And The Big Announcement Is…

Our vanilla family is adding a dash of chocolate.

We’re expecting!!!!

 (I feel like this needs a lot of exclamation points.) This may or may not come as a big surprise to you, but Mike and I are officially “paper pregnant”. I know I have been talking about adoption, orphans, and even how we’ve been part of an adoption small group for a long time, but until very recently we had no plans for us to bring any more kids into the Hubbell clan. We thought we were done. We were content to support our adopting friends and maybe someday go on short term missions trips to care for orphans.

So obviously things have changed and now we are making space in our hearts, lives and family for another child, a little girl born in Haiti. We have been praying about this for a very long time and we heard a crystal clear call from Lord to do this. Mike and I are not the same people we were just a couple years ago, God has totally transformed our hearts. We have become intensely aware that the gospel means we were once orphans ourselves, and the Father adopted us into His family to make us His children. So we want to live that out in gratitude.

Plus we’re ready to be parents again. Our kids are the greatest gifts we’ve ever been given and we want more of that. We love being parents. We’re ready to tackle the hard stuff and embrace the beautiful stuff to give an abandoned baby a forever family. And why not add a little estrogen to the mix? The boys love the idea of having a little sister. They pray for her all the time now and imagine life with her.

I’ll share more in the coming days about the miraculous power of prayer through all this. It really is nothing short of supernatural.

So after lots of research into both domestic and international adoption and lots of agencies and country programs, we knew the Lord was calling us to Haiti. Adoptions there were closed after the 2010 earthquake and are now reopened but it is pretty restrictive, chaotic and risky right now. We meet their narrow requirements (at least 35 yrs old, married 10+ years, only 2 bio kids) and have been given the faith to face the big unknowns. It feels so weird to us, being engineers and not at all risk takers, to be not choosing a “safer” route, but it was clear to us that all adoptions carry big risk. In fact really, all parenting does. The fact is though that the need for adoptive families is so massive in Haiti that we felt God calling us to lead the way for others. Hopefully we can show the way and help other families coming behind us.

I’ll write more about Haiti and about how we chose our agency, America World Adoption, in future posts. For now I hope that you will join us in celebration and in prayer. We’re gonna need a whole lot of prayer to see this through for a long time.

That’s our big BIG HUGE news! That’s why my heart is in Haiti…literally. Somewhere in an orphanage is my daughter, my heart, waiting for us. I can’t wait to bring you along on this adventure with us.

Author: Sarah

Mom of three. Triathlete.

62 thoughts on “And The Big Announcement Is…”

  7. That’s fantastic news. Congratulations. I look forward to following your journey. As mom of biological and adoptive kids I can related to the excitement. I’m helping organize an adoption/foster care/orphan care conference in the midwest called Answer The Call. You and your readers may be interested.  http://www.answerthecallconference.org  

  8. That’s fantastic news. Congratulations. I look forward to following your journey. As mom of biological and adoptive kids I can related to the excitement. I’m helping organize an adoption/foster care/orphan care conference in the midwest called Answer The Call. You and your readers may be interested.  http://www.answerthecallconference.org  

  11. Tearing up as i read this. I haven’t gone through an international adoption but have done a domestic adoption so i know a wee little bit of the emotions, fears, and excitement this decision entails.

    Praying for you, your family, your new daughter, and her current caretakers.

    Congratulations!

  12. Tearing up as i read this. I haven’t gone through an international adoption but have done a domestic adoption so i know a wee little bit of the emotions, fears, and excitement this decision entails.

    Praying for you, your family, your new daughter, and her current caretakers.

    Congratulations!

  15. Thanks Meegs! I’ll write more about the timeline soon but it’s very unknown and will probably be somewhere between one and three years till we can bring her home. Hoping for the shorter end of that, obviously. 

  16. Thanks Meegs! I’ll write more about the timeline soon but it’s very unknown and will probably be somewhere between one and three years till we can bring her home. Hoping for the shorter end of that, obviously. 

  17. Awesome! I will definitely be checking that out. Our local Together for Them adoption conference played a pretty significant role in our journey. 

  20. Connie, thank YOU for all your encouragement over the past few years! I know you will be a support and cover us in prayer and I’m already grateful for the contacts and information you have pointed us to!

  24. Oh Sarah, this is awesome and your words about the Gospel and how we were orphans..  and our call to adopt – all echoes my own hearts cry.  (just praying that my  husband gets there someday too.. 🙂  ).  Rejoicing with you and your family as God leads you to your daughter!  So exciting!

  25. Jamie! I just want to encourage you…I will write more about this but my husband was pretty dead set against it when I brought it up. Two years I’ve been praying, very specifically, and I’ve recruited lots of other people to pray specifically too. Some people might think two years was a long time to wait to see answered prayer…I think it was mindblowingly short! I was pretty startled by the change actually. One thing I did not do is pressure my husband, or beg, or manipulate. I think I brought it up twice in those two years. Mostly I just prayed. 

    So thanks! And now you have me praying for your family too 😉 

  26. Obviously, we are over the moon about your decision to expand your family through adoption.  John and I count it a privilege to “do life” with you guys and prayerfully await the day you are united with your daughter. 

  27. Isn’t it amazing how God works? He has worked through you guys in massive huge ways for the Kingdom and now I already see Him working through us to reach others. Thank you for YOUR faithful prayers for us and we continue to pray as we wait for you to bring Samuel home from Ethiopia. 

  28. So very excited for you, my friend! Excited to meet your little girl one day soon and walk this journey with you until she arrives safe at home!

  29. I knew this was coming … I just KNEW it!!!! Oh, I’m so so so happy for you!!! I have a friend that has adopted 2 girls from Haiti. Please let me know if you need her info – they still do lots of work in that area! 🙂

  35. You’re too funny. How old are her girls? I think that when you adopt from Haiti you are adopting not just a child but a whole country because it’s close enough to go back often and the need is just so huge. 

  37. Thanks to Vanessa we’ve already got a jumpstart on it. That 300 essay question form? Done! Home study application? Done! Now if only UPS magically arrived in Virginia today…

  41. Wow!  Just … wow!  Sarah, SOOOOOOO excited for you guys!!!  Can’t wait to follow your news and I hope you get to meet your little girl very soon!!

  42. Oh, Sarah! I’ve got chills and tears! Thrilled…. so thrilled for you and your family.  That’s one lucky little girl waiting to meet her Mama!

  45. CONGRATULATIONS! I knew when we first talked about adoption a year or so ago that you would eventually adopt. It was so present in your words. I can not wait to meet her, and support you through the process. Dibs on planning the baby shower! 😉 Congrats!

  46. We are so excited about being grandparents again.  We know the child you adopt will be blessed with a wonderful home and loving parents.  She will also be so lucky to have two awesome brothers.  This will not be an easy journey, but I know you and Mike are up to the challenge.  We hope all the support and prayers from family and friends will help make the adoption journey go smoothly and quickly.  Congratulations!  We’re so happy for you and Mike.
         

  47. Congratulations, Sarah! I’m so excited to hear your news. I’ll look forward to following your family’s journey to your daughter and will definitely be praying for you all!

  49. Ha! I had already posted that link on my FB wall before you left your comment. GLA has been super incredibly helpful in my orphanage and Haitian adoption research. I initially wanted to adopt through them, but the agency they use, Bethany, flatly told us they could not accept families from TX right now because of a new policy on how their home studies are done. I was bummed, but it pointed me in a different direction. I still follow them as closely as humanly possible. 

    Oh and yes, get together…coffee, lunch, whatevs. Next week! 

  50. Thanks Jen!! Remember that marriage conference where we last saw each other (I think)? That’s when we decided first that it was time for kids! 

  61.  I have been following this development and with fingers crossed I’d been hoping you’d choose Haiti. A big congrats to you and your growing family. I too hope that you pave the way for people because the Haitian orphans need all the love and support possible.

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