Beginning Post

Welcome to my blog. I decided to start a blog because we are adopting and I want to be able to easily update my family and friends. I might also include an occasional update of regular family life.

First off, let me introduce myself and my family. My name is Julie and I am 30 years old. I have been married for 10 years to my sweetie Ryan, who is also 30. Ryan works at his family owned business, Colepak, and I stay at home with our 3 kiddos. Leah just turned 9 and is in 3rd grade. Logan is 6 1/2 and is in 1st grade and Madeline is almost 15 months. We homeschool the two oldest. We are a family who love God and each other.

Now that you know a little more about me the next topic I should cover is to answer the question "why are we adopting?" The easy answer to that is "we want more children." Ryan and I have always hoped to have a larger family. After we gave birth to Logan we thought we were well on our way. But, God had other plans. It took over 4 years and a lot of heartache (including a failed adoption to Russia) before we were able to add another child to our family. As blessed as we are, we don't feel like our family is complete with 3. Adoption is something that has been on our hearts for years now. Back when we started our adoption process for Russia (3 1/2 years ago), it was a relatively easy decision for us to make. Ryan and I both knew we could love an adopted child as much as we loved our bio ones and we were willing to put the extra effort into adding a child/children to our family. We feel the same way now. I will say though, that while wanting to grow our family is our main reason for adopting, there are a host of other reasons for us to bring an adopted child/children into our home. To me, adoption is one way to extend God's love to someone else. There are so many children around the world that need a family. God desperately loves those children and I am thrilled that our family can have a part showing a child who God is and how much He cares about them. I also love what our current children will have the opportunity to learn throughout this adoption. Maybe they will understand selflessness an unconditional love a little better when this process in complete.

"Why Guatemala," is probably the next reasonable question to answer. Having children already at home had to be a main consideration when chosing a country. Guatemala is a relatively short flight (compared to Russia at least), they stay in country is relatively short and there is flexibility when it comes to Ryan and I traveling. Another top reason we chose Guatemala is because the children are typically healthy and have great care (usually foster care). To be honset I don't really know much about the Guatemalan culture, but I am excited to learn!

Well, I think this post is long enough. I will add in a little bit about our process thus far. I will also add pictures of our beautiful referrals!!!

Julie