December Update!

Wow!  So much has happened since my last post.  I went to India in November to continue our ongoing mission work there.  God did some amazing things during our time there.  In most of the villages that we went to, we were the first Americans that they had ever seen.  For those that know me, just let that thought sink it:-).  It's been almost a month since we got home and I am still trying to process all that took place.  Although the trip had the same format as other trips, it was definitely different from the rest.  For during this trip, I found myself looking at every child that we came across and wondering what our son would look like.  The good news is that every child I saw was absolutely beautiful.  When we went into Hindu homes and shared the gospel with whole families, my mind raced ahead to a time where we will be able to share the gospel with our son!  I truly cannot wait for the day that we  go to India for the purpose of bringing home the child that God has for us!

The moment that our flight landed in Atlanta, I got a text from Misti telling me that we were beginning our Home Study the next day.  Apparently our Social Worker was going to be in Jacksonville and wanted to go ahead and get the process started.  Although my body and mind were completely confused, the visit went very well (at least I think it did).  We have now had two visits with our social worker and we are really excited to see what the next few months will look like. We cannot wait to have our Home Study complete and to eventually be put on the wait list for a child.  Although we understand the this could be a long and difficult journey, we are encouraged any time we are able to take a step forward.  

We thank you so much for your continued prayers and support for us in this journey.  #ADOPTIONISREDEMPTION  

Basking in the Provision of God!

So much has happened since the last post.  I don't even know where to begin, so I'll just begin by praising God for His amazing faithfulness and provision.  The moment that we answered the call to adopt, we did so knowing that God was going to have to provide in very big ways.  Looking back over the last five months, I am amazed by just how much God has done in such a short time.  Through what we have been able to save, plus the gifts of so many who have come alongside of us, we have been able to raise over $8,000 toward our adoption.  We are so thankful to God and so humbled by the support of others.  

A few weeks ago, our Faith Family (FBC Oceanway) celebrated Pastor Appreciation Day by giving an opportunity for people to give towards our adoption.   I can't even begin to tell you how overwhelmed and humbled we were by their support.  God not only provides in monetary ways, but He also provides through the blessing of relationships.  I can't even begin to express how thankful I am for our Faith Family and for their love for us.  

To top it off, we also were notified back in August that someone had anonymously paid for our family to go on a cruise.  Therefore we have spent that past few days being pampered by Carnival Cruise Line and we've also eaten way too much.  Although this might not seem like it fits into our story, I can assure you that it does.  About a week before we were notified about the cruise, we had a conversation with our girls about some sacrifices that we would have to make as we raised money for the adoption.  One of the things that we discussed was that we would not be able to do a lot of family trips for a while.  A week later we were reminded that we serve a God that blesses us in more ways than we could ever imagine.  

Therefore, to put it all together, as of today this is where we stand with our adoption fees:

Application Fee: $125 (PAID)
Home Study Application: $300 (PAID)
Program Management Fee #1: $3,500 (PAID)
Refundable Home Study Deposit: $500 (PAID)
Home Study Cost: $2,250 (PAID)
Miscellaneous Fees: $7,500 (Raised $1,500)
Program Management Fee #2: $3,500 
Dossier Fees: $750
International Fee: $5,000
Child's Medical And Visa Fees: $600
Travel and Accommodation Fees: $6,000

We still have a long way to go (in both the adoption process and adoption funding) but we step into the future knowing the ONE who is already there.  Praise God from whom all blessings flow and thank you to everyone who has prayed for us and supported the child that God has for us.  

STRICKLAND ADOPTION PUZZLE FUNDRAISER!

According to the ABBA Fund website, 33% of Americans have considered adoption.  79% of those are concerned about the costs of adoption.  Less than 2% of those adopt.  Just let that one sink in for a moment.  When we first began to talk about adoption, we knew it would be expensive, but we did not know just how expensive.  The number that we are looking at is around $30,000.  When I first heard this number, my first response might have been...

That number is absolutely impossible for us!  Yet we know that nothing is impossible for God.  We also know that God sometimes meets needs through the generosity of others.  When we surrendered to the call to adopt, we knew that we would have to do fundraisers in order for this to be a reality. Yet there is nothing more humbling and scary than having to ask others for money.  THANKFULLY, WE WERE REMINDED THAT WE ARE NOT ASKING PEOPLE FOR MONEY, BUT ARE ASKING PEOPLE TO BE A PART OF OUR STORY - TO BE A PIECE OF OUR PUZZLE!

THEREFORE, WE ARE EXCITED TO INTRODUCE OUR PUZZLE FUNDRAISER!

Here's how it works:

• We had a good friend create an image that is very meaningful to us.  We then took this image and had it made into 700 + piece puzzle.  Every piece of this puzzle symbolizes someone who will help us bring our son home.  HERE IS OUR PUZZLE!

• We are "selling" each piece for a minimum donation of $20.  You can choose to be one piece of the puzzle or you can be several pieces of the puzzle.
• Once you purchase a piece, YOUR NAME will be written on the back of the puzzle piece.  

• After the puzzle is completed, we will frame the puzzle between two pieces of glass and hang it in our child's room.  This will be a wonderful and lasting reminder of every person who helped to bring our son home.  
• To purchase a puzzle piece via PayPal, click the "Donate" button that is in the right column of our blog or, if your don't yet trust the internet, you can email me at (micahstrickland@comcast.net) for our address and send a check in the mail.
• On Sunday, November 2nd, we will be celebrating Orphan Sunday at FBC Oceanway.  On this day, we will have puzzle pieces available to help bring "our little orphan" home.

We would be so honored for you to be a piece of our story.  Thank you in advance for your support and you prayers!  #StricklandFamilyAdoption   #AdoptionIsRedemption

"When a family seeks helps in raising funds for an adoption, it's not like asking people to pitch in toward a new boat, or help pay for a vacation.  What they are doing is committing to heal, with God's help, a child who has suffered the profound damage of being unwanted and unloved.  They are obediently living out the command given in James 1:27 to care for the orphan, clothing the gospel of Christ's redemption in flesh and blood and now.  When they ask for the body of Christ to come alongside them financially and prayerfully, they are giving us the opportunity to be a part of the miracles God works through obedience." - Ashley Paradis Moreno

The Journey of a Eight Thousand Miles

The calling of adoption is truly a journey – a long, difficult, uphill both ways kind of journey.  It begins when God places a seed of desire (and hope) into a person’s heart.  It continues when a couple (or individual) answers the call of God to care for the orphan through adoption.  YET, THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE CALL OR EVEN THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE CALL IN NO WAY MARKS THE END OF THE ADOPTION PROCESS BUT ONLY ITS BEGINNING.  We have had many conversations lately with people who innocently assumed that because we had announced that we were adopting, then the child must certainly be on the way.  In the words of the Esurance commercial: “That’s not how it works!  That’s not how any of this works!”  Therefore, I wanted to give everyone a glimpse of where we are in this journey and what the timeline typically looks like for Indian adoption.  It’s also important to understand that the adoption timeline is subject to change for many reasons and at any time.

Earlier this summer, we began the process of choosing an adoption agency that had successful experiences with Indian adoptions.  The sad reality is that only 1,866 Indian children have been adopted by families living outside of India since 2010 (with only 660 of those being adopted in America).  In fact, there were only 119 children adopted to the U.S. from India in 2013.  Although these numbers are enough to make anyone second guess God’s calling, we held firm believing that God was indeed leading us to adopt from India.  In August, we decided to go with Dillon International, an adoption agency in Tulsa, OK.  They have been adopting children to the U.S. from India since 1980. The more we researched them and learned of their heart for God and for the orphan, the more at peace we were with entrusting the steps of journey to them.

 Not long after contacting Dillon, we received more information and more paperwork than we could ever have imagined.  We got through the initial application fairly quickly and were approved the same day that our paperwork arrived.  Then came the daunting task of our Home Study Application (which normally takes a few months to complete).  By the grace of God, we got through it in exactly one month and we have been approved to begin our Home Study.  Yeah!!!  Unfortunately, we are not able to move forward at this time because of the finances.  We are required to pay around $7,000 upfront to get our Home Study going.  Although this is a daunting number which truly exceeds what’s in our bank account at this moment, we are believing God to do that which is impossible for us. 

Once we are able to begin the Home Study, the process should take up to three months.  Once we are approved, then comes the most difficult part of waiting for a child to be referred to us.  As in many countries, the only children that are available for US citizens are children with minimal to severe special needs.  When we started with Dillon, we were asked to fill out a lengthy questionnaire which required us to list what type of needs we would be willing to consider.  And just let that statement sink in for a second!  Although this was by far the most overwhelming thing we have done up to this point, Misti and I were in perfect agreement that we are willing to accept a child with minor to correctible special needs.  The hard part is going to be waiting for a child that matches our questionnaire.  This process could take up to a year (and even longer). 

Once we do finally receive a referral, we will have a few weeks to take all the information and meet with our pediatrician as well as spend a lot of time in concentrated prayer with our family and our Faith Family.  Once we approve the referral, then we wait up to 18 months to be able to bring our son home.  The whole adoption process could last as long as 24-36 months.  Although we are praying that somehow this process will go quicker, we are also preparing ourselves for the longest wait of our lives. 

We ask that you continue to pray with us and for us as we wait upon the Lord.  We will be making an announcement soon concerning a Fund Raiser that will help with our adoption costs.  Again, we do not want our adoption to be a burden to any of you, but to be a blessing to anyone that is willing to walk alongside of us in this journey.  We have started this journey and we will not stop until we are at home with our son!  #stricklandfamilyadoption #adoptionisredemption

An Open Book?

Have you ever met someone who did not mind sharing all of there personal information with you?  If you have a Facebook account, then you have definitely met those people (and maybe you are those people).  If you are, thank you for the entertainment you provide:-).  Well, in case you do not know us, we are not those people.  I don't know if its just my personality or if it is the fact that I grew up as a Pastor's kid, but I am normally not very comfortable sharing personal information with others.  Now that I am a pastor, it is very difficult for me and my family to open up and share our lives with others.  Our walls do not come down easily.  

And then we were led to adopt!  And everything has changed.  In the past three months, we have been forced to open our lives up like never before.  We have been asked questions about our family...questions about our marriage...questions about health...questions about our finances...questions about our parenting philosophy...questions about our spiritual beliefs...questions about the type of child we desire...and questions about how we will love and care for a child that is not biologically ours.  And in answering these questions, we have been forced to let total strangers into very private areas of our life.  If not for the calling of God over our lives and the grace of God in our lives, it would have been easy for us run away from all of the prying and run back to a place of privacy and security. 

Yet, retreating is no longer an option for us!  For we know that there is a little boy in India, who we have never met, yet our hearts are filled with love for him and our hearts ache at the thought of being separated from him.  We have no idea whether he has even been born, yet he is growing in our hearts and is running through our minds in ways that are impossible for us to even explain.  As we pray for him and as our hearts ache for him, we know that we must be able to do whatever it takes to bring him home.  Even if it means putting ourselves (and our business) out there for the world to see.  We will do whatever it takes!

With that said, the Strickland family is inviting you into our lives - and into our adoption journey.  Not only do we want people to follow our story (so that God may be glorified in it all); we need people who will stand behind us and walk beside us every step of the way. We know that God has called us to do what is impossible for us, yet we are very thankful that all things are very possible for Him.  I pray that our lives and our story will not become burdensome to you, but will be a blessing and a reminder of the goodness and grace of God to us all! #ADOPTIONISREDEMPTION

WHY ADOPTION? WHY INDIA?

Since going public with our plans to adopt a son from India, there are two questions that we are having to answer on a regular basis: 1) Why are you adopting?  and 2) Why are you adopting from India?  Although there is a simple yet powerful answer for both questions (GOD), we know that most people who are asking these questions, really want to hear a little more of our story and what led us to this huge decision. Therefore, let me try to answer both of these questions as humbly and concisely as I possibly can.

James 1:27 declares that, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted by the world.”  Our motivation to adopt a child centers on the clear calling of God in our lives.  In 2009, while at a Women of Faith Conference, Misti heard the call of God to adopt.  Instead of coming right home and having a conversation with me (which may or may not have gone well), she decided to pray and ask God to reveal His calling to me, in His perfect timing.  About eight months later when I was at the Southern Baptist Convention, God made that calling very clear in my life.  In fact, God spoke to my heart so powerfully and clearly that there was no way that I could argue with it.  My only concern in that moment was how Misti was going to respond to this news.  Thankfully, God had already worked that out:-).  After having many conversations together, neither one of us believed that the timing was right for our family.   Earlier this summer, God united our family and confirmed His calling on us and confirmed His perfect timing for us.  Therefore, the main reason that we are desiring to adopt is because of the clear call of God over our lives.

Now comes the more difficult question: WHY INDIA?  Over the last month, there have been many well meaning people that have questioned our desire to adopt internationally as opposed to adopting from America.  At times I've walked away from these conversations feeling more like Benedict Arnold than Mother Teresa.   Yet, the only answer that I can give is to tell our story which has its beginning, middle, and end in God.  In 2012, I took my first trip to India with our church to work alongside the International Mission Board and the Indian Baptist Society.  God quickly confirmed in my heart that He was calling our church to join the ongoing efforts of the IMB and IBS in taking the gospel to the unengaged and unreached people in the state of Karnataka.  This November, I plan on taking my fourth trip to India and Lord willing, plan on many other trips for the purpose of proclaiming the Gospel to a people who have little to no access to it.  Because of this mission that God has placed in the heart of our church and in the heart of our family, it became very clear to us that God was calling us to adopt from India.  It will not be easy and it will not be quick, but we know that God has called us to take a child that is destined to have little to no chance of hearing the Gospel, and not only make him our own (and show him as much love as we can possibly give him), but also point him to the only Savior of sinners in the world!     

This is our story (which is really His story) and by the His grace, we are sticking to it!  #Adoptionisredemption!

STRICKLAND Party of 5!!!!!

We are so humbled to announce that God has called our family to international adoption. By God's grace and in His perfect timing, we will be adopting a little boy from India. Although we are in the early stages of this process, we would ask you to to pray for us during this long and difficult journey. We are believing that every step we take will lead us to the little boy that God has picked specifically for us.  We will be waiting for the day that we are able to bring him home!

We are creating this blog to keep everyone up-to-date with where we are in our journey.  We know that there will be moments of rejoicing as we share the good news that we receive.   Yet we also know that there will be moments that we share the difficulties of adoption - when things don't work out like we thought they would. And although every card that we are dealt in this journey might not always seem good or fair to us at the time, we pray that we would recognize that God is the Sovereign dealer of every card, therefore, we choose to trust Him!

As we keep up with this blog, it is our desire to be honest and transparent as we share the highs and lows of international adoption. As we take each step in this journey, it is our prayer that God will use our story to call others to follow the story that He has written for them.  We ask that you would pray for our family as we begin this journey of redemption!  #ADOPTION IS REDEMPTION