home sweet home

WE'RE HOME!!!  We got home late Monday night, and I've never been so happy to be on Georgia soil.  Though we enjoyed our time together just the three of us, we were so excited to be able to bring our baby HOME!  We got a call mid-afternoon Monday that we were cleared by ICPC to travel home. You've never seen two people move so fast - within 2 hours we had packed up our hotel and were headed to the airport!  We were definitely nervous about flying with a newborn, but Forrest was a champ and slept the entire flight. We were met at our home at 1:00 am by his two grandmothers and one of his aunts who just couldn't wait to meet him.  It was a wonderful "welcome home" to see their faces!

We have been showered with lots of love by family and friends since we arrived home.  It has been so sweet to introduce Forrest to so many of the people who have been praying for him for so many years. He is one loved baby, and we are so very blessed that God brought him into our family!

introducing sweet baby Forrest...

Our lives were forever changed last Thursday, July 7th when God brought this precious baby boy into the world! Forrest was 8lbs 4oz and 20in long upon his arrival. We were blessed to be able to be here for his birth, something we weren't sure if we would be able to do because of travel. Tears of joy streamed down my face as I saw and held my son for the first time! He has already stolen our hearts and I cannot imagine our lives without him! God has been so faithful and given us so many affirmations throughout this experience that this was and is His perfect plan for our family! Now we are sitting in a hotel room in our home away from home waiting on our ICPC clearance to travel home. Hopefully we will be cleared in the next week. Though we would love to be home, this time together has been so sweet for the three of us!  We are so grateful for all of the prayers that have been lifted up on our behalf, and we ask you to continue to pray for us as we transition home!

"For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition I made to Him."  I Samuel 1:27

he has beautiful blue eyes!

already praising the Lord!

the countdown has begun...

I apologize for the lack of posts recently - I had no idea how many people were actually reading it!  The last 2 weeks have been filled with trying to "get ready" to bring our baby home!  I have realized it doesn't matter how long you have, you can never be "ready" for a new baby.  I have made multiple trips to Babies "R" Us, developed a new love of Dreft, and reorganized the baby's room a million times!  I attempted to help my mom make our crib bedding, but really I just watched her do it.  I'm not quite that talented yet! We have been so humbled and blessed by the generosity of both our friends and family. They have showered us with clothes, diapers, and lots of "baby things" that will make our transition home so much easier.

People keep asking us if we are nervous or anxious about the coming weeks. The answer is yes and no. We are anxious to hold our son for the first time and nervous about meeting the brave, courageous woman who is blessing us with a child.  But we are also confident in God's perfect plan and eager to see the days unfold.  We know God called us to adopt and we know that He has ordained the days ahead.  We are just so excited that adoption is part of His plan for our family!  Please continue keep us, the birthmother and our baby boy in your prayers!

and the door was opened...

When you begin the adoption process you are usually asked to put a nursery together for your profile book. They want you to do this so the birth mother can see what kind of room the baby will have. This is fun at first, getting ready for the baby. But then as months go by, the room becomes a reminder of what you don't have. So you close the door. You walk by knowing what is behind the door, but somehow it is a little less painful when you can't see the empty crib.

Last week we finally opened the door! We found out a little over a week ago that a sweet birth mother had chosen us!  It was a very unexpected surprise that has brought many tears of joy!  We are expecting a baby boy who is due July 11th, and we are so excited about being parents.  Our lives have been a whirlwind...we've registered, bought a car seat, selected a pediatrician, and tried to figure out what basic necessities we need to bring our sweet baby home.

We have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and encouragement we have received from our family and friends.  This has been a long journey, that still isn't over, but it has been well worth the wait.  God has repeatedly shown us His faithfulness through this process, and we cannot wait to see what He has in store for us!  We are eager to meet our son and are so very blessed that our family of two will soon be a family of three!

"Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and faithfulness!" Psalm 115:1

a much needed weekend away

After a rollercoaster of a week, we decided to take a last minute trip to the beach this weekend.  We found a great little condo in Santa Rosa beach and spent the weekend being lazy, laying on the beach and participating in a little retail therapy.  A sweet friend recently encouraged us to do something we couldn't do once we had children, and we did just that.  Not that you can't go to the beach with kids, but you can't lay on the beach and read an entire book, go out for a fancy dinner, or simply be selfish with your time.  Now don't get me wrong, we long for the day we will build sandcastles and splash in the waves with our precious children.  But for this weekend we simply enjoyed being together.  We didn't spend our time focusing on the child we didn't get to bring home last week, but we focused on each other.  We laughed a lot, played a lot, and ate a lot of great food!  Cafe Tango is our new favorite...best Lobster Ravioli and Creme Brulee I have ever had!

Our first night at the beach we ate at PF Chang's and below was the fortune I was given after our meal...

   

I am not superstitious, nor do I believe that the fortune I pulled from this cookie means much of anything.  However, I was reminded by this silly little fortune of God's promise in Psalm 37:4, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart."  What a beautiful promise from God and a sweet reminder of His love for me!  It was the encouragement I needed at just the right time...He will give us the desire of our hearts just in His timing!

hope restored...

The last few days have been a whirlwind.  Not long after blogging about the silence that we had grown so accustomed to, we learned that our profile was being shown to a birth mother on Wednesday.  And she was going to be induced on Monday...yes, Monday!  We were encouraged by our social worker that we were a good fit, but we also knew that there were other families she would be considering.  We prayed earnestly for God to guard our hearts, but in reality our hearts were already on a plane headed to pick up our baby.  We had a hope that we had not yet experienced in this process.  That hope was taken from us the following day when we were told that she picked another family.  There are not words to describe the disappointment and heartache we felt, and honestly still feel.  We just couldn't understand why God would allow this to happen. This was supposed to be our baby...but it wasn't.

The last few days have been anything but easy, but we have already seen God's faithfulness in the midst of it. I was reminded of that faithfulness Friday morning while reading Beth Moore's Believing God...

"God calls us to surrender our own agendas on the altar of His will, knowing that His will for us is GOOD, PLEASING, and PERFECTLY SUITED.  When all is said and done, the biggest sacrifices of our lives will be the time when we chose our own way and forfeited God's pleasing will for us.  The last thing satan wants, however, is for God to be pleased.  Satan's ultimate gripe is with God.  His chief goal is to get back at God for not putting up with his arrogance and his desire to be "like the Most High" (Is. 14:14).  He cannot touch God, so he does everything he can to get to His heart by getting to His children."

I told some friends earlier that we decided this was like a dress rehearsal.  It helped us to realized just how quickly our lives could change.  If nothing else, this experience has given us hope - hope that God has not forgotten us, hope that there is activity with adoption, and hope for the baby we will one day hold.  It has reminded us that our completion is in Christ, and not in being parents.  We are peaceful knowing that God may have simply used our profile to allow this birth mother to see a glimpse of Him.  And for that, the heartache was well worth it.  I am grateful that I serve a God who never changes and a God who has bigger plans than my own - plans that are GOOD, PLEASING, and PERFECT!  Please pray for this birth mother, her precious baby, and the family who will be blessed to hold their son for the first time on Monday!

Where we are and where we've been...

When I share with people that we are in the process of adding to our family through adoption, they often ask me why we don't have a blog.  I've never blogged about our journey because I've often felt like there wasn't much to say.  So much of our story involves simply waiting, and with that waiting often comes silence.  Well, I've finally decided to venture into the world of blogging despite the silence.  My hope is that through this blog, we are able to share our story with our family, friends, and the occasional passer-by who stumbles upon it.  The ultimate desire of our hearts is that God be glorified through our adoption journey.

So, how did we get here?  After struggling with infertility for several years we began exploring our options for growing our family.  We soon realized that God's plan for our family was much better than our own...His plan had nothing to do with biology, and everything to do with the heart.  Adoption isn't just about two people who want to be parents.  It is about the Gospel.  It is a beautiful and amazing picture of God's love for us.

We began our journey with Lifeline Children's Services in November of 2009.  The past 18 months have been a rollercoaster ride if I've ever been on one.  And for those of you who know me well, you know I don't like rollercoasters.  I had been warned that adoption was not for the faint-hearted,  but I had no idea just how true that was until we began the process.  It has been a season filled with hope and joy, but also disappointment.  It has been a test of our faith, as well as a blessing for our marriage.  Since the new year we have applied to two additional agencies, and we are excited about the new opportunities that these agencies can bring.  We are waiting in eager expectation to meet our precious child and we look forward to what God has in store for our lives!  We would love it if you would join us in praying our baby home!

"This vision-message is a witness pointing to what's coming.  It aches for the coming - it can hardly wait!  And it doesn't lie.  If it seems slow in coming, wait.  It's on its way.  It will come right on time." Habakkuk 2:3 (MSG)

"Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him...Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised." Romans 4:18, 20-21