Tanner Life

Adoption Journey - Signed Up

Where did I leave off? I believe that we had just made the decision in October to work with the IAC. We requested the packet of information and signed up for the free Saturday information session the first weekend in December. For some reason, I can't remember now, we weren't able to make the November session.

Now, thinking back, November was full of miracles in itself. We'd made the decision, but hadn't quite figured out how to fund it yet. Adoption, as most of you know, is very expensive. Some agencies and ways of going about it are cheaper than others. Cheaper did not mean something you can fund out of what you have in your saving account typically. Yes, we have a piggie bank and no, it didn't contain that kind of change.

We began investigating ways of refinancing our house and applying for a second mortgage. Andy jumped on the ball with this one and was involved in all sorts of options in no time. I was really surprised about how quick he started moving, it reaffirmed what I already knew, he was just as ready as I was to get going. We were able to go ahead and get new carpet, bathroom and kitchen floors. That was exciting and we felt like we were preparing our home for things to come!

After a few weeks we came to the realization that no matter what path we chose, we could not possibly fund an adoption in the next year. It was going to take awhile to come up with enough money. We were discouraged, but still sticking to the plan.

Then in November God blessed us in a huge way with allowing a path to finance an adoption. It wasn't a path that we went seeking, it came to us. It was huge and just another "God thing" on the journey!! We were ready-


We went to the information session in December with only a few people knowing what we were up to. I had told four of my best friends, simply because I couldn't contain myself. We'd both told our bosses because of what was lying in store for us. Other than that, we tried to keep it to ourselves until we had more answers to the questions we knew would be coming our way. Having a friend who had traveled this path really helped us feel prepared as we got started.

The session was fantastic. There were about 12 other couples there and the place was packed. We met a couple who is currently fostering triplet boys who are facing some very tough physical challenges, we met several couples from South Georgia who were as genuine as the day is long and we met some of the fantastic staff that works for IAC. They could not have been any more warm and welcoming!

There was a guest couple there as well who had adopted a little girl. She is now just over a year old and is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. There story made me laugh and made me cry. It was a very a-typical adoption story, in more ways than one. They were "in the book" and waiting just a few weeks when they got an emergency phone call, a crazy situation had fallen through and there had been a little girl born that needed parents right then. They rushed to the hospital and found themselves Dads in just about a total of 6 hours from the phone call. Crazy, but amazing just the same.

We already knew we couldn't attend the required weekend intensive that was offered in December, Andy was going out of town and there was no way he could get out of it. We knew it would be January before we could get the rest of the information and sign our contract. However, he surprised me once again. We had a break time during our session that first weekend and Andy was out the door and on the phone with work before I knew what was happening. He was busy telling them that he HAD to be back in town for December intensive weekend. It worked! We signed up on the spot to return in just two weeks for a weekend long information session.

We came home more excited than ever. We were able to start with a very small handful of paperwork that we mailed off on that Monday morning with our first official enrollment payment. And... we're off.....

(What happened at the weekend workshop, more to come)