Rescheduled!

Yeah! We are home from our Staff Advance. It was great and alot was accomplished plus we all had a good time together! While we were out of town we received a phone call from our social worker rescheduling our missed appointment for this coming Thursday. God made a way for us to fit it in!! While talking she said hopefully the gas situation would be over by then and I said I thought it was just about behind us. Well, she said in Gastonia/Charlotte they are out!!!!!! What?!? So, we need to pray that this "Crisis" will be over by then!
Benjamin amazed us tonight! He said that he wanted a space birthday party. He informed us it needed to have Saturn. Where did he get that?
Thank you for praying for us and the birthmother and the baby! Every day we are getting closer to meeting our new addition!

GAS SHORTAGE

Okay well, we didn't get to travel to Gastonia tonight for our 2nd meeting with the social worker. Two words...GAS SHORTAGE. Yes, I'm bummed. We had gas to get there but we were too afraid that we would not get back. Maybe we could have found gas or maybe not. I don't know but we had to be careful and make good decisions. It was hard to do and it feels that we are getting behind (At least on the surface of this situation) but really we are getting to move very quickly so what am I stressed about? We are awaiting the call to reschedule our appointment. Until then we wait!
Back to the gas shortage.....we waited 2 hours in line at the pump but we have 1 full tank of gas. Nate's car is parked until further notice. It only has fumes...fuel is about gone in her. I am constantly amazed at people especially when they are stressed out. At the pump beside us we watched two ladies cuss each other -yelling and making a scene. Over gas?!?! What in the world?
God is on His throne. I'm not worried about these things. Frustrated at times, but not worried.
Please pray for our birth mom and baby. HEALTH, SAFETY, SALVATION!!

One Down, 2 To go!!!!

WHEW!!! Things went so well tonight! Benjamin charmed our social worker and she was very warm and easy to talk with. She was very quick to want to schedule the next 2 sessions....so quick that we meet with her again tomorrow!!!!! Do you hear the excitement in my typing? It's amazing to me that we have tried and tried to become pregnant for the past 4 1/2 years and can't and when we finally say okay let's adopt and submit to the call on our lives that was placed there years before we conceived Benjamin things are flying! I asked tonight how quick could this all happen? Nate says I am too instant gratification but hey I figure if the social worker can ask all kinds of questions I can too. So....she says the last one she finished up with got the paperwork barely in and the baby was placed in the month. Come on baby!!! I'll update you all very soon. Thank you for the calls of encouragement this evening before the visit. You will never know how your words encouraged me and how we felt the prayers being lifted up for us! Keep praying for our birthmother and the baby!!! God is so very good to us!

What do I Wear?!?

Thought you all might want insight to what I'm thinking tonight as I check over my list of things I wanted to do before our home study. Tonight I've been thinking....what does one wear at a home study?!!! Sounds funny and maybe even petty I know but it is what is on my mind. Where I teach I have to dress professionally(SKIRT OR DRESS) so by 8pm on Monday night I will not want to be wearing that. I would be a bit overdressed I think! But on a normal day I would be in my jammies by then. So nope can't do that either. I do want to appear as though I care about this important visit. So, jeans and a cute top? Khakis? Who knows. I want to be comfortable...and look that way! Men have less to stress about! I don't want to be overly "complete" or too relaxed. The dilemma! Laugh with me....maybe you haven't been dealing with a home study visit but don't we all have those engagements that you just don't know how to dress? Oh well! I'm not nervous or anxious about the actual visit. I am actually very excited. Nate gave a great analogy....this visit is for the social worker to check out how healthy we are much like my OB did when we went for checkups. She won't be measuring my belly and weighing me(THANK GOD!!) but she is going to check us out. Another step closer to our little one! Thank you for praying for the birth mom and for our baby. Please don't stop lifting them both up.

Benjamin is doing great at school! He is writing all kinds of letters and if we spell words for him he can write them too! It's amazing to watch how fast he learns and picks up on things. Where has the time gone? Tonight while watching tv together as a family, I asked him if he wanted a "baby massage." This was something I did with him from the time he was about 3 weeks old. I have always used the same lotion and when I smell it my mind is filled with wonderul memories of rubbing his chubby little legs and arms. I haven't done this in months with him-unfortunately he is usually "Too BUSY" for this kind of thing. Tonight my heart melted when he said yes!!! I thank God for these moments. They are treasures that I hold in my heart and will hold there forever. It's such a two sided coin. I want to see him grow up and then again....I don't......
Before we go to sleep tonight, Nate and I will slip into his room as we do every night to check on him one more time. Tonight he'll smell like our special lotion.....and I'll remember.

Home Study!

We got a call today from our case worker to schedule our home study visit! I was surprised to get a call so quickly. We were told in the next 2 weeks we should hear something but that was just on Thursday so when we got the call today we were ecstatic! We are scheduled to meet with her on Monday the 22nd. We are getting closer to our dream! Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray for our birthmother and baby!

It's There!!!

We got a call today around 4:30 that our last paperwork was received and that we should hear from our social worker in the next 2 weeks!!!! God is so good and I feel like our cup overflows! Nate left his job for the last time today as he is now fulltime at Breakthrough. It has been a long road but God has been with us every step. He is Jehovah Jireh--God our provider. Tuesday night our women's ministry Desire met together to pray as we do each month. We had an incredible time and really felt "breakthrough" this week as we prayed. Sure enough, the very next day one of the ladies received answer to her prayers. How can you question that God is in control and WANTS to work in our lives? He does and He cares about every situation-whether big or small. Nothing is impossible for God. Our lives are a testimony!
Pray with us for the birthmother and our baby. We are closer than ever to our dreams coming true. We want her to know she is loved by an Almighty God!!!!

It's On Its Way!!

I mailed the last of our paperwork today!!! It should arrive tomorrow by certified mail and everything will be on the move! It's exciting that we are that much closer. God has shown His faithfulness this weekend. Trust is such a big and hard word but the word He kept saying over and over to us. Why is that so hard to do? Trust? I think it's because we can never completely trust humans and we tend to give God human characteristics when we shouldn't and so we don't trust Him either. He is God-we trust Him with our salvation but we struggle with the daily things. It doesn't make sense. I am trying very hard to learn to trust Him fully and when He shows us how trustworthy He really is my faith is stirred and I give Him more of myself and my worries. It feels good to know that this adoption is continuing to move forward. We prayed that God would carry the packet to Raleigh for us and put it into their hands and that it would be assigned to a case worker quickly. We have a home study to complete and then we wait until God brings the birthmother and baby into our lives. Please pray with us for her and for our baby. They both need protection, love, and health. Thank you for agreeing with us!

Our Benjamin is so into school and all the new things he's learning. It is so fun to watch him grow. There are bumps along the way and we are harnessing some of his little boy energy into more productive means of expressing oneself, but he is loving it and we are so thankful to be given this opportunity to be his parents!!

God's Timing

I haven't had the chance to blog in a few days. Grading papers has taken much of my time and of course compiling all of the paperwork for this adoption. We had hoped to get the packet in the mail this week. Things just don't go fast enough for me sometimes and I have to stop and remind myself that this is all in God's timing. I like to get ahead of Him so many times. After Nate had his physical we thought we would have the form completed and send off everything but they had to do a Tuberculosis test which can't be read for a few days. He didn't get to return for the reading until Friday and that pushed us behind "my" schedule. I felt myself getting anxious about this- but why? A few more days is nothing compared to the 4 1/2 years we've been trying to conceive. So, long story short---we'll send off the packet this week. God's timing has always been best and I have been witness to that in so many situations in my life. I do not know why I can't accept this, or at least remember it so I don't put myself through the anxiety and frustration. I have to stop and laugh at myself because it is ridiculous and I guess just another curse from the FALL. A friend and I joke that before we get into heaven we are going to call Eve outside the pearly gates and have a "talk" with her. There sure are a few things I would like to say to her!! I say all of that in jest.....

God help me when I can't get over my "PLAN" to see YOURS!!!
To those of you who have been so faithful to pray for us, please continue to pray for the birthmother: her health, her salvation, her emotional well-being, her decision making, and this precious baby---our gift from GOD

This is the Week!

This is the week we will send off all the official work of our "paperwork pregnancy!!!" We have been asssembling everything since we received acceptance by the agency. This is something that takes alot of time and now we are almost done. Nate has his physical tomorrow and then we will be able to mail everything off. Thanks to those of you who helped us with reference letters and words of encouragement. Once we complete all of this paperwork we will have our home study and then we wait for the placement, which in family terms, our baby to be become ours!! I have already had dreams about this baby. Funny how the baby is always a girl:) We didn't specify a gender or race so we will be somewhat surprised. Please keep praying for the birthmother and her health and of course our baby.

In other news.....Breakthrough will be celebrating its official 1 year anniversary this weekend! (Sept. 7th) What an incredible year! I encourage you to join us (see the blog list to get more info). Nate is about to step away completely from his secular job that he has worked since we began the church. He has been so faithful and hardworking and now even though it may be tight some months for us, he is going to be fulltime at BWOC!! Praise God!