A Little Peak at Henry's Nursery

Why Adoption for Us?

Since sharing the news that we are adopting, we have received a wide array of feedback.  We have been asked every question imaginable, and most questions seem to be centered on “why” we have chosen to adopt.  We realize that this is a natural question.  Therefore, in an effort to provide clarity, we want to write about what has brought us to this point.

Quite frankly, adoption has been something that we have discussed since we first began considering the idea of raising children.  The sheer number of children in the world that need to be adopted is something that has always deeply impacted us.  Here are a few shocking statistics about the number of orphans worldwide:

According to the World Orphans website, there are approximately 163,000,000 orphans in the world today (http://www.worldorphans.org/index.php, 2011).  In comparison, the US population consists of 312,679,148; and, the worldwide population is just shy of 7 billion people as we write this blog (http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html, 2011).  This translates to 1 orphan in every 43 people. 

The truth is there are many children that need a safe and loving home.  While we are far from perfect, we feel like God has blessed us with the ability to provide such a home for a child that desperately needs one.

In an effort to understand more about adoption, we decided to meet with a family member that deals closely with adoptions in the Memphis area.  We learned that a strong need exists in our area for transracial adoptions.  Specifically, there are an abundant number of African-American orphaned children.  Hearing about this need within our local community certainly motivated us even more.

As far as we know, we can have our own biological children.  However, we have intentionally chosen to postpone trying, because we are passionate about responding to the need for adoption within our local community.  Through these aforementioned circumstances and others over the past few years, it has become clear to us that God has been leading us in this direction.  Perhaps one day in the future, we will desire to have our own biological children.  However, we are convinced that adoption is right for us at this point.     

A New Addition to Our Family.

Dear Friends and Family,

We are very excited to share with you the news of a new addition to our family!  Many of you are already aware that we have been in the adoption process for the past year.  We apologize to those of you that are learning this right now for the first time; however, the timing with the adoption process is a bit tricky.  Therefore, we have been cautious about “going public” with this news until now.

Having said this, we would like for you to know that we are nearing the end of the approval process with an adoption agency in the Memphis area.  Consequently, we will soon be eligible and patiently awaiting the placement of a young child into our home.  From the very beginning, we have been passionate about adopting a black infant boy.  Lord willing, we hope to adopt this young child from the Memphis area.  We are thrilled, anxious, and a little nervous.

We expect to receive approval from the agency within the next month or so.  After that we will eagerly await for the placement of our new son into our home.  While we are uncertain about the timeframe of the placement process, our guess is that this will occur in the very near future (within the next 6 months, hopefully).  So, we have begun to make the necessary preparations for the arrival of our little Henry Banks Weaver.

As you all know adding a new member to the family requires a financial commitment.  This is especially true when engaging in the adoption process.  We have planned accordingly, and God has indeed blessed us with the ability to absorb many costs associated with the adoption.  However, we do have numerous remaining costs related to the adoption.  Therefore, we humbly ask that you might consider helping us with this endeavor.  It is not easy for us to make this request, but several of you have already expressed your desire to support us throughout this process.  So, we would be very grateful for you to consider helping us in this way.  Fortunately, Blake works for a non-profit organization that allows our family to raise additional financial support if/when needed.  Therefore, we can accept support through his organization.  This allows you to financially contribute to our family as well as receive a tax deduction for your gift.  We will include more information about this at the bottom of this e-mail.        

We are absolutely blessed with the friends and family that God has given us.  We deeply appreciate you celebrating this opportunity along with us.  The words of encouragement, prayers, financial support, etc. that you have already contributed has meant so much to us.  Our plan is to soon start a blog so that we can keep you updated as our family moves forward.  Thank you for so graciously supporting us!

Sincerely,

Blake & Christi 

If you desire to financially support us, please consider these giving options:

·         You can make an online donation by following this website: https://nics.org/Donate.aspx

            o   Destination:  Missionary Support

o   Project #:  003109

·         You may also write a check to NICS.  In the memo line, please write “Weavers #003109.”