The McDade Family

My photo
Hi! Our names are Shannon, Mark and Summer McDade. We are a family of three wanting to expand our family through adoption. We were planning to adopt from Taiwan, but the wait has helped us change countries to Ethiopia. God has a purpose foreverything and we are going to stay faithful and follow Him.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Why Are We Adopting?

Many people have asked Mark and I why are you adopting and not just have another child? I ask why not? Some people do not think about if you had a good pregancy or not. Which I had a great pregancy it was the afterwards that was not pleasant. I did not want to go through that again. I do want more children so the way to go is through adoption. Can you love that child as much as your own child? Yes, because she will be our child given to us by God. He gave us Summer and do we not love her? Many people think about the money. That the cost too much to pursue an adoption. The cost is high, however having another child is so worth it. Some people might agree or disagree with our decision to adopt, but what I care more about is what God would want us to do. Ephesians 1:5 In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with is pleasure and will.


I believe God has a huge part in us adopting. He has planted this seed in me to pursue and to succeed in this adoption. The seed started with us sponsoring Ylica from Haiti through Compassion. We have been sponsoring her for almost two years. I believe God opened up my heart to care for her like another daughter. I am so grateful for having that chance to love another child that lives in another country. Since the earthquake we still do not know if she is alive or dead. I wish Compassion could find out for us to put our minds at ease. I pray that she is OK and with her parents. If need be I would love to adopt her into our family as well.


We have decided to go with Taiwan. Our social worker says it will not take as long as China. I hope she is right, but who knows. We are wanting a little girl age between 0-3 years old. I hope we get her soon. We have chosen the name Mia McDade for her. We are going to keep part of her name as her middle name. We do not know what that is yet, but when we do we will post her full name. We are also doing an "open" adoption where the birth mother can send pictures and we do the same to her. If the birth mother so chooses to do that. We feel that if Mia wants to know her birth mother then she will be able to do so. I so often hear children wanting to look for their birth mother and if Mia wants to learn about her then that is fine. I do not want any doors to be closed by us. Only Mia can make that choice later on.


We have one biological daughter who is now five years old. Summer is a great girl. She is so much fun to be with. I think having a sister would be a great thing for her and Mia. She is so loving and caring. She would be a great big sister for Mia. I am proud of her in this whole process. She kind a understands,but wants Mia home now. I keep telling her it might take awhile to get her and to be patient. Yeah right tell that to a five year old.


There are many children out in the world with no parents. So why not? I believe it is the right choice for us. We owe it all to God for making this happen. He has opened up our hearts, our eyes, and our finances to make this come true. We give Him all the Glory.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

New To This

I am new to all this blog stuff. I wish I would have started this blog when we first started the adoption. I had a site on Caringbridge for when we started the adoption process. I want to have a blog so I can stay in touch with others that I might meet who are adopting. I am excited about this journey. However, it is a long one. Mark and I have been doing the adoption process for awhile and we still do not have our dossier sent off yet. Hopefully, in a couple of weeks. Who knows? I never thought it would take so long just to get started. Only the people who have adopted before understands what I am saying.

How Our Adopton Story Starts

Mark and I have been married for 8 years . We have one daughter named Summer. I really never wanted any more children. Until one night I put Summer to bed and then Mark and I went to bed. The next morning something seemed different. I told Mark overnight the idea of adoption popped into my head. This was on a Wednesday night. We went to church that Sunday and the whole sermon was on adoption. I started to cry, and Mark really could see that I was serious about this. I truely believe the sermon was talking to me.

There was an adoption meeting at church the following week, but we both had to work. However, on the day of the meeting Mark's car started to mess up. so I could not drive it to work. He had to take off work to go get it fixed. When we got almost to Firestone the car started to drive fine. Nothing was wrong with it. We both felt it was a sign for Mark to go to the adoption meeting with me.

We left the meeting feeling discouraged because of the cost. However, whenever I try to stop listening to God's calling He always finds ways to keep me going. This is the path God has chosen for us. For an example : we decided to forget the whole thing. We went back to church, and the couple who has adopted 3 childen from China were sitting right infront of us. It was like a slap in the face to wake us up. God has a plan for us to adopt, and no matter how we try to fight it, He pulls us back to do His will.