STUCK

So this post is really not much about my own adoption journey, but it is really about something that I want to make you aware of and hopefully you will make all of your friends aware of.

Last night my husband and I attended a screening of the documentary "STUCK" at the Kenwood Theater in Cincinnati.  What an amazing experience!  First we had a nice quiet dinner at one of our favorite Jeff Ruby Steakhouses, Carlos & Johnny, before heading to the 7:00pm showing. It was a completely sold out event and we sat in the packed out stadium style theater with about 250 other people who were not sure what to expect from the provocative film about international adoption.

What we got with this compelling film was an incredible look into the plight of orphans around the world and families that are fighting to bring many of them home. This is something so near and dear to my heart as an advocate for families, women and unborn children in my career and also as an adoptive mother myself and one who is now on the waiting list for a child from China. 

While my family is not "stuck" in our adoption process at this time (we are waiting to be matched with a child) we are well over 2 years into the process and understand the incredible obstacles a family or individual must contend with in order to provide a loving home for a child who is without one. It can be maddening sometimes as you write check after check for each step of the way and fill out stacks of paperwork, undergo a litany of back ground checks, mental and physical health checks, financial screening and numerous other "hoops" before you can even be "approved" to adopt a child internationally - all of this while currently mom and dad to 4 healthy happy children in your home already!! "Crazy" is really not the correct word for how sad this system is and how unfair it is to the millions of children who are orphans and want nothing more than a family - a family who is probably wanting them just as badly but either can't or is trying to navigate through all of these obstacles to bring them home :(

I guess I will stop my rant and just conclude by saying that the organization who produced this film,  Both Ends Burning, is doing remarkable work to get the policies and laws changed that has caused international adoption in this country to decrease by 50% in the last five years - 50%! That means that the approximately 10 million orphans in this world have a very slim chance of ever having a family if something doesn't change - something has to change!  This film and this organization - with help of people just like you and me - is making a change.

Please take a moment to watch this trailer and this informational video (less than 10 minutes for both!) and then find out where you can see this film near you! It is life changing - you CAN make a difference ....we all can!! :)

On the event "red carpet" with attorney Kelly Ensslin , who has dedicated countless hours to this cause (what an incredible and inspirational woman!) & Executive Producer, Craig Juntunen.

 (I am crazy bright in this pic - my husband says I make pictures "hot"...I thought he was being sweet and then I realized that it is actually a photography term for when the light reflects all crazy and bright off of a person or object like this - LOL!)

I hope that you will all take a moment to explore this film and the cause behind it. Please, if your life has been touched in any way by adoption I would love to hear about it!  It is my passion and I believe my calling in life to advocate for :)

Blessings!

Connections......

So my last update was just a few weeks ago (less than a month) and I have so much to update!

One kind of fun thing that really has nothing to do with my blogging about our adoption journey is that I was featured in a local magazine. It does have everything to do with helping to raise awareness about the blessing of adoption. In the article this blog (www.tyeadoptionjourney.blogspot.com) was mentioned, as well as, me being an adoption advocate. The writer did leave a few things out that I was sad about like the fact that I am a Client Educator at a local pregnancy care center: Pregnancy Care of Cincinnati. Why is that so important to me?  Because it would have been awesome to have some attention brought to this organization that does so much good locally for women, children and families. It also is a key ministry in many happy adoption stories for many families.
I actually began volunteering for this organization as a direct result of the adoption of our daughter, Gabrielle, even though her particular circumstance had nothing to do with Pregnancy Care of Cincinnati. I do, however, speak with women every week that share a very similar story and situation to our baby girl's birth mom.  I was blessed to be able to meet with one young woman just in the last 4 months that has chosen life and a family via an open adoption for her unborn baby.  This couple is one, like many couples, who has tried desperately for years to conceive a child and been unable.  Through a serious of events (and God's gently guiding hand) this birth mother and this couple's paths' crossed and now they will forever be connected by this precious life that they both will love so much.

I can't tell you what it feels like to watch God move in people's lives like that!  It was one thing to see it in my own life, but to know what it took to bring this event about it nothing short of miraculous!  I wish I could share all the details with you and someday I hope to be able to do so in a little more detail. Just suffice it to say that God used my involvement with PCC and my own adoption story to reach this mother at precisely the time she needed it.  He then used others to connect this same birth mother to the family that was meant for her child who certainly had been praying that God would give them a child to love. I am so thankful that I have been also able to get to know this precious birth mother. What a blessing she has been to me as I have spoken with her and watched her walk out His plan. Praise God for His Sovereignty!

Another amazing thing is that we have come to a decision that we are certainly continuing on with adopting a little girl (our daughter because I know that God already has her set aside for our family!) from China - yay!  Just a few weeks ago we were not positive that was to still be our journey.  God has given us the clear desire and direction for our daughter in China and we could not be more excited.  With that has come all the updating of our international home study and lots of new and updated paperwork, finger printing, back ground checks, medical updates, etc. so that we can continue toward bringing our daughter in China home.  We are now officially back on "the list" and are only 2nd in line to receive our referral - this is what they call the file that you receive that gives you all the information about a child (any background info they may have - in China this is usually where the child was "found", medical information, DOB(or estimate), pictures, etc.) . It is from that referral that you decide whether or not to move forward with adopting that child (accepting the referral).  After that decision is made we would most likely travel to China about 4 months later to pick-up our child and bring her home.  There is a mandatory 2 week time frame that we would have to stay in China with our little girl before traveling back to the States. At this time we are being told that will most likely happen before the end of this year.

God has been so faithful through this whole process even when we had no idea which way to go. As we have been seeing this part of our journey come together we continue to be amazed at how He has had all of this planned out so perfectly long before we ever knew how it would come together. I am sure that in the coming months we will see even more of His amazing love that I hope to be able to share with you.

Today I enjoyed lunch with an incredible girl, Amy, that I went to high school with. It is amazing how much our lives have paralleled each other's (# and even sex of biological children, adoption of baby girls, church involvement, passions and, of course, our love for Jesus Christ, etc!) even though we were not really friends in high school and only reconnected with each other through mutual friends and our 15 year high school reunion a couple of years ago.  It has made me actually feel a little bit sad that we have missed out on growing up together in our relationships and parallel journeys over these last 15 - 20 years.
Again, God's timing is perfect and while we have both been on our own separate paths God has crossed those paths at precisely the right time in both of our lives.
It was wonderful to sit down and enjoy her for a solid 2 hours today though. Her adoption journey is inspiring and so miraculous. It is the encouragement I needed at precisely the time God knew I needed it. I really hope that we are able to continue building on this friendship. There was just something that clicked in my soul with her today....you what it is like to feel like someone "gets you" even when you aren't sure that you "get you"?  Haha - okay maybe that is just me! :)

Speaking of friendships; this evening Derek and I are so excited to spend some time with one of the couples who have been so supportive throughout this process. Lori is a girlfriend that I also went to school with and wasn't really friends with back then either (two classmates in one day - awesome!). We connected about 6 or 7 years after high school and have really been close since then. Lori and her husband, Abe, have 5 children and while none are adopted they have always been so excited every time we add another child to our family by any means(as we have been as we watched them add on with their last two babies)!  They have a big traditional Catholic family and truly live the "more the merrier" mentality - I love it!  Every time I talk to Lori she is so anxious to hear about how our process is going and if we think we will adopt more children.  Being a believer she also feels that God has a plan for our lives and is excited to see how He is weaving it all together :)

So I guess that pretty much sums up everything I wanted to get down in black and white from the past few weeks. It helps me so much to type all this out so I don't forget the timeline and details or this amazing journey.  I know that I am not only writing about the story of our adoption journey as we are living it, but I am also documenting Gabrielle's journey that she will someday read and now picking back up on the adoption journey of our Chinese daughter. Wherever she is, her story has already begun with our family.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support!
Jessica (and the entire Tye family :)


"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His Holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families......" Psalms 68:5-6

"My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place, when I was made together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days of my life were written in Your book before one of them came to be." Psalms 139

"For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out; "Abba, Father"! Romans 8:15