Catching You Up

All right, so I have some news but it occurs to me that I can't tell you anything new until I have finished our back story.  So here is the abridged version.  After meeting with our pastor, my husband and I decided the next step was to meet with the agency.  My husband and I sat down with our calendars on a Thursday in March and figured, with my sister getting married in a few weeks, if we could not get a meeting the following day on Friday then it would be two months until everything settled down again.  So I called (really not holding my breath that she would be open the next day) and imagine my [not really] surprise to find out she was open.  The whole day.  Imagine that.  So we set the appointment, met with her and while still unsure about whether to go the domestic or international route, went ahead with the preliminary application for International adoption.  We were amazed to see we qualified for adoption from 8 or so countries.  We prayed continuously for a sign where we were supposed to go and a lack of one had us (meaning me) just making a choice.  The plight of "waiting children" in China really spoke to my heart and we decided to go that route.  We discussed it with our oldest son (10 at the time) and he not only knew what an orphan was but graciously offered to share his and his brother's room if it was a boy or his sister's room if it was a girl.  Nevermind that we have a spare room :)  So there we were, I had received confirmations we were on the right path with China and we were going full steam ahead.  I learned when everything is going according to your plan is usually when He reminds you of His plan.

     So now you are caught up and you know how we got where we are.  I will keep our timeline (find the tab at the top) updated with events so you can see our progress.  I love to read comments and to meet whoever reads this blog so make a comment or drop me a line here and tell me what you think!

Our Story Continued

     All right, so we covered Mapalo and how we weren't meant to adopt her.  So through a women's group in our church I met a very strong and awesome woman who has such a big heart for anyone in need.  She started an orphan care ministry who puts on quarterly seminars to educate people about adoption.  Visit Passion 127's site here.  I heard about the meetings and it interested me a little bit.  If I am being honest, a big part of it was thinking this woman was just so cool and seemed like a great person, I wanted to get to know her better! KB go ahead and laugh :)  The timing was never quite right so my husband and I ended up not going to the seminar until Spring 2011.  In between this time, I went on a mission trip to Costa Rica through our church, Grace Lutheran Destin and went to another Heart of the Bride gathering in December 2010 of which theme was "What will you do?"  More on mission trips later...  So we sat through this adoption seminar and my eyes were totally opened to the process.  For myself I thought the process went something like this- Decide to Adopt, Pick a Country, Fill Out Some Paperwork, Bring your Child Home, Rainbows and Butterflies.  That is totally not how the process goes.  First of all, there are a couple different adoptions for domestic (US) adoptions and regarding international (other country) adoptions, each country has its own requirements for the adoptive family.  I fully realize now, how arrogant my views were.  So we were educated and at the end of the seminar I felt it.  And it scared the heck out of me!!!! I remember looking at my husband (who was ready to bring them all home!) and saying with tears in my eyes "This is big" and he agreed.  So the seed which was planted with Mapalo over a year earlier sprouted.  My husband and I had some discussion regarding whether to go domestic or international.  He preferred domestic, I preferred international.  Over the next week, I had massive internal dialogue going on.  For every reason I could think of to adopt, there was a reason waiting right behind it telling me we shouldn't.  Then I got some confirmations out of the blue.  In one day three things happened.  A random search for my favorite song Hosanna yielded a blog about Hosanna: Our Ethiopian Adoption Story.  My mother also called and told me she had been looking at pictures and she thought we needed more children.  On that same day I was trading some books online and came across a woman's profile who said she was an adopted grandmother to many.  Wow!  God I'm listening...  I went to church that Wednesday night and afterwards I was sitting in my car when I had an "Eureka" moment.  The reason I was having such discord in my thoughts about adopting was because I was not listening to Him.   He had put it in our path to adopt and I was trying to argue with Him and tell Him all the reasons we could/should not adopt.  The reason I was having such turmoil in my thoughts was because I wasn't listening.  So I surrendered it to Him and told Him I was listening.  I was instantly at peace and the seedling grew a branch.


     The next step was to meet with our Pastor at the time who also had a heart for adoption.  Looking back now, I see the path He was leading us down and he was surrounding us with people who would support us and encourage us while we began this journey.  We discussed domestic and international adoption and also the different agencies to work with.  We decided on our adoption agency (click here if you want to discuss it with me privately) and another branch sprouted. 


     I think thats enough for now.  I shall continue the story later...