The Lord has blessed us with... - Update on our adoption journey

The

Lord

has 

blessed

us

with

a

baby

This past Monday, May 14th, the Lord led a birthmother to choose us...

Then Job answered the LORD and said, "I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted."  Job 42:1-2

We are still somewhat shocked...and definitely amazed and in awe at how quickly the Lord's plans are unfolding and at how we are seeing the Lord at work!  Only 3 weeks in the waiting pool, and the Lord has led a birthmother to choose us!  We are already seeing so many answers to prayer and testimonies of the Lord's sovereignty and His perfect timing and ways.  We hope that you may be encouraged (as we have been) as you read about how we have been seeing the Lord at work in our hearts and lives! 

Feel free to read below whatever is of interest to you. :)

Our baby
*We are blessed with a sweet baby girl.
*Due date = June 27th - that's right... just a little over a month away!!! :)


Our birthmother
*19 years old
*Arab/Hispanic
*Presently lives in CO Springs
*Speaks 4 languages!


Our birthfather
*The birthmother knows who the birthfather is, but he is not in the picture...


Ways we're seeing the Lord at work / Answers to prayer

• Lots of prayer!
• We have complete confidence that the Lord is guiding every aspect of our adoption journey because we know He is sovereign and in complete control.  We also know that He works through prayer, and we have been blessed with lots of prayer!
• We are praying!
• Loved ones are praying!
• The staff at Hope's Promise, our adoption agency, has been praying.  One of the caseworkers recently told me that they prayed an extra amount for the adoptive couple that our birthmother would choose (aka. us), so we know that we even got extra prayer from our agency.
• God's Perfect Timing
• Commitments ending - Wes and I are coming out of a FULL season, and this month our schedule is quickly opening up as the following commitments have ended or are ending:
• AWANAs
• Life Group - small group Bible study that we've been hosting & leading
• Childcare - the mom is a teacher and has the summer off
• Wes' school - he has a couple weeks left and is done for the summer
• Parents visiting - Wes' parents from WI already had plans to visit us the week our birthmother is due
• Tax credit - There is a very good possibility that our baby will be placed with us in time for us to qualify for the 2012 adoption tax credit.
• Our match - The Lord placed us in the waiting pool just a week before our birthmother began working with our agency, Hope's Promise. 
• Often the birthmother begins working with an adoption agency earlier on in her pregnancy than mid-way into the 3rd trimester, but if our birthmother had, we would not have been in the waiting pool when she chose an adoptive couple.
• All through the adoption process, Wes and I had a strong sense of urgency to move the process along as quick as possible with our responsibilities.  Many adoptive couples we have come across have been very laid back about getting in the waiting pool.  I just figured Wes and I were highly motivated due to wanting to be wise stewards and hopefully qualify for the tax credit, but I now see that the Lord had been giving us the strong sense of urgency because if we had been laid back about when we got in the waiting pool, we would not have been in the waiting pool when our birthmother had her opportunity to choose an adoptive couple.
• Why our birthmother chose us
• We asked our caseworker why the birthmother chose us...what made us stand out to her?  Our caseworker said that ultimately the birthmother kept saying "there was something about you."  We know that "something" was the Lord sovereignly guiding her to chose us and that the Lord was answering our prayers for Him to make His will clear to her.  We had been praying Ephesians 1:16-18 for her ...we continually pray for you that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.  We pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling... and these verses were how we started out our birth family letter.  How comforting it is to know that our birthmother was "tangibly" drawn to us by the Lord and sensed there was just "something about us." :)  We praise the Lord for making His calling for the adoptive couple clear, and we pray that He makes His calling for salvation clear to her too!
• The birthmother also:
• thought Noah seemed like a sweet boy
• liked our dog
• liked that I was a stay-at-home mom
• felt like we would be a safe family for her child, which is very important to her
• Our birthmother chose us in spite of our profile book falling apart.  That's the Lord! ;)  (There's a long story behind the lack of quality in our profile books...)  This just makes it even more clear that it was the Lord leading our birthmother to us and not something special we had done.
• Seeing the Lord in details and our desires
• Fun detail - Our birthmother picked a mediterranean restaurant for our lunch match meeting.  Our birthmother likes mediterranean food and thought it wasn't very likely that there was an adoptive couple would like mediterranean food...we do! :)
• Interesting detail - Wes and I started to sense that the Lord was leading us to adopt last fall in September (approximately 8 months ago), which was probably the same month that our birthmother became pregnant.
• Our desires - We would have been thrilled with any birthmother and baby the Lord had for us...there were some hopes/desires (that we held loosely) that we see the Lord fulfilling:
• being able to have an eternal impact on our birthmother as well as being able to encourage her in all aspects - spiritually, emotionally, socially, etc., which we hope to do and are glad that our birthmother desires to have some kind of open relationship with us
• having a birthmother who lives somewhat near us so that we can keep in touch more easily
• having a girl
• having a child of a different race - the Lord placed us in a culturally diverse neighborhood (which is not the norm in the middle of a white suburbia area, which is where we live) & He also placed in us a desire to demonstrate through our family Christ's love for all nationalities.  Most birthmothers that Hope's Promise works with are Caucasian. 
• Look at what the Lord has done!  A year ago...
• On Mother's Day last year...
• I was recovering from a D & C after our 3rd miscarriage.
• We were making plans to pursue testing to determine if there was a medical cause for our multiple miscarriages
• We were preparing to move (from an all caucasian neighborhood to a culturally diverse neighborhood)
• Adoption was NOT on our radar at all!
• It leaves us somewhat speechless as we reflect on all that the Lord has done in our hearts and lives over the past year...  God is so faithful and good!  His plans are often not our plans, but His plans are always far better than ours!

Who needs 8 months to prepare and anticipate?!?...  ;)  We have less than six weeks!

*This is great in the sense that our baby will be joining our family soon!

*This is challenging in the sense that we told ourselves that we would not start preparing - emotionally, logistically, etc. - until we got picked by a birthmother.

*So, we are brainstorming names, planning our nursery, figuring out girl items that we don't have and will need, deciding whether to purchase breast milk or use formula (if so, what kind?), and starting conversations with Noah about how we will be having a baby girl - all at the same time!

*It's a little daunting to realize that it's "go time."  During our home study interviews, our caseworker told us that we should realistically set our expectations on being in the waiting pool at least one year.  Now suddenly, all that we've been learning from conversations from other adoptive couples, from adoption training, from books we've been reading, from movies we've been watching... it's time to apply it!  

What does Noah think of all of this?
*Noah is excited for a baby sister!  It's definitely very surreal for him, though, since 3 year olds do not think abstractly, and we have nothing concrete or tangible to show him presently.  (We hope to hit the library soon and get some good books on talking about/teaching children about adoption.)  We had planned to wait to start explaining adoption to him until we had a picture of our birthmother or until he had a chance to meet her and have something tangible to associate with what we were telling him...but with everything happening so soon, we have already started conversations with him.
*Over the past year, when we asked him if he wanted a sister or brother, his answer almost always was "sister," and then he started saying "2" which peaked our curiosity if the Lord would possibly bless us with twins. ;)  Over the past couple days, when we have told him that he is going to have a baby sister and asked him if he wants a baby sister, he says, "Yeah." :)  One time, he said he wanted a brother, so I told him, "Maybe God will give you a brother next time."  His response was, "Yeah, maybe next time..." Precious! :)
*Noah has started praying for "baby sister," and we've showed Noah which room is going to be his baby sister's.  When we asked what color(s) he thought we should paint her room, he said, "Blue and tan like mine."
*When Naomi and Oliver came over, Noah made sure to tell Naomi that the room she takes a nap in is going to be baby sister's room.  He is too cute! :)

Noah giving his cousin, Nora, a kiss back at Christmastime... soon he'll be giving his baby sister kisses!

How we got the call...
*Background - Last Wednesday (9th), we received an e-mail notification which gave us information on this birthmother and asked if we would like our profile book to be shown.  50% of the time, our agency shows our profile books to birthmothers without us knowing; the other 50% of the time when there is a more unique scenario, our agency sends an e-mail notification to all the adoptive couples asking if they would like their profile book to be considered by a specific birthmother.  We had previously received an e-mail notification that we said yes to, but the birth family chose another adoptive couple.  So, after receiving this e-mail notification and after praying, seeking counsel, asking our adoption agency director questions, and praying some more, Wes and I both had a peace about having our profile book shown.  We knew the birthmother would be looking at profile books this past Monday (14th) , so we had been thinking about her and praying for her over the weekend.
*On Monday we mentioned to each other about how the birthmother would be looking at profile books that day, but we didn't dwell on it because we heard it is usually about a week and sometimes longer before a birthmother chooses an adoptive couple.
*After lunch, I went down for a nap when Noah did, and I prayed for the Lord to make His will clear to the birthmother and to lead her to choose the couple He knew would be best for her and her baby.  Well, in the middle of my nap, I woke up and got the impression that I need to pray for this birthmother.  So, I prayed (half out of it) again for wisdom and peace for her, and I fell back asleep.  When I later on really woke up from my nap, I realized I had a missed call and message from our caseworker.  I downplayed it and thought "she's probably just calling to check in with us."  She hadn't touched base with us in May (and she said she would call to check on us once a month), so I figured that was all it was.  When I called her back, she asked if Wes was home and when I told her he was, she asked if I could put him on speaker phone.  I immediately knew she was calling to tell us we got chosen!!!!!  We were shocked and had to later on tell our caseworker to let the birthmother know that we were excited because we were pretty stunned during our initial conversation with our caseworker.


Where are we at in the adoption process?
The process for adopting an infant in the U.S. involves:
*completing an application & being accepted - 11-22-11
*home study process/training & being approved - 4-24-12
*being in the waiting pool - our profile book about our family (which birthmothers look at to choose the parents they want for their child) being shown to birthmothers - 4-24-12 through 5-14-12
*waiting anywhere from approximately 2 weeks to 2 years - (we waited 3 weeks) - 5-14-12
*being chosen by a birthmother - 5-14-12
*meeting the birthmother and confirming the match - 5-17-12
*waiting for birth of baby - WE ARE HERE
*birth of baby
*bringing baby home with us from the hospital
*4 days (more like 1 week logistically) legal period in which the birthmother can change her mind
*after 6 months the adoption is legally finalized in court


Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!
*Thank you to all of you who are praying for us.  May you be encouraged at how the Lord is unfolding His perfect plans in His perfect timing and ways.  It is a joy for us to see and experience all the ways the Lord is answering your and our prayers.  Please continue to pray for us!

Praises:
*For the Lord giving wisdom to us and our birthmother to confirm our match!
*Prayer partners & words of encouragement
*The Lord's continued financial provision

Recent Requests:
*Matthew 5:13-16 - For Christ's love and light to shine through us to our birthmother and for the Lord to give us creative and practical ways to show her Christ's love
*For an open relationship with our birthmother - We desire to have an open relationship with our birthmother, and she does too before the baby comes but only wants contact of photos and updates (no relationship, visits, etc.) after baby's arrival.
*Luke 22:42 - For God's will with the perfect timing of our baby's delivery - our desire is for our baby to be born the week of June 20th-27th because that is the week that Wes' parents from WI will be visiting, and it would be a big blessing for them to be here for our baby's birth.  Ultimately, we are praying for God's will to be done because He knows what timing is best.
*Good health in all aspects for our baby, but ultimately the Lord's will to be done

Ongoing Requests:

*Ephesians 3:21 & 6:18-20 - The Lord to be glorified and the gospel to be shared

*Galatians 5:22-23 - The Lord to begin preparing Noah (and us) for welcoming a little one into our family.  One of the aspects we are praying for is the fruit of the Spirit.

*John 6:44 - The Lord to draw our birthmother and baby to Himself in salvation

*Matthew 25:19-21 - The Lord to help us be wise financial stewards and for Him to provide for our adoption as we seek to save, to pursue grants available, to take advantage of extra income opportunities, and however else He desires to.  We hope to be adoption debt free by the end of the entire adoption process, but we are holding this desire loosely and know that it may take more time.

*Philippians 4:19-20 - God's perfect timing with our adoption... the tax credit that would immensely help out with our adoption expenses expires at the end of 2012.  We know the Lord will provide either way, whether through a tax credit or other means, and we are thankful to have a game plan for either scenario.