TGIF, y'all!

It's been a quiet couple of weeks for us and there isn't anything to report on the adoption, but we are at peace with 'the wait' right now.  I spoke with a friend who is also adopting this morning & just said we fully trust God knows what He's doing.  I am grateful today for my husband, my family & my friends.  I am hopeful the right birth mama will stumble across our profile when the time is right. 

 

I hope all of the amazing folks that make up our community have a wonderful weekend.  We are praying for YOU today.  Keep loving & encouraging one another. 

 



 

Officially a Waiting Family!

It's so crazy that we have made it this far in the adoption process already!  I have been nervous, y'all, for weeks waiting for our home study to be approved.  We received a message on Monday that everything was approved & now we were officially a waiting family. 

What does this mean?  I get a lot of questions about the process & hopefully I can clear up some of the mystery behind everything.

The home study isn't just an inspection of our physical home but a look into our finances, health, emotional well-being & how compatible we are as a married couple.  Family, friends & even our small group leader were contacted as references.  We filled out questionnaires, interviewed & completed online courses for adoption.  In summary, it's a HUGE process.  It's easy to get lost in the paperwork, but we just had to push through to reach the other side. 

Now that everything is approved, our profiles will be placed online for potential birth mothers to view. If they like what they see, they can request our book that basically includes lots of photos of our lives, friends & family.  We each wrote letters to the birth mom, too. 

We are adopting from the United States so from this point forward we could get a call at any time saying either a birth mom would like to meet us, or that a baby is available needing a home.  There's really no way we can plan for anything (the average wait time in the U.S. is two years) so it's a good thing we're so laid-back! 
Ideally, we would LOVE to know our child's birth mom & have an ongoing relationship with her...  Ideally, we would LOVE to be picked by someone in their 2nd or 3rd trimester that has a due date planned...

...but we all know what happens when we start talking about planning for things, right? 

Realistically we are ready to wait & have been anxious just to be waiting.  We have gone through so much to become parents, what's another two years, right?  We know God already has the baby meant to be in our little family lined up so we just have to be patient.   

While we wait, we do things like go to amazing concerts, see movies, read books, go on hikes with the pups.  We don't sit around!  We live life!

We can also start preparing a room for a little one.  (That sounds so weird to say!!!)

It's a hot mess right now, but we repainted it & have a few (30-40) books & a couple of little toys in the space we can look at from time-to-time.  Whenever I see the room I pray for our birth mother & it's a great reminder that this story is not over yet! 

Waiting to Wait

Things have been extremely hectic in our lives for the past few weeks & our focus has been on completing our home study, making online profiles & our birth mother books.  This was the part of the process I really looked forward to because it allows us to use our creative side. (Obviously it's more fun than drawing blood & filling out financial documents!)

For the past two weeks we have had radio silence between us & our agency.  We received confirmation that our home study is complete but it must be approved by the Director of the agency before we can become a waiting family. 

With this entire process you have good days & bad.  I tend to watch my Gmail alerts like a hawk, hoping for a notification that I have a new message from the agency.  But as the days drag on, fears & anxieties creep into my head. 

Our case worker asked me how I process through my grief at our last meeting.  I told her I collect beautiful things to keep me positive. Books, quotes & songs all keep me from having over-analyzing, self-deprecating, negative thoughts.  Staying active & spending quality time with family & friends has been my lifesaver as well. 

Here are some things I've collected on my phone to keep me focused & encouraged.  I hope it gives you encouragement today.

"The statistics or odds don't matter to God.  He is still at work in your life to give you confidence in Him." - Pastor Jim Thomas

"Darkness exists to make light truly count." - Ryan O'Neal, Sleeping At Last, Uneven Odds

John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

"No where is God more present than in our human weakness." - John R. Edwards

"Grace is love that seeks you out when you have nothing to give in return." - Paul Zahl

 

 

Today I cling to the confidence that everything is happening according to plan.  Our home study will be approved & someone who is making the most difficult decision of her life will see our profile & ask us to raise her child. 

 

Thank you for taking this journey with us. 

 

- B