Author: The Swansons

Today we got out of the house and went to a big park where the kids played for most of the morning.  It was great – they mostly ran around and played while we encouraged them to explore and have fun.  We even had moments where we could just relax on a park bench for…

My wife is a genius, and I will share three stories from today that demonstrate so.  First, my genius wife decided we should get an Airbnb instead of a hotel room.  I didn’t think it was a big deal at the time, but I’m telling you it would have been a DISASTER to try and…

This is the very first photo taken of our whole family – and it turned out pretty good!  I would FINALLY like to introduce you to all three of our adorable children:  Shivani Ruth Swanson, age 7, Zinnia Judith Swanson, age 6, and Aashish Joel Swanson, age 4.  “Shivani” is pronounced “shih VAH nee” and…

One of the most memorable things I read in seminary (graduate level pastor school) was a quote from a bishop who lived about 1500 years ago.  He wrote that “the coincidences happen more often when I pray.” Both Amy and I have had a lot of meaningful encounters with God over the years, but I’ll…

We are here!  We flew into Mumbai at roughly 1:00 am on Sunday, stayed overnight, and then on Monday we were driven to Pune, the city where we will be meeting our adopted children.  Google Maps says the orphanage is a 21 minute drive from where we’re staying, and it seems almost impossible that this…

Only two days until we leave!  It’s hard to believe we’ve reached this point after more than 2 years of waiting and hoping.  The past several weeks have been filled with final preparations – making appointments in New Dehli, confirming reservations, ordering everything on Amazon from luggage tags to a comb for our son, working on last-minute…

The children’s passports have arrived, we’ve been cleared for travel, and we’ve booked our plane tickets to leave in just a couple weeks! Joel, Amy, and Zinnia will fly out of Minneapolis on Friday, March 16th, arrive in Mumbai 30 hours later, and drive to Pune (where the orphanage is located) the next day.  In Pune, we’ll spend…

Good news!  Last week, we received confirmation that our adoption case received final approval by the Indian courts.  As soon as the orphanage receives written confirmation of this approval, they will apply for passports for the children.  After their passports are issued, we will receive our travel authorization.  At this point, we anticipate traveling to…

We’ve had an unpredictable fall! As many of you know, Amy is on staff at Minnehaha Academy.   In August, there was an accidental gas explosion on the Upper School campus that took the lives of two employees, injured several others, and rendered the school building unusable. Fortunately, Amy wasn’t on campus at the time.  However,…

We are overjoyed to share with everyone that we are matched with Riya’s children!!  Our adoption agency saw them show up on the international adoption portal and immediately selected the children for us.  We then reviewed their adoption files and signed several documents, including an “intent to adopt” form.  Once that was processed for us,…