Our Adoption Update

With school, work, traveling, home study paper gathering, and a youth retreat (Dustin and I were the speakers!) we have been busy! I will blog about the travels and retreat later (cause they were some exciting times!), but for now a quick update on our adoption process:

The Lord has provided the money for a private adoption, the contacts (in GA and SC), and an almost complete home study all within a couple months!!! We await the final confirmation that our home study has been approved...there should be no problem, just waiting for the final South Carolina background check. (The other ones all cleared if you were wondering if Dustin and I had criminal pasts!!) Our social worker was wonderful. The first meeting we talked about our childhood, family relationships, and marriage. What a sweet time to see all the Lord has brought us through to be a couple-saint! The second meeting was about parenting ideals and what children we would be approved for (F.Y.I. Approved for age newborn to 6; up to 4 children at once!! haha...the first one we are still thinking newborn, but the Lord only knows!)

We met with an attorney last week, which was a next exciting step, but also a little discouraging. In this terribly difficult process of growing our family, each complication gets my heart easily burdened. The attorney said that adopting a baby from out of state would require more money and possible set backs. With our only two connections being a labor and delivery nurse in South Carolina and a pregnancy support center in Georgia that news was a bummer to hear. Good news though...the nurse in SC gave all our information to the OB doctors at the hospital too! Definitely widens our chance of "finding" our child (even if he/she is out of state)!

One day WE will be THREE (or four...we are not opposed to twins!)

Please pray we would continue to trust the Lord with every step of this process. It is just a different type of waiting. A new set of fears to battle. At times adoption seems just as obscure and impossible as getting pregnant. We of course know the truth...nothing is impossible with our incredible, all-knowing Creator. 

When we stop focusing on our own little world, we see that our God is so great He isn't just orchestrating a plan for us to be parents, but the lives of our future children, their birth parents, and all the friends and family that will be affected now and in the future! I love the realization that our Lord is already working out our future children for our best, their best, and His glory! 

Thank you for the prayers. With our home study ready, now we just wait to hear of a birth mother choosing us to adopt her baby. Please pray that would be soon...though we trust the Lord's perfect timing.