What!? Three!?

That has often been the reaction that we get after telling people that we have accepted a referral for three children. Although, we did expect that. We had that kind of reaction at first ourselves. The question then arises, how did we get to this point? Weren't we just adopting one? We have not really shared how God has led us to the point that we are now at peace about adopting three at one time.

Let me share how God has shaped our family so far. First off, there were the multiple miscarriages over the course of a few years that led us to believe that we would never have biological children. Then, there was the amazing adoption of London, in ways that were so orchestrated that it could only have come from our Father above. Then came Geneva, and Capri whose timing we never would have guessed. However, all along God has built our family.

So when we started this process of adoption again we thought that this was how God wanted to complete our family. (Though Adam at least, thought it was complete.) After submitting our dossier for an infant child we kept having this feeling like God had more in store for us. We weren't quite sure what. After a few months, we decided to make a couple of phone calls about the possibility of us adopting an older child. Our social worker told us "no." A little discouraged but assuming that the doors had closed we accepted that and continued our wait.

About 4 months later, we called again, still feeling like we needed to pursue the idea of an older child. Once again, we were told "no." This time though we were told a long explanation of why it would be a bad idea. Confused again, we accepted that and continued to wait. However, as we waited both of us continued to look at the "waiting children list," that our adoption agency has. Why did we both feel drawn to continue to look at that list? The only children on that list are ones that have significant health issues or are sibling groups that don't fit into anyones request. We were NEVER going to find our healthy infant on that list, but we kept looking.

Looking for what?

Then we found them. Heather opened up their picture and asked me what my thoughts were when I saw them? My thoughts... My thoughts are that there are three of them, and I walked out of the house, to go do "chores." Are you crazy! However, it was at that moment, that God was speaking to me and I knew that these were my children. Heather knew it also. They fit our family so well. Two older girls, and a little boy. We started talking about how it would never work out. How there is no way that we could do this. We started to really pray about it. We had our parents praying about it with us as well. We knew that it sounded crazy. We know that we can only do it with the help of our Father. We can't do this on our own.

So we made the call again to our social worker. We were told "no" again. However, this time we knew that it was not a closed door to us, but a speed bump in the road to go over. We didn't accept their answer, so they referred us to another local agency. This meant starting a lot of the paperwork all over again. New medical appointments, new fingerprints, new applications, etc. Being that we are now pros at doing it we started to cross things off of our list quickly. At the same time, we called our adoption agency and let them know of our interest.

What! We were told that there was another family that already had their paperwork approved for three kids and that they were going to get their referral. Though disappointed, but not dismayed we continued to plug away at our paperwork. We decided that maybe we just need to open our request and we will see what God has in store for us.

Three weeks later, we saw on the "waiting children list" that their file was no longer pending but they were available. The family had decided to decline their referral. We got right on the phone, well, that is after waiting for a long three day weekend compounded with the East coast time zone complications. We were once again told that there was another family with all paperwork done and they were going to get the referral. We thought, there is no way that two families would decline the referral. Sure enough, three weeks later, our paperwork 95% complete we were told that we could look at their file!

We have no idea the reasons the other families choose to pass on them other than God has different plans for them and we are so excited that they choose to listen to Him as they prayed about adopting these children.

As we prayerfully considered them for those six weeks, we still continued to believe that they were meant for our family. When we received their file, we let a few others in on our little secret and asked them to be praying for us. We wanted to feel God's peace in the decision and know for sure that this is how God wants to build our family. One of the really confirming things for me was in their names. We can't share them until we pass court, but I am looking forward to it. God spoke to me through their names. I knew that He orchestrated years ago that they would be a part of our family. For now, we can call them, "E" "M" and "Y"

I continue to trust that for those who love God, all things work together for the good. He has good plans for us. He is our Loving Father, the God of Mercy, the Giver of all things good.

How are we going to do this? We would be lying to you if we told you that we weren't a little scared and uncertain. There are so many questions, and unknowns. We do hold fast to the truth that God will hold us up in the times we need it. That He will give us the patience, the endurance, the strength when we need it most. We also trust that since He has provided financially for us this far He will continue to provide exactly what we need, when we need it.

We covet your prayers as we now really get ready for being a family of 8, parents to three new adopted children, parents of a junior higher, etc. We hope to travel around the first of the year for court. We will keep you up to date on that.

Super Exciting News!!

We are thrilled to announce that we have just accepted a referral (for those of you who don't know what a referral is, it is the information that our agency gives when they have a child/children ready to be adopted).

SO, we have accepted our referral! As you might know, our original request was for an infant (0-12 months) of either gender. God has BIGGER plans though!!

We have accepted a referral for an infant boy!!! Oh yeah, AND his TWO older sisters!! We have totally and completely fallen head over heals in love!!! Actually, we were in love the moment we saw their picture, and we both just had a feeling that they were supposed to be a part of our family! In God's perfect timing, He had us wait 6 weeks before we were able to find out if we could adopt them. I believe this waiting was so that we could really see God's direction and leading in our lives.

SO, I know that this probably leaves most of you wondering, 'what happens next?' Well, we have A LOT of paperwork that has to be updated, fingerprints to get done, another trip up to Sacramento to visit our state capitol:), etc. But, we are hesitantly optimistic that we MIGHT be able to travel towards the end of December. But, trying not to get our hopes up about that:).

In the meantime, we will be back in full fundraising mode:) as we try to come up with the extra needed expenses (more details to come:)

Fork in the road.

Sometimes life gets crazy. Right now is one of those times. Life is confusing as well. There are times we get all prepared for something and then something different comes our way. Right now is one of those times. We are at a fork in the road. We hear your voice God, but... which path are you calling from? We want to make the right decisions. We want to obediently follow where the Holy Spirit leads. We have been in continuous prayer seeking God's direction. We ask that you pray for us and with us as we choose the path that He has laid out for us.

It has been one year and things are changing!

It has been a little over a year now since we sent in our dossier to Ethiopia. We can't believe that it has been that long already. Initially that wait time was going to be 4-6 months. Well, I guess that one has changed.

However, we are at the top of the list now and we really should be hearing something soon. The last few weeks have been incredibly crazy for us. Since things have taken much longer than anticipated, we have to update a bunch of stuff. Primarily our home study has to be updated which means we needed to get fingerprinted again, get medical appointments again, sign more paperwork and have the social worker come out to our house once again and interview us. In this process of updating things though things are changing! We strongly feel like God has been asking us to open up our request.

Currently our request is for 0-12 months either gender. We are opening that way up to potentially include older kids as well and potentially a sibling set. We know! Isn't it crazy just bringing home another baby? Yes. Only God can give us what we are going to need when we are going to need it. We fully rest in Him and have peace in knowing how He loves us.

The funny thing about us now opening up our request is that we are now finally at the top of the list that we have been on for the last year. We truly don't know what God has planned for us. We do know that we want to be open to what He has in store for us. One thing that we have learned through all the miscarriages, London's adoption, and the timing of our other daughters births is that God wants to build our family the way that suites and glorifies Him. We have never really had much of a say in how we build our family. So why start now by limiting our request?

We don't really know what things are going to look like. We don't know where this road is going to really take us. We just know that we need to walk down it and follow our Father's footprints.

New update...We are still waiting:)

Malachi 3:10

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

Wow! God asks us to test Him to see if we can out-give Him. And He will pour down blessings on us. How incredible.

We continue to count our blessings, God is Good. We will continue to wait for God's perfect timing. We will continue to follow His lead wherever and whenever He chooses to take us. He will continue to pour our blessings on us. Over the years, we have come to realize that even in situations where we can't immediately see these blessings, we ALWAYS see them later.

Seven years ago yesterday was when God took our precious Isabella back to be with Him. She was never meant for this world, just to live in Heathers' belly for some time. It was hard at that time to see how that situation could possibly bless us. Now we see our three precious children growing up, and know that a fourth will be here soon, we SEE it. We have been blessed over and over again. We see the relationship that we have with our Heavenly Father and know that He used times like Isabella's death to draw us into complete dependence on Him.

Today we received an email stating that the wait times have once again been extended. We now have wait times of 10-20 months. (initially is was 4-6 months) Well, we just hit the 10 month mark, so maybe we have some ways to go. We are at the top of the list and are officially "On deck." However, we trust that God will use the waiting to continue to bless us.

$35,000!!!!!

As of today, we have hit our target goal of $35,000  for our adoption. The final $15 came in the form of a refund check that was totally unexpected and quite honestly showed a little of God's humor and complete control.  We have been counting down from $35k and listed each and every way that God provided something.  Heather initially said that we needed to come up with 350 ways to raise $100.  Well, that is just about what happened.  Our list of different ways is about 4 pages long.  Praise God!  

We do think that the total costs might prove to be a little higher than $35k but we have hit our initial target, just about 13 months after starting.  To cover the costs of increased airfare and such we are planning on having another veggie/bake sale this summer as well as one more garage sale. We just wanted to let everybody know where we stand.  Also, we think that we are number one or two on the list for an infant boy and 7 for an infant girl.  Maybe we will hear something this week, or next week, or the week after that.....

Thanks for praying. 

What is going on?

We have had a few people ask recently what is going on with our adoption.  We haven't posted anything recently about it because....(insert cricket sound here)....  we still wait.  We haven't really heard anything other than the process is taking longer than expected and things have significantly slowed down in Ethiopia.  Uhhhmmm yeah.  Initially when we started the process the wait time to receive a referral for a boy was 4-6 months and 7-9 months for a girl.  Well, we have been waiting on that referral since 9/3/10.  That makes it about 9 1/2 months.  When we had hit the 6 month mark the wait time changed to 5-7 months.  Then we hit the 7 month mark and the wait time changed to what it is now 7-11 months for both genders.  So we shall see.  It is comical really.  

We trust in God's perfect timing.  He has been giving us a tremendous amount of patience and we really have not been anxious about this.  We know that God already has a child picked out for us and he knows when we will be traveling over there.  We also new that going into international adoption that we must hold our expectations very loosely.  

Financially, God is good.  It has been amazing to see how he has provided for us throughout this last year.  When we started the process we thought that we were going to need to come up with $28K.  Well, due to changes in travel that quickly went up to $35K.  Through literally hundreds of different ways and different people, God has allowed us to come up with almost the entire amount in a years time.  What an amazing God!  We never would have thought it possible when we started.  If you are at all considering adopting I urge you to seek God on it, pray about it and ultimately if this is what God is calling you to do then you just need to jump in and trust that he is Jehovah Jirah.  We think that our costs might go a few thousand dollars  higher than we have been planning due to the increased costs of airfare.   Also, Capri turns two soon and we will have to pay for her now as well.  (We originally thought we might be over there and back before her birthday).  

We just wanted to update everybody on where we are at.  We will definitely let you know when we hear something.