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 29th, 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
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