Updates

Hi everyone! I wanted to update you on our progress. We have completed everything required of us and we are now just waiting on a mom to choose us. We have made decisions, picked names, chosen nursery themes.....we are ready for her to select us. I am currently putting together a more detailed profile book to send to the agency so they can present us to the moms they are working with. It's coming together nicely so I think the mom will be able to catch at least a glimpse of what our lives are like and how her child will fit into our family. I am looking forward to seeing our sweet baby! On Thursday we had a multi-baby shower for some of my colleagues who are expecting. There were also some newborns on hand and of course I snagged one to snuggle! I love smelling baby heads!!! Call me crazy! As I held my friend's 10 week old son, who is incredibly adorable, I felt that same longing I get for a baby. It was therapeutic in a way to hold this perfect little creation. Thank you God for babies. That afternoon I had a doctors appointment, where once again I had to hear that things for me healthwise were not so great. I haven't had a cycle since July 27th. It is difficult even in the midst of our joy in this adoption, when I have to face the reality of infertility. We had to discuss what next step to take to try to regulate cycles for me. I got home, and failed to remain strong, and broke down in tears. It is real. There are days that I am sad because the longing to bear children still exists. Adoption has never been the plan to fall back on when everything else failed so we are extremely excited about that. But there are days when Satan tries very hard to tell me I fail. So I cried for a bit.... I was sad.....BUT God is there to give us strength when we are weary. I am victorious against that enemy and even though I will not become pregnant with our next baby I AM GOING TO BE A MOM AGAIN!!!! Nate has actually been preaching about ABBA father. He chose us to be adopted into His family. We are choosing a baby AND someone else is choosing me to be that child's MOM. What a calling on my life! I have so much to be thankful for------and Satan, you are DEFEATED!!!
Please pray for the birthmom and for our baby. She has a very difficult decision to make. Also, pray for Amazing Grace Adoption Agency. They are ministering to these ladies as they make this journey. Thanks for walking with us and for praying.

Our final home study meeting!

It went great! Our social worker, as I have said before, is so easy to talk with. While she does ask alot of personal questions, we did not find this difficult. I do have to say though that we are glad to have this portion of the adoption behind us. She told us Thursday night that she will submit our official report this week and from now on we just wait to hear. We are becoming more and more excited as we wait for this precious child to enter our lives. We will sit down and meet with the birthmother and get to know her a bit. Nate and I are viewing this as a great way to minister to her and help her too as she makes a big, life-changing decision. I can't fathom the magnitude of this decision for her. Please continue to pray for her and the baby and for us. While our hearts will be blessed, her heart must be breaking. What a gift she truly is giving us.
Don't know when the call will come, but you blog readers will certainly be able to tell we've been contacted----- whenever it happens!!


Pray for our Benjamin too. He's been sick with tonsillitis. No fun for him. He is feeling better now but for awhile he didn't want to even swallow. He's a trooper though. Today we came up on a wreck while driving to my mom's house. He saw the catastrophe and immediately said, "Mom, let's pray now for the people." What a little man I have. His faith trumps mine on many days. His pure and trusting heart exhibits the faith that we all should have. He hasn't been corrupted with poor theology and man's opinion. Our prayer is that we continue to foster his faith in God is such a way that he continues to believe that each time he prays, God will answer.

Today is a special day in our family. Our nephew, and Benjamin's best friend, turned 5! In 5 months, Benjamin will join the ranks of the 5 year olds. What excitement and joy surrounds this milestone!
God is good and faithful!

Is he really just 4?

Benjamin amazed me today. Each morning when we get to school, Benjamin loves to write or draw on my whiteboard. He will usually write the latest letter or number he has learned. Today he said he was going to write the number 10. I said okay absently as I was trying to get organized for the day. He did and it was a great 10. The next thing I know he's saying, "There is another way to write a 10." I said, "Okay, do it." I looked away and while I was busy he wrote 2 5's. Then he said, "5 + 5 is 10." I whipped my head around and realized that Benjamin had written his first number sentence!!!! He is really just 4?

Another week has flown by!

Just as the title of this blog says, another week has flown by. I had a short school week due to celebrating ACSI Accreditation with my fellow teachers. We drove down to Greensboro on Thursday evening and accepted the presentation of license on Friday. It was fun to be away from the classroom for a day.
This week has been slow on the adoption front. The only progress this week has been that I have been finishing these classes that we are required to take. One in particular has been the Conspicuous Family class. It was very helpful, especially because we are likely to be just that, a conspicuous family. Nate and I each have to log 10 hours of course work towards this adoption. While not difficult and, by no means, college type credit hours it is time consuming and leads to good discussion. I have been forced to examine some of my ideals and to think about my responses when others comment about our baby or question if he/she is "REALLY" mine. WOW. Yep, this baby is going to be really ours. It's hard to imagine answering any other way. I have been adopted by my heavenly Father. I am really HIS!!!
As you have been reading about our journey and are catching a glimpse of what I'm thinking and doing, ask yourself.....are you really HIS?

Please pray for the birthmother and our baby. We meet again for the last time with our social worker on Thursday. She will interview Nate and I separately and then we won't see her again until after we have the baby home. Once we have this last meeting we wait for our baby. My heart is ready!

Gastonia-part 2

So we made it! I thought we might not, but we did. Our afternoon started with a bit of an emergency with Benjamin. Because Nate went to a Pastor's meeting yesterday, he didn't get to pick Benjamin up from school with the "early birds". Benjamin waited with me until Papa was to come and get him. However, walking back to my classroom with the fall breeze blowing something blew into his eye. Naturally, you rub it out so that's what he tried to do. In the process however he did so much more. The next thing I know he is screaming in pain and fear and he won't even let me touch him. I was helpless yet trying to do something to calm him down. At last, I just scooped him up and rushed home, calling Papa and Nate on the way to say meet at home and that there was a problem. Once there, Benjamin still didn't want us to touch him so we couldn't look at his eye. He kept his hand over it and kept saying over and over again, "This is the worst day ever!" Nate and I resorted to holding him down and prying his hand off of his eye. It was red, puffy, and watering profusely and then we realized that something else looked wrong. We couldn't see his top eyelashes....any of them. Nate pulled his eye open with Benjamin screaming to confirm our fear. His entire set of top lashes were up underneath his top lid!!! Every time he moved his eye, tried to blink, or see all he felt were his lashes scraping his eyeball and I suppose that is all he could see as well. GROSS! With the first attempt Nate got most of them out from under the lid. We gave Benjamin a break and then tried again. Success! It was awful in the midst of it, but we did get them out and once they were out he was fine. His eye stayed red and irritated but no permanent damage. WHEW! Then Nate and I were officially off to Gastonia. It was a great trip down, and about halfway there I finally came down off of my adrenaline high. We had a very open and honest conversation with our social worker and learned more about this process of adoption. She is a very sensitive lady and easy to talk with. We have just one more visit to share more about ourselves and our life and then we wait. Continue to pray for the birthmother and our baby. We want desperately for her to know Jesus' love through one of the biggest decisions of her life. it is our honor to be able to love this baby and his/her mom.

Gastonia

So tomorrow we head to Gastonia to meet with our social worker for the second time. This is the rescheduled date after our gas crisis! Nate and I are both very excited about it and ready to move ahead and that much closer to our baby. Please pray for us---for safe travel, a great visit, discernment with decisions we need to make, and for our baby. Thank you for your support and kind words! We love your comments!