December Monthly Update

We received our December monthly update and we are now the 18th longest waiting family. This means that 4 families received placements in December. Our update also mentioned that our agency placed 41 infants in 2010.
We were considered for a placement of a 9 month old boy in mid-December, but the birthmom chose a family from Charlottesville. Needless to say, that was a difficult time when we were waiting to hear if she picked us and we were very disappointed that she didn't. We will keep believing that God has already chosen our child and he/she will be with us when the time is right, though I do hope that time is sometime in 2011 and not any longer than that. The 2 year wait for Dasha was excruciating and I'd rather not have to wait quite as long this time.
We have applied for a matching grant and the grant agency contacted us to say that they are not considering any new applications until after February 1st so keep praying for us in that area. We hope to receive a matching grant and then also hope that our friends and family (and even strangers, God-willing!) will be moved to donate to our goal of adopting a child in need.
Praying that 2011 will be a wonderful year of blessings and obedience as we follow God's will. I am also praying that God will help me to be content in my life, whatever may come. And that as long as God is in the lead, I am where I should be.

First Monthly Update

We received our first monthly update from our agency this week. We are currently the 22nd longest waiting family. This means that 21 families are ahead of us on the waiting list, which only becomes important if we wait so long that we are the 1st longest waiting family. Then we would receive the next placement from a birthmother who did not want to choose a family, but wanted to place her baby with the longest waiting family. I hope we are not waiting that long.
I am putting together information for a matching grant application that I am applying for soon. A matching grant is where the grant agency gives money dollar for dollar to match money that we can raise from family and friends. Please pray that we are awarded a grant and that our family and friends will feel led to assist us in our efforts to give hope to one child who is without a family.

We're Officially---Waiting...

Well, it's official, we are now approved and waiting to be selected by a birth mom. Our portfolios are complete and have been distributed to the four Bethany offices in VA and there are two extra portfolios on file to be mailed to other states should the need arise.
Now the waiting game begins. We will not know when our portfolios are viewed, we will only hear if we are selected by a birth mom or she wants to meet us. Once we are selected, we are required to meet with the birth mom two times before the baby is born so we will be able to take take custody of the baby directly after being released by the hospital. The birthmom will have ten days following the birth to change her mind. On the tenth day, she must release her parental rights or decide to parent the baby herself.
We waivered back and forth on whether we wanted to take custody of the baby during this ten day period or if we wanted the baby to go into "interim" care, which is a service our agency provides where the baby goes to a family that they have approved and trained. And then at the end of the ten days the baby would come to us if the birth mom has relinqished her rights. We decided that if God wants us to love the baby and take of him/her for ten days and then give him/her back to the birth mom, then God will give us the comfort and strength to be able to endure that. We also want the opportunity to be with our baby as long as we can if the birth mom does not change her mind. So we are prepared to receive our baby directly from the hospital, whether that means we have them for a few days or forever. Pray that God will strengthen and prepare us for that transition.
It's kind of neat to think that our baby could have already been conceived. If he/she is coming to our family between now and July, then God has already knit him/her together in his/her mother's womb, wow! And even if they haven't been conceived yet, God already knows them and knows their name. What an awesome God we serve and love!

Close Call

Last Sunday we got an interesting phone call from a friend. An aunt with legal custody of her two nephews wanted to place her two year old and 9 month old nephews for adoption (whose parents are incarcerated). Long story short, we are pretty certain this is not going to go through but it did raise a lot of questions and make me think. Could we handle two children at once? Hmm, I think so. Are we ready for two children at this very moment? Well, maybe not. It has definitely kicked my nesting into gear. Maybe this was a wake-up call that this adoption may happen much more quickly than we originally anticipated. Please pray that the aunt of these two boys will receive what she needs to be able to parent her nephews with confidence and that she would draw near to God as her source of strength. Also please pray that we would be able to prepare for the time when we will receive a new child (or children) into our family. Also, please pray that God would provide for whatever we might need to bring a new child home.

Latest Progress

We finished the documents that we needed to submit before our homestudy interviews can be conducted. Dasha and I Fed-Exed them yesterday. We had to submit a fire evacuation plan, autobiographies, medical forms and lab work, fingerprints for a criminal background check, an application for a background check from Child Protective Services and several other forms. Now we wait for our personal, employer and pastor references to be returned and them we can schedule our interviews and home visit.

I have starting reading the required reading books that the agency said we need to read. Two of them are really good (Successful Adoption: A Guide for Christian Families and Adopted for Life), but one is awful (Inside Transracial Adoption). I hope I can make it through that one, it is one of the most negative and poorly written books I have ever read. If anyone has any good suggestions for other books about transracial adoption, I'd love to hear your ideas.

Dasha and I have been busy cleaning out the room that the baby will be in, I think we've had at least a dozen bags of stuff go to Goodwill and almost as many bags of trash. And we're still working on it. Slow, but steady.

We've had a few more people order coffee, we are so appreciative of your help! Thank you!

Photographer of our Lives

So I have been working on putting together our portfolio for birth families to look at to see if we are the family that they want to place their child with. The portfolio consists of a cover page that gives information about our family, a letter to the birthparents, and then 8-10 pages of family photos. I've finished the cover page and the letter, but in looking through our photos to try to pick the best ones to put into the portfolio I have realized that I have almost no family photos that have me in them. I am always behind the camera, I feel like I am the photographer of our lives together. How do I remedy this photo dilemma? Maybe we need to start taking someone along with us when we go places...

Stretching

God is constantly stretching my faith, which even though I know it is a good thing it still stings a bit. Our meeting today went great with the agency. We got more paperwork to complete (and, ugh, I have already messed up one of the forms!) and got to know our caseworker, who I really love. I know without a doubt that we are being called to adopt again and that it is with this agency.

But this afternoon, when we stopped at our bank to inquire about borrowing for the adoption from our home equity, they were not able to help us. Because of the economy, they are only allowing customers to borrow 85% of their home value minus what is still owed on the mortgage and once we paid closing costs to refinance the loan, it would not even be $5000. The woman who helped us said that since we could not borrow the full amount, it would probably not be wise to refinance and then still need to borrow from multiple other sources to get the full amount that we need since it would negatively affect our credit. She recommended trying our 401(K) company. Well, we called them and right now the maximum we could borrow is only $15,000.

Oh, my, where is the money going to come from God? Please pray for us as we try to come up with the money that we will need. We wrote a check today for $1000.00 which we had saved up, and we have to write another check for $7000.00 in about 3 weeks and we just don't have that right now. Then we'll owe another $17,000 when we receive a placement.

Lord, I pray for your provision and that we would trust You to complete what you have started. Lord, give us wisdom to know what to do and where to go to find the resources that we will need to complete this adoption. May everything we do Lord glorify You. Thank You Jesus, Amen.