught us to always expect the unexpected. And God has shown us that this is not our plan it is God's plan. So whoever Haven turns out to be, we already love the daughter we pray will be coming home to us soon!
