china

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

When, When, When..................................

I have been getting so many questions as to when??? When will you be traveling to Russia, when will you bring your child(ren) home?

The only answer that I can give is it will be a while. There are several steps that we have to complete before we go to Russia. So I thought I would provide a little snippet as to how this process is going to work, or at least our understanding.

- * Initial application- Which has been completed.

- * Parenting classes- Currently in the process of completing these.

- * Home study- There is a ton of paperwork that is entailed in this. Including but not limited to, medical exams, psychological exams, auto biographies, and having a social worker coming to visiting our home to deem it fit. (This is also something we are praying for. We are currently in search of a home as our lease will be up in just a few short months)

- * Documents go off to Russia….. And we wait……… Then we wait some more……

- * We are hoping that our referral will comes in 10-12 months (that is the current average wait time)

- * Then we get our first travel date. We will spend 4-5 days in Russia meeting and bonding with our child(ren). We then come home (something I cannot fathom in leaving without her).

- * We then wait 2-4 months for our final court date. That is where we go for three weeks and bring our little one home.

So as you can see we have a good bit to do before we complete our family. There will be a ton of paper work (Hence someone saying we are paper pregnant) and a lot of waiting.

I have also mentioned children…. There is a possibility that we may be bringing home twins. Crazy we know, we had to fill out our referral and put either a little girl or a set of twins.

As I stated above, we are currently in search of a home. We feel that God is leading us to purchase and settle down for a little bit. Please be in prayer about that. Along with just prayer for our child(ren) as well. For protection for her or them, the people taking care of her (them) as she (they) waits to become part of our family.

Much love- J

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

New Agreement Signed!!!!

We were very excited to find out that on the 13th a new adoption agreement was signed between the US and Russia. This agreement has been a long time coming and we are hoping that it makes adoptions between the two countries a little bit easier.

Why did this agreement need to be signed again???? A few years ago a woman from TN put her adopted son back on the plane to Moscow because she could not handle him. This act haulted adoptions between the two countries and the agreement for processing adoptions was canceled. Through the past couple of years the requirements have changed and adoptions have slowly moved forward. We are praying that the signing of this agreement is a positive action not only for us but for all the other families who are in the process of adoption.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Part 2......


So fast forward a bit, I came back from China (which rocked my world) and I moved to GA. Subsequently, I ended up marrying Michael. We had met in 1998 at my sister’s wedding and stayed in touch for all of those years across so many miles.

Through the process of our courtship, we went through some pretty intensive pre-marital counseling. When the discussion of children came up, I had brought up my desire and call to adopt. He was not all that open to the idea. I spent a great deal of time praying…. God reassured me that I needed to give Him time; he would work on Michael’s heart. On June 27, 2009 the Bowden Family was born.

About 16 months after we had been married, I had gone to a conference called Catalyst. It was a great two days on leadership, but something greater happened, once again adoption was confirmed. For a moment, I was the only one in an arena full of thousands. I went and gathered as much information from the adoption agencies that were there and came home. I placed all of the information on the table, gave them to Michael and said we will be adopting, I was just waiting for him to be ready.

Valentine’s day 2011, Michael had a felt box waiting for me, in it was a locket, inside the locket was a bible verse James 1:27- “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” He told me that he was ready to start the adoption process and confirmed that a little girl would be joining our family.

We spent the next few months praying, along with asking others to pray for us as we sought after where she was and what agency we were going to go through to get her. After an initial application, on Father’s Day we signed papers of commitment to move forward with the adoption. That is when we began to share the news with our friends and family.

We have set this blog up to let you know OUR journey, the ups and downs of adoption and all the in between until we bring our little girl home. We are so excited to be expanding our family in this way. We know she is out there and are very anxious to get her home.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Love the least of these... Part 1



This journey will probably be told in several parts, as it is a long story with so many components, so part 1 comes to you tonight. Several years ago, My sister and Brother-in-law felt the call to bring home a sweet little girl and make her a part of their family. This beautiful child came home and immediately it felt like she had always been a part of the family. I will never forget the first time I met her and the instant love that was there.

I had also recently had my own adoption take place (more to come on that later) and had such a desire to give back to God what he had gifted their family with. And so I went on my first mission trip to Bolivia to serve at an orphanage there. And, I subsequently made four more trips. I fell in love with the little ones of the world and knew that God was going to use that in my own family someday.

2006 came and God had a different plan for me… China was calling my name. I went to China to teach at a college, working with High School Students who had not passed the college entrance exam. I also had the opportunity to work in some orphanages and with the local people. God used China in might ways in my life. What I thought I was going for, was certainly not what He had intended. By the burden that I felt for the unwanted little ones of the world continued to burn.More to come..... Stay tuned, Jen

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Our first step.........


Welcome to our Blog. We are excited about what God is doing in our lives and are looking forward to being able to share it. I will keep our first post short and sweet. In the days to follow, we will share the story that got us to this point, but in the short of it, we have begun the process to adopt. More to come about our growing family.
Much Love!