We're Adopting! -- social media announcement

Patrick's picture he posted on Facebook to announce that WE ARE ADOPTING!

This is the picture I posted on Instagram/Facebook to let everyone know on the internet!

We already have two perfect biological children and can try to get pregnant anytime, so some people may wonder why would we want to adopt, too...

Liam - 2 years old / PeeJay - 4 years old

Parick and I have always talked about possibly adopting when we first started dating.  Our main reason to adopt is to provide a child (who may not have much); a loving, supportive family and a safe home because every child deserves to know what it feels like to be loved, wanted and cared for.  

Our Process before today's public announcement:

At the beginning of January, Nikki (mercyhouseph.org) let Patrick know the right people to contact for domestic adoption here in the Philippines, specifically in our region.  Patrick then sent an email to the DSWD office to get information on how we can start the process for adoption.  There was an immediate response from DSWD saying that we still needed to wait until we have resided in the Philippines for 3-years (September 2016) before we can even start the process to adopt.  DSWD's website stated that, "a foreigner can only adopt if he's a resident of the Philippines for continuous 3 years."

Bummer... we've only arrived in the Philippines on September 2013 so we did not meet the residency requirement.  We were both disappointed, but understood the reasoning and just had to be patient and wait until it's the right time.  

One night, I was sitting on the couch watching "Stuart Little" with the boys and something urged me to send DSWD an email.  I thought that since I have dual-citizenship and the fact that I am Filipina would give me a different response than Patrick.  I'm so happy that I did because the following was DSWD's response to my email...

This is the email response I recieved from DSWD inviting us to an Adoption Forum the next day!

January 31, 2015

Patrick and I attended the Adoption Forum at the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) main office in Alabang, Muntinglupa CIty.  

March 20, 2015:

A social worker, Marivi Elnar, from DSWD office came into our house for our virst official home visit.  Ms. Elnar, Patrick and I went over the questionnaire she emailed for us to answer as detailed as possible.  Questions included memories about our childhood, our relationships with family members and biggest turning point in our lives.  Patrick and I each had over 15 pages of our answers that we printed out for Ms. Elnar to look over.  She read each one and asked us a few questions to clarity our answers.  Then, we gave her a tour of the house.  

Overall, it was a great visit.  Now, we need to send here some required documents to supplement her report about us.  

REQUIRED DOCUMENTS: 

Now Patrick and I are in the process of getting all the required documents so that we can send it over to DSWD as soon as possible.  We've already asked a few of our close friends to help us out with character references and affidafit of guardianship letter.   

Please continue to pray for our family and  for our soon-to-be baby girl! 💗👧