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

Exciting Steps Forward

March 29, 2013

This past month of March consisted of more exciting steps towards adoption. Since so many things happened I thought I would share the whole month together in one post.  

The first week in March, we received our OFFICIAL application for the Domestic Adoption Program! Whoohoo! Once we received that significant packet, Luke and I were eager to get started on it!! It took us a little while to fill it out, but wanted to make sure we thoroughly put down everything they were asking for. We excitedly submitted our application online on March 17^th. Another step checked off!! Praise God!  It was very awesome, but again a little nerve racking, knowing we are truly doing this and putting everything we have into this process!! Luke and I have never been in such vulnerable positions where we have completely opened our hearts to something so unknown and so unpredictable that is completely out of our control! Our trust is in the Lord and He is our firm foundation through this all! We trust that if this journey is His will for our life, He will make this path straight and known to us by being accepted and opening yet another door through adoption.

“So then just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”   Colossians 2:6-7

Soo March 20^th came along and I saw online from our portal with Bethany Christian that we got APPROVED!!  PRAISE GOD!!  He is soo GOOD!! I was so thrilled and wanted to call Luke right away to tell him the exciting news!!  It was a wonderful day!!! I later called Bethany Christian to see if we needed to do any other paper work; now that was a silly question….of course there is more!! J We got informed that we have to fill out more documents pertaining to our family background, fill out a bunch of different background checks, and much more!  We were excited and ready to get started! I feel like Luke and I have had a very good attitude about having to fill out all this paper work. The more things we get done and plow through, hopefully the sooner we will be able to get on the list!! J

The last weekend in March, Luke and I plowed through all the documents that needed to be completed for the application.  We really enjoy doing these things together and it has been fun for us to do as a couple. The more time and effort we spend working on adoption, the more it becomes a part of us. It is really awesome how that works! It is so neat to see how amazing this process is on so many different levels, through growing in our relationship and dependence with the Lord and also growing with each other and sharing this amazing journey together! This has truly helped us to depend on one another more than we have ever expected thus far! On March 25^th I sent out all our documents to Bethany Christian. Yet another exciting step FINISHED!!! There will be LOTS of exciting steps in this process and we are looking forward to each and every single one of them!! As we wait, we commit this to prayer and that the Lord will continue to be at work through every little detail. We look forward to hearing what the next step is! J

Pre-Application

February 20, 2013

The weekend of February 10^th consisted of filling out the first part of paper work from Bethany, our pre-application. I was thrilled to get this process started, but it was also a bit intimidating and nerve racking because I knew this was just the beginning. However, we just had to get through this step and focus on the pre-application before filling my mind with all the other overwhelming paper work.  One section on the application had us share our statement of faith to the agency; I was very impressed on how thorough their questions were!  It really pleased us to see how much importance Bethany Christian put on wanting to know how we personally know Christ as our Lord and Savior and how we are actively growing in our relationship with Him. Through this whole application I wanted to make sure I thoroughly thought out everything while being open to the Holy Spirit’s guidance while trying not to listen to those thoughts of whether or not we would get accepted to the program. I truly believe the devil loves to plant those fears and worries in your mind when you are seeking Christ and putting Him first through anything you are doing. I literally think I spent as much time as I could on those questions and had to put my trust in God, and that He would open this path if it was meant to be. Once we made our decision to go with Bethany, Luke and I decided to pray with one another daily in everything we have done and continue to go through during this journey. This process is SOO much BIGGER than us and we need our Lord’s strength, comfort, and wisdom through this journey! That following Monday was a very exciting day; once I got into work I mailed in our pre-application packet. It was our FIRST big mailing of the adoption process! Woohoo!! Now that was a big deal to us!!!  As I made finishing details to our packet for it to be all set to mail out, one of my amazing co-workers and I prayed before I sent it out; it was so meaningful and made me realize how much God has blessed us with such an amazing support group!  I am very blessed to have such amazing, supportive, Godly co-workers; I am truly thankful for each and every single one of them!

After a little more than a week went by, I decided to call Bethany and see if they had received our pre-application packet….and soon after that they went on to tell me that they did receive our packet and that it was APPROVED!! PRAISE GOD!! Luke and I were thrilled!! As we took in this exciting news, we continued not to rush anything, but walk alongside one another as we put Christ at the center. We felt at peace with continuing the next step of the adoption process.

Informational Meeting

February 2, 2013

Luke and I went to an informational meeting on January 19th at Bethany Christian Services. Going into this meeting we didn’t have any expectations, we heard a lot of good things about this adoption agency, but wanted to give all the agencies we were looking at a fair chance. However, after our meeting with Bethany, I was trying to hold back my excitement for this adoption agency. I thought it was great and exactly what we are looking for! The most important thing to both of us is that they put Christ first in their agency and they really made that know, which is very important to us. We were very impressed with their presentation with their Domestic Infant Program; they sound like they have all their ducks in a row! I loved that! Going through the adoption process is a HUGE deal and very important to us! We wanted to make sure we went with an agency that we could trust and that was very experienced.

 Before jumping into this agency, we did look at some other agencies that were closer to where we live, but nothing compared to this one.  I truly feel like this is exactly what Luke and I need to grow through this journey spiritually, physically, and mentally. One downfall is it’s the most expensive we  looked at; we have noticed the larger and well know agencies are higher in cost, compared to the smaller, local agencies. At this point that was the only thing that seemed like would be a challenge, coming up with the money. However, if we did go with Bethany I was completely confident that this agency would prepare us to be the most well equipped adoptive parents by going through adoption meetings and going through  counseling with our adoption specialist. This process was NOT going to be easy by any means and completely out of our comforts zones in every little aspect! But we are completely open to it and having God mold our hearts into His plan for our family. We know God gave us this desire to have a family and gave us this abundant love for children to train, and grow them into the knowledge of our Savior.  After A LOT of talking and praying with one another the past couple weeks, we felt at peace with our decision…. Luke and I decided we would put both of our feet in and start our adoption journey with Bethany!!! We are SOO excited to see what God has in store for our family as we put our COMPLETE TRUST in Him!! J

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”   Jeremiah 29:11-13

Growing In Our Hearts!

Luke and I are thrilled to announce that we are adopting and are excited to share our adoption journey with all our friends and family! We are so thankful and blessed to have each and every single one of you in our lives!  We would not be where we are at without our Heavenly Father and without the love, support, and prayers from our friends and family! We finally made it to our first post of our adoption blog….wooohhoo! It took a little while, but we finally are here and cannot wait to share with you all what has been happening in our lives since the beginning of 2013! We actively started seeking out our adoption journey during the beginning of this year, but unfortunately did not get around to starting our blog till now. I have been journaling our journey thus far, so I will be back dating some of the process till I get all caught up to where we are now!

THANK YOU!

I want to personally thank Luke’s cousin, Kelly for being such an amazing inspiration to starting our blog!! I kept on contemplating whether or not to start one, but she was the final encourager who made us decide to stop thinking about it and put these thoughts into action and step out of our comfort zones…and here we are!  You are a blessing! J

I also want to thank everyone else who was encouraging me to start this blog and BIG THANK YOU to our friends Mark and Kelsey for helping us come up with our title name of the blog!!! We are blessed beyond measure for all who genuinely helped us out and continue to be a part of our journey!!!