Fundraising Project!

As you all know Luke and I are now in the adoption process of waiting to see when (Lord willing) we get picked by a birthmother. So since we have no clue when that would be; really soon or later, we were highly encouraged by others and our specialist to start on our fundraising as soon as possible.  When Luke and I decided to step out in faith in adopting a baby domestically, we realized how much the adoption costs were going to be, but we didn’t want our fear of the  expensive adoption cost override our trust in the Lord’s will for our family. We are trusting that the Lord will provide a way and a very interesting and amazing fundraising idea has made me believe that all the more!   

If you can use:

·         a tool

·         clean a window

·         paint a wall

·         stuff envelopes

·         make phone calls

·         arrange food

·         simply pray

….then WE NEED YOU!! With you help, we have a chance, not only to raise the funds necessary to bring our baby home, but to also serve a widow, just like it talk about in James 1:27:

^“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Here is how it the Both Hands project works:

Luke and I found a widow in need and are now assembling a team of our friends to complete this Both Hands project. Then our team (including us) will send out letters to family, friends, co-workers, and church family asking them to Sponsor us for the day, as we work on Lora’s house. Most of our time we will be doing light repair, painting, de-cluttering, cleaning, and landscaping.  All the funds raised go towards our adoption. It is very similar to raising sponsorships for a 5K race or golf event, but instead of playing, we’ll be working!

On November 10^th, we will be working on Ms. Lora’s home. She is a very kind, giving, and hardworking women who loves the Lord and goes to our church. Her husband passed away suddenly about five years ago. We are beyond blessed to be able to help her for the day, and have her know she is loved and supported by all of our team! The house is in need of a number of things, one of them being painting.

Another way you can get involved is… donating supplies that are needed. You can donate certain items or donate an amount you would like to go towards the supplies. Our goal is to get all the supplies we need for the widow’s house donated by local merchants and individuals. All donations are tax deductible! We will post later on what certain items are needed to complete the project.

This idea has been done over 262 times around the country already! Attached is a link to a video that might help give you a good idea of what the Both Hands Project is all about! Check it out if you would like! J

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98PD-O97N3I

Luke and I fell in love with the whole mission and vision of Both Hands!! We love how the purpose for Both Hands is to live out God’s word in James 1:27. What better way is there to fundraise and live out God’s word in our Community! We also love the idea of how this project is much bigger than ourselves and that we are serving a widow who is in need. This is a wonderful way to be able to support and love on our sister in Christ, Lora!  We love how this project also exemplifies being a part of the body of Christ and coming along side one another while loving and serving Lora. It is truly amazing!! If you’re interested in being a part of this amazing project some way or another let me know. J

Check out our Both Hands page at:

http://www.bothhands.org/luke-and-christy

Come take a look at our Facebook group page and “like us” at:

Luke and Christy’s Both Hands Project

I look forward to sharing more details about our project soon! Thank you all for your support, we are humbly grateful for each and every single one of you! J

Awaited Exciting News...busy times!

On this post I can FINALLY say to all who has been reading our adoption journey that you all are caught up and finally learning what is currently going on in our process!! The month of September has been a VERY busy month, completely different than the month of August! To say that a lot has been happening the past few weeks is an understatement to say the least, but wouldn’t trade anything!! J

On August 29^th, Luke and I received some very exciting news that we were not expecting! I called my specialist, Barb about some questions with our online profile. She later called back as I was at work and shared with me that our homestudy was DONE and COMPLETED!! It was the best news I have heard in a long time!! PRAISE GOD!!  We were anticipating the wonderful news for about three weeks and it was soo awesome to hear that it was DONE!! I definitely was not expecting to hear that since it wasn’t the first week in September, but of course we would take that amazing news any day!! God is sooo good!! She later shared with me that our profiles were not sitting in a box at Bethany Christian and that they were in the HANDS of the birthmother counselors!! As I heard those amazing words from my phone my face completely lit up and I was grinning from ear to ear!! Those were such special words to hear!!  That was taking us one step closer to meeting our precious child, truly AMAZING!! J After talking to Barb, I quickly called Luke to share the AMAZING news!! He was very excited to hear everything and I could tell he was just as excited as I was. We were praising God for such great news! As my work day was coming to close, I realized I had received an email and found out later that evening it was from Bethany and it was our PAYMENT!!! Now most people do not get excited to see a payment or a bill…and usually neither do I….but this bill or payment was the last thing to do for the completion of our homestudy, so of course I would be thrilled to see that payment!!! J I know for a fact I will never be as excited to see such a HUGE BILL and be jumping up and down with excitement as I was that day!

After we paid our wonderful bill, a couple days later we received our homestudy through email, which was a HUGE PRAISE!! We heard from the agency that it was going to take a little longer for us to receive a hard copy of the homestudy, but found out through the director of the agency that was not the case, which was a nice surprise!! Once we got the valuable hard copy of the homestudy that meant we could start applying for grants and start on our fundraising!!! Whoohoo!! A couple of my friends approached me around the middle of the summer on how they would like to help support us in fundraising. Luke and I were completely humbled and thankful for their giving, loving, and supportive hearts towards our adoption and willingness to come along side and help us fundraise.  Whitney, Kelsey, Molly, Amy, and Lisa you all are a TRUE BLESSING!!! So ever since the summer  we have  been meeting occasionally and coming up with fundraising ideas; however, we quickly found out you need a completed homestudy to apply for grants and to be able to do this one fundraising project with this organization, called Both Hands. So now since we received the hard copy of the homestudy it was GO TIME!!! J The first week in September consisted of finishing the application to Both Hands, finishing our online profile, and a lot of meetings with my amazing fundraising ladies. The next post I will share about Both Hands organization, and what our fundraising will look like for this Fall!

Luke and I are excited to announce that we are now done with our online profile and will be sending it to Bethany Christian so they can post our profile on their webpage for any potential birthmothers looking for adoptive parents in other states. This online profile will target mothers who mostly live outside our state. Our online profile is like a shortened version of the hard copy family profile book. We also made a slideshow video for perspective birthmothers to look at to help them to visualize what our family, friends, church family, home, and everyday life looks like.  Our family profile book is a little more in depth about ourselves and is a hard copy for birthmothers to see who are specifically in the same state as we are. If there is a birthmother in another state who looks at our online profile and is interested in us, then they will be able to see a hard copy of our family profile book. As of right now, there is not a lot of other stuff for us to do for Bethany Christian...other than wait for a phone call to hear that a birthmother has picked us!!J  There is no telling when that will be, it could be really soon or it could be over a year. No one knows, except God! So we patiently wait and put our trust in Him!! However, there is PLENTY of things to do before we get a baby. Some of the biggest things are to raise money for the BIG adoption cost that will be coming at the end of the adoption process and to continually preparing ourselves to be the best adoptive parents we can be through reading adoption books and parenting books, and listening to webinars. We also cannot forget about getting the precious nursery ready as well!! J

So to say the least, we have been very busy the month of September! Luke and I quickly learned that NOTHING is simple in the adoption process and every little thing takes time and effort when you’re doing things you have never done before or experienced. We have learned there are ups and downs to usually everything you do in this adoption process, but again God gives us the grace to get through it all as we cling to him for strength and  the one who blesses us with an AMAZING support system, including you all that encourage us along the way. We are so grateful for the body of Christ and being able to be a part of the body of Christ!! With that being said, I look forward to sharing with you all an AMAZING fundraising outreach that will be taking place this FALL!!  It is truly much bigger than ourselves and our adoption…Stay tuned!!! J

Luke and I continue to be reminded of how unknown every little detail is in this process which makes us vulnerable and weak; however, our  soul continually finds rest and peace as meditate in 2 Corinthians 12:9
 

“But he said to me, “my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly, about my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on me”
 

Luke and I thought we would share a little bit on what our online profile looks like with the slideshow video. We picked a song by Kristyn and Keith Getty called, "There is a Higher Throne." Luke and I loved the words to this song and how it focus our mind and attention on our eternal Home and our hope in Christ and not in this earthly world. The link is below, check it out if you would like! Luke did an amazing job with it!! J

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=659xDZF8WDo

It's all about Adoption

August 13, 2013

Luke and I are beyond grateful for everyone’s support in this adoption process, and we feel beyond blessed to have all the support and encouragement from everyone. You are all are a blessing to Luke and I and we are so thrilled to share our amazing journey of adoption with you!! With that being said…I keep on hearing, “so where are you guys in the process now?” since I have been back dating everything. Well after this post, it will certainly speed everyone up to where we are currently in our adoption journey. I am going to share what we were up to in the summer months of June, July, and August! J

• At the end of May Luke and I finished up our last homestudy meeting with Barb. After the meeting she informed us that we had “passed” the homestudy portion! She shared with us that it would take her up till the first of August to finish her portion of the homestudy, writing it all up to be finalized and submitted to Bethany.
• Luke and I completed our eight hours of adoption training, primarily focusing on the Domestic Infant Program; four of those hours we had to complete by reading and listening to Domestic Adoption books and webinars.
•  Luke and I filled out and completed more background checks for every place each of us have lived in the past five years…not going to lie…that was a real pain!!
•  Luke and I wrote our birthmother letter. This is what the birthmothers will read through to get to know us better and this is what they will make their decision off of, if they would like us to be their child’s adoptive parents…..no pressure…right? J We also read a birthmother book on things you should say and not say in your letter. This was a HUGE deal!! We had to be very careful on what to say and what not to say to a birthmother and also make sure we shared subjects  that would be interesting to the birthmothers to  get a better understanding about ourselves and what is important to us as a couple and as prospective parents.
•  Luke and I put our “family profile” together with the help of my close friend, Whitney. She is amazingly artistic and COULD NOT have completed it without her amazing expertise!! Our family profile consisted of pictures of us, both sides of our families, nieces and nephews, our friends, our church family, our house, our cat Sammi, and what we enjoy doing; compiled with, all the writing from our birthmother letter which we made into a Shutterfly booklet. It was like a story book of our lives together, how we met, why we decided to adopt, about us, what we enjoy, about our families, house and community, church family, and friends, how we would parent our child, etc. It was pretty much explaining what our lives looked like as a couple.
•  Luke and I filled out our “preference sheet” and turned it in. This is what the birthmother counselor’s look at to decide what adoptive families match up to what the mother is looking for and what the adoptive family is willing to accept. Then the birthmothers will get a number of family profiles to decide from whom they want their baby’s adoptive parents to be.
• In the beginning of August, Luke and I got all TEN copies of our family profile from Shutterfly and sent them over to Bethany Christian Services, which was a very exciting day!!! A couple days later we found out that our homestudy will be COMPLETELY completed by the beginning of September.  That was a little later than what we first heard, but we will take it! Then our profiles will be in the hands of the birthmother counselors and will be open to be seen and possibly get picked!!! We are almost there!!! J By the end of August we completed everything we needed to except for our online profile. This online profile will be on Bethany Christian’s website for other birthmothers to look at in other states. The profile will be a lot like our family profile book just condensed a little bit and with a slideshow of pictures.

So that is what has been going on in a nutshell for the summer months…no big deal…J This summer was a very busy, hectic, exciting, growing in our lives individually and together as a couple kind of summer! We have seen the rollercoaster ride through the adoption process already, but are very happy and excited on where we are at in the process and how far we have already come! Plus it is that much closer to getting our child! There have been a ton of hoops we have had to go through this past summer while continually being reminded by our circumstances that practically everything is out of our control. However, EVERYTHING has been worth it even though it hasn’t been easy! This process truly makes our perfect miracle and blessing that much more special with all the invested time, effort, and prayers we have put into our child that we do not even know yet!! Plus we have grown a deeper dependence and trust in the Lord which makes this journey so incredibly amazing! We both have so much love for our child already and it just keeps growing and growing the further along we go. We know that is the work of the Holy Spirit softening our hearts, which is truly amazing!! God has blessed us so much through this process in so many different ways and we don’t even have our child yet!! God is SOOO GOOD!! We praise Him for helping us come this far along in the process!! He has given us strength for every step thus far in the process and I know He will continue to be faithful, so we will trust Him and praise Him for his majestic sovereignty!!  As for now, Luke and I patiently put our trust in the Lord’s timing and put our hope in Him and what Christ has done for us!! J

“Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.”   Psalm 62:5

Here are a few pics. of our first adoption photo shoot this past summer. Luke and I had a great time with one another as our friend Whitney took them!! She did such an amazing job and these pics. will be forever cherished!!!

Unforeseen Situations

May 24, 2013

The month of May entailed a lot of unforeseen situations concerning the adoption process, which produced growth between Luke and I as a couple, individually, and with the Lord. I do believe there is good that comes out of hardships or trials. I believe it is an opportunity to humble ourselves before the Lord by seeking Him and growing in our relationship and knowledge of Jesus Christ while having our hearts being transformed through the work of the Holy Spirit. I don’t know about anyone else, but when the Lord stretches me and pulls me out of my comfort zone, it is never easy and quite hard at times when I am put in situations I never thought I would be in. However, praise God that we have a faithful God who gives us grace as we humbly seek Him for wisdom, strength, comfort, and guidance.

The unexpected situations happened in the beginning of May when Barb our specialist called and asked if we could have our next homestudy meeting at our house instead of her office in her town.  That completely surprised me and caught me off guard…I had no good reason not to say yes other than I was not prepared to have the meeting this soon…didn’t seem like a legit reason, so I said  that was fine :-/ We did know that she was going to come to our house, but we were last informed it wouldn’t be till the third meeting, which would be our last one. We were thinking that wouldn’t be till the end of May or beginning of June; however…SURPRISE….our assumptions were wrong! When she asked to meet at our house, the first thing that popped in my head was all the things we wanted to do or fix up in our house before the BIG “HOMESTUDY” meeting. However, things don’t always go as you plan, as I am reminded of often, and totally heard the Lord saying to me, “Things don’t always go your way Christy and do not have to be perfectly done.”  It was a very humbling moment to say the least!! Luke and I decided to try get as much done as we could before the BIG “HOMESTUDY” meeting.

Nine days later…Barb was at our house bright and early Friday morning. As we opened our front door to greet Barb, it was literally thirty seconds later we made it to our family room couches to start our meeting….no questions about our house or looking around the house…nada! I was shocked….good thing we put such a big importance on the “BIG” homestudy meeting.  But anyways, our second meeting we learned about Barb’s theory and mission statement about open adoption. This is one area that was difficult for us and we truly want the best for our child. It was hard to listen to, not only because it was scary for us and unknown territory, but because I truly respected this women and I have never really disagreed with someone who I looked up to and who seemed like she knew what she was talking about. It was a huge learning point for me and realizing I might not always agree with someone I really respect on how to do things. How to be an adoptive parent was very new and unknown to us and that’s when we were reminded we need to do more research on open adoption and seek the Lord’s wisdom and guidance on what would be best for our family and our precious child. We have a deep desire to love and protect our child and give them a healthy environment where we will teach and share with them the Love of Christ. The level of openness was a HUGE decision that Luke and I were going to have to make with God’s intervention and grace!!  We also know that the Lord may be working in our hearts with the openness side of adoption, and that it may not look like what we thought it would. We genuinely want to follow the Lord’s will for the adoption process and know the gift of adoption is so much bigger than ourselves and how we would like our family to be. We know that this was something we weren’t going to know what do right away and hard at times knowing that we weren’t going to figure this out. This was going to take time and it was going to be a process as the Holy Spirit works in our hearts concerning the type of openness. My flesh wants to always know right away on how things will play out and know the outcome; however, I am humbled knowing that God is growing my character into more of his image by Him giving me these circumstances to be obedient to His teachings. Even though this was a hard subject to talk about, it was good and necessary to talk about since it is a part of the whole adoption process.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”   Proverbs 3:5-6

Later we talked about attachment and how important it would be to always hold and feed your baby. This part I absolutely loved! There was no doubt Luke and I would have any trouble holding our precious baby all the time while giving him or her love and affection while tending to his/her needs!! That was music to my ears!! J Even though the whole meeting wasn’t picture perfect, it was good and much needed things to talk about and prepare for us to be the best adoptive parents we can be! J We were informed that in a week we will be going down to Bethany for a Panel meeting about adoption.

A week had past and we were on our way to Bethany Christian Services. Luke and I were interested in what this meeting would be like. We knew we would hear from a couple who were adoptive parents and birthmothers on what their experience was like, but other than that we had no idea what to expect. As we walked into the meeting room I saw two adoptive families with their children and three birth moms. After hearing from both sides the adoptive families and birthmothers it was quite different and a little scary. I had no clue what it was going to be like and had no expectations but that still didn’t stop the whole fact that this was very different and unknown to me which made it scary. Hearing from the couples and the birthmothers made the whole adoption process very REAL to both Luke and I. Since it was so foreign and really out of my comfort zone and a huge change from what I am use to being around, it was pretty emotional for me. We had learned before that a lot of these mothers do not come from good homes or backgrounds and seeing that face to face was very eye opening and made me realize how sheltered and naive I am to things sometimes. After this meeting, it was the first time Luke and I had a conversation with one another if adoption was right for us or not. It was a hard time for us and we needed to figure out these emotions and thoughts before we went any further. 

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”   Isaiah 41:10

After a couple days of spending time in God’s word and praying about adoption and talking with other followers of Christ, one thing held true through all these emotions was that Luke and I have a great passion and love for children and building a family, and if this was a way to do that I would TRUST GOD and have FAITH in HIM through this WHOLE process, even if it meant that I was going out of my comfort zone. This was another meeting that was hard to go through but I knew God was preparing us and our hearts through these tough times. This is another example on how I feel when you go through tough and trying times it is an opportunity to grow individually and for the Holy Spirit to work in your heart and circumstances for His good and for Him to be glorified.

 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”   Isaiah 55:8-9

Today Luke and I decided to postpone our last meeting with Barb to a week later to process everything with these two past meetings and truly spend time in God’s word. It has been a busy, somewhat stressful couple weeks and we think it would be beneficial to slow things down a bit. We have yet more paperwork we need to complete before our last meeting and don’t want to rush through it. Our thoughts, hearts, and minds are truly in adoption, but sometimes you just need to slow things down a bit.  Our next meeting will be May 31st and are looking forward to it! J

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”        2 Corinthians 4:16-17

Prayer Request:

Luke and I would appreciate your continued prayers for the birthmother and our precious child as we continually lay that in the arms of our perfect, all-knowing, and loving Heavenly Father! Thank you! J

Awe Inspiring Day

April 23, 2013

This morning Luke and I had our first homestudy meeting with our adoption specialist, Barb. I was very surprised how soon we were able to get started on the homestudy meetings; Luke and I were ready to keep moving along in the process! Today was a BIG day for us; we didn't have much expectations going into this meeting, just praying that we would have a good connection and communication with one another. Well…our prayers were definitely answered, the meeting went soo well, and better than I could have ever imagined!! PRAISE GOD!!! My first impression of her over the phone was exactly what she was like in person. She was very down to earth, compassionate, caring, genuine, real, sensitive, and honest women who loves the Lord and has a great passion for children. It is amazing to see how God picked this awesome lady to counsel us and walk along side our adoption journey.  Our first meeting mostly consisted of getting to know each other and sharing each other’s lives with one another. It was really important not only for Barb to know about our story and our background, but also for us to know about her and to build upon a relationship with one another. It was great getting to know her. We found out that she is a runner just like Luke and I. (or use to be runners…running truly played a major part in both of our lives in our early years...J) That was just so neat to hear and how we both have that commonality with her! It reminds me on how God works out every little detail PERFECTLY and it truly is amazing to see His perfect plan unfold. Later on in our meeting, Barb talked more about the homestudy process and what it all entailed. She also shared with us that as long as we don’t have any hick-ups along the way of the homestudy, we should be done with it by mid-August and then we would be able to have our family profiles shown to the birthmothers when they are ready to choose an adoptive family! That was very surprising to hear and exciting as well; before I knew it, August would be here! When I heard all of this, one word described my thought process ….ECSTATIC!! J

Coming away from this meeting Luke and I were deeply encouraged and feel completely blessed by the Lord!! Our Lord God is Soo GOOD and seeing His blessings unfold is the greatest joy ever! After this meeting, we both realized how real this process was getting in a good way and needed to continually be in communion with our Lord every little step of the way. The birthmother and our child continually comes to the forefront our minds, hearts, and prayers as we trust our creator who has it all in the palms of His perfect hands. We are already starting to have a love for two people we do not even know of yet.  It is one of the most meaningful and amazing things Luke and I have been a part of and are humbled by God’s grace! Our next meeting is in two weeks, May 10^th!! Luke and I are thoroughly looking forward to it as we continue to prepare ourselves and hearts to be adoptive parents. During those two weeks, we continue to complete all the necessary paperwork that needs to be done for our homestudy. After the meeting Luke and I went to go out to eat to celebrate a special day of our adoption process. We are completely in awe of God‘s perfect love and mercy! J

“Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise- the fruit of lips that profess his name”   Hebrews 13:15

Adoption Specialist

April 10, 2013

Ever since we have “officially” started the homestudy process (a whole week and a half J), Luke and I have been anxiously waiting to hear from our specialist! Ok, maybe I have been anxiously waiting and Luke patiently waiting. But…ever since last Thursday when our agency told us she should be calling any day now, I have had my phone right by my side, waiting for THE phone call! Well today was a very exciting day for us, as I was in my regular routine at work I heard my phone ringing and saw an unknown number…to my surprise it was our specialist!!!  She called… PRAISE GOD!! I was thrilled to hear from our specialist named Barb!! I had a wonderful first impression with her on the phone as we talked a little bit about how the homestudy meetings would go.  She seemed so sweet, personable, nice, considerate, down to earth and good bedside manner. I seriously could not have had a better first impression with her over the phone! We will be meeting with Barb three times in order to complete the homestudy meetings/counseling. Luke and I were excited to get to know her a little better and have her walk with us through this AMAZING journey!

The neatest thing happened yesterday while I had a meeting with other Children’s Ministries leaders around the area. There were two ladies that came to this meeting who were from the same town as Barb. (Didn’t know that at the time when I was talking with them) I shared with these ladies how Luke and I were going down there and told them why and they followed up by saying, “Is your adoption specialist named Barb?” Shocked as can be, I replied, “Yes!”  These ladies shared that they knew her and her husband very well and they work together with Barb’s husband who is an Associate Pastor at Hope Missionary. The ladies had nothing but GREAT things to say about her! They shared with me how sweet she is, and how much passion and love she has for adoption. It was so neat to hear from other people on what they thought about her. It was truly a HUGE PRAISE to hear such good things about her too!! I was shocked to have this encounter and it truly blew me away to see how amazing and faithful God is. Luke and I prayed about our relationship with our specialist; it was a major deal that we would be able to connect and get along with her. It was encouraging to hear so many positive things about Barb before we even got the phone call from her. Nevertheless, God continues to show us how He is in every little detail!! No words can describe how incredible and intimate God is with us!! We again feel so blessed by God and truly believe he ordained all of this thus far! We have our first meeting with Barb at the end of April. We are really looking forward to it! As for now, we continue to work through all the nitty, gritty paperwork with positive, hopeful attitudes as we trust in the Lord’s will for our family!! 

Overjoyed

April 6^th, 2013

The first week of April has completely left me feeling overjoyed and truly thankful for many reasons.  Four days ago I received an email from Bethany Christian saying that we are officially starting the process of our HOMESTUDY!!! Whoohoo!! PRAISE GOD!!  Luke and I were so excited to get this email and so thankful the Lord has opened doors for us to make it this far in the adoption process!  So now that we are “Officially” in the Homestudy process the REAL heavy duty paperwork begins… J The email that we received from Bethany Christian included the ongoing list of papers we needed to fill out. Luke and I knew this pile of paper work was coming and were ready to dig right in and put our game faces on!! We already started working on it a couple days ago, which was so exciting! I kept on wanting to work on stuff and drop everything else in our lives and devote our time and effort into adoption; however, I knew that was unrealistic and not feasible at least for Luke and I! J So right now I am trying to take it one step at a time and not get too excited. It is very easy for me to rush things to get things done and accomplished when something mean so much to me. I continually have to lift every little detail to the Lord and know everything will eventually get done in time as we continually seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance through every little detail. Honestly, this is why this journey is soo unimaginably amazing because Luke and I are continually being stretched by the Lord and challenged to seek the Lord for strength and guidance through this journey. We know this journey is very unclear and unknown to us, and that makes us very vulnerable and weak in these situations. This is why we are solely depending on the Lord and continually trusting in Him and His sovereignty!

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”    2 Corinthians 12:9

Lastly in our email, Bethany Christian shared with us that our adoption specialist will be calling soon!! She is a MAJOR deal and very important in the whole Homestudy process because she will be with us through the whole process till we get our baby! It was very exciting news to hear, but also hard to wait and see what she was like, whether or not we would have a good connection and get along with one another. Again, we have been committing this to prayer and trusting in God’s perfect plan for our family!

Today I feel so honored that the Lord has called Luke and I into this journey of adoption. Even though we never imagined being here, we are so thankful for being a part of the gift of adoption. God has already completely blessed us beyond what we ever imagined and we praise God for that and give Him all the glory! God is really softening our hearts to adoption and a love for this whole process already. I know my love for this precious child is growing now than ever before. It is amazing how the Lord can truly work in your heart and grow a love for someone who probably isn’t even born yet; or even yet, before the birth mom knows that she will bear a child. That is such a God thing!! This journey is soo much bigger and amazing than I could ever imagine thinking about and it truly brings tears to my eyes knowing that God already knows who our child will be and has chosen this perfect, beautiful child for our family! We are beyond blessed with the amount of support we have received from both of our parents and family, our friends, our co-workers, our church body and our pastors!! What a blessing it is to have so much love, support, and prayers for this adoption journey!!! PRAISE GOD!!! We are truly thankful for each one of you!! We have started praying for the birthmother even though we do not know her yet. God has much bigger plans, far greater than I could ever imagine! As Luke and I strive towards humbly submitting ourselves to the Lord’s will for our family, we look forward to seeing His amazing and perfect plan for our family unfold!!

“Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of his deeds in songs of joy!”   Psalm 107:21-22