crazy

some crazy good and crazy nervewracking things have been going on here lately. first off i ask you to pray for c&j and their family's right now. they are in the process of adopting their second child, took braxton home, and the birthmom is now having second thoughts. she is expected to make her decision tomorrow (monday) about whether to parent or place. my heart is torn for c&j and for m, the birthmom, because as a waiting mom that is my biggest fear- the birthmom will change her mind; but having such a heart for birthparents i also cannot imagine the difficulty in placing a child that i carried for 9 months into the care of people you barely know. so please pray for m, c&j, and all those involved that God will help all of them to offer grace, understanding and love to the other and that He will make peace in the raging storm.

jess and les had cade about 4 weeks ago, some other friends (who I am not sure are ready to announce via mobile media) found out they are pregnant, and shaun and jen have gotten their first placement as foster parents! there are babies galore all around us, and all we can hope is that our turn is coming soon!

we get asked a lot, "any news?", and our answer is always, "no, not yet" (in a super sweet, kind voice) when what a lot of the time what i want to do is wear this shirt! i am joking but it can be overwhelming to try to live your life everyday without checking the phone 45 times an hour to see if the adoption agency has called you yet and then it only magnifies it when so many other people are so excited for you. so if you ask me and i seem a bit cranky please forgive me!

God has really been doing some work in my life lately and i can't wait to share it with all of you after i have a better understanding of what He is trying to teach me. what i can share with you all right now is that His faithfulness and encouragement comes in strange, wonderful and unexpected ways. we were blessed beyond belief this past week with 2 outstanding financial gifts to aid in the cost of our placement fee. we are only $3530 away from our placement fee! we are trusting in the Lord that He will provide that remaining amount when we need it so we don't have to take out any debt. His goodness and faithfulness has been such a sweet salve to my anxious heart.

thankful

what a busy and astounding past few weeks we have had! last post i shared with you how disgruntled i was with uncle sam and the money we owed him and i even alluded to the fact that we were trusting God was going to show up in an unbelievable way. at the time i had no idea how unbelievable but He just continues to outdo Himself using people in ways they cannot possibly fathom. so our tax situation will be taken care of in about 2 weeks time.



secondly we had a heard that our church, sevier heights baptist church, was going to be partnering with bethany christian services (which is who we are adopting through) but we didn't want to allow ourselves to become too excited because we didn't want to be disappointed. so about 3 weeks ago we walk into church for missions month kick off and hear tim tell the church they are looking for 10 families to accept the call to adopt, and those 10 families will be receiving a grant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! of course that is as long as the people in the church give, but we are still excited at the opportunity to possibly adopt debt free. after much discussion we agree that regardless of whether or not we are the recipient of a grant, we are just so thankful God has brought us to a place that recognizes the ministry aspect of adoption and wants to be part of it. but i would be lying if i told you that we didn't want that grant, so do please pray that the right families will receive the grants and if it is His will, that we could be one of those families.



yesterday we bought our baby bedding! *if it seems as though there is a lot of excitement in this entire blog, it's because there is. i feel like i am going to burst out of my skin at some points.* we had chosen cotton tale designs', "elephant brigade" but couldn't find it in stock anywhere; we later learned that are discontinuing it, but found an outstanding deal on it and decided to purchase it.

oh and did i mention that we did our registries at babies'r'us and target AND bought a crib a few weeks ago?!?!?!?!



today we had our adoption training and while we were there and completely and utterly blessed, we were able to schedule 2 of 4 parts of our homestudy for this upcoming thursday. people may say to me that we are overeager and overzealous, but i will say once again that i believe we will be receiving a baby in the very near future so i am trying to be as prepared as possible. i also look at all these little stepping stones that are leading up to this most incredible experience and i can't even tell you how excited it makes me to see what else God has cooked up for us.



please continue to pray for us as we enter the final stretch of our homestudy and as we begin doing our profiles, applying for grants, and completing the nursery. there is so much to be done and an uncertain amount of time for it to be completed! but then again, there is so much to be thankful for! be blessed.