God is good!

He really is! After getting the email about the delay in getting a court date and feeling very discouraged, I prayed for something that would lift me up. Well not even a minute later I got another email. Guess what it was...an update on our little B*!!!! Three new pictures and a little bit on his development! How sweet our Lord is, what blessings He bestows on us. I wish I could post the pictures, they are adorable. He's smiling in one...the first smile we've gotten to see...and he has more hair now. It's amazing what a difference a month makes.
Thank you God for this sweet gift, it was just what I needed.

Blah...

I'm feeling very discouraged and disappointed today. I just found out that it will be at least two or three weeks until we even hear about when our court date will be. That means most likely we'll have a court date in December which means we won't have our son home by the end of the year. I know God's timing is perfect and I will be patient, but honestly, this is tough. Please join me in praying that our little guy stays healthy and happy and is loved on until we can get there.

Court is Open

We received the following email today from America World... exciting news!

Dear Families,

I am excited to announce that court was officially open and working as of today!

We are moving forward to work with the court in order to receive court dates for all families. Please be prepared that it is not uncommon for the court to issue court dates out of order from referral time frames. Rest assured we will be doing everything we can to get all families a court date as quickly as possible.

Check out the next sentence, I had to read it twice...

I am hopeful to have confirmed court dates for all referral families in the next three to four weeks or possibly sooner. I will email your family as soon as I have received your confirmed court date.


This doesn't necessarily mean our actual court date will be in three or four weeks, it just means that we'll have a court date set within that time frame.
Keep the prayers coming! :-)

Referral Acceptance

We mailed off our referral acceptance letter along with payment due for fees last week. What a great feeling to say, "Yes Lord, this is our child! Thank you for bringing us together and we can't wait to see all that You will do in him and through him in the future."
Hang on sweet baby boy, we love you and we'll be there soon. :-)

IT'S A BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe it, we have a beautiful 4 month old baby boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We got the last Wednesday, the last day of September! This is significant to us because it shows God's faithfulness. It's been a crazy week so I am just now getting to post about our referral. Thank you Lord for answered prayer and this amazing blessing!!!!

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory. Eph. 3:20-21

So here's how it happened. Let me start by saying that at the beginning of this adoption process God put the month of September on my heart so I started praying about it and really felt that it would be the month we got the call about our baby. My mother-in-law had the same feeling.

By mid September we hadn't heard anything and there hadn't been a whole lot of referrals going out to families in our agency and we started to get discouraged. We were asking people to pray that we would have patience during this time. Then the last week of the month came and that Monday I was pouring out my heart to God, telling Him how much I needed something to encourage me, to keep me going through the wait. That evening we found out we were #1 on the baby boy waiting list! How great is His faithfulness, He always gives just what we need, just when we need it.

For He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. Psalm 107:9

The next day we were filled with excitement, thinking well, it's the last week of September, could it really be this week? Could we really get to see our baby?? Could it really be that fast, from being #1 on the list to getting the call, just a couple of days? Wednesday came with the realization that it was in fact the last day of the month. I didn't want to get my hopes up too much but I believed there was a reason God put September on my heart in the beginning, so that morning during my quite time I prayed about it, giving it to God.

After my quite time I started getting to work on organizing our closets. I've been "nesting" lately and I had pulled everything out of the closets trying to organize them and make more room for our stuff and the babies stuff. Anyway, I heard my phone ringing at 11:30 and I thought it was probably Ben since it was about time for him to be going to lunch. Well, I saw the number and froze, it wasn't Ben, it was our agency! I answered and our family coordinator was on the other end with a smile in her voice! I thought, NO WAY, is this really it?! I had put the thought of it out of my mind after that morning, so seeing the number, I was in shock.

I felt like I was moving in slow motion. She said she had good news and that this was our referral call! I instantly started crying and jumping up and down. I think I even asked her, "Are you serious?". She laughed and said, "Yes!". So she tried to conference Ben in so he could hear everything first hand but he wasn't answering. She tried his work phone and his cell phone. I didn't want him to miss it so I said, "Let me try to get a hold of him and we'll call you back". I called his cell and work phone again, no answer. I texted him, emailed and IM'ed him, still nothing. I kept pacing back and forth and even thought about driving up to his office.

Thankfully he called back shortly after and we excitedly called her back. She told us we had a beautiful baby boy and a little about his history. She sent an email with pictures and more information. Ben was able to leave work early so we could open the email and see our son for the first time together. I was so thankful because I didn't think I could stand waiting 4 hours for him to get home to open that email!! We laughed and cried as we read through all of the info and stared at his pictures. What a precious little baby, he's so beautiful!

We called our family and friends to share the news and were just so unbelievably overjoyed and thankful. I'm still just in awe of the fact that God chose us for this amazing journey and that He chose this specific little boy for us and us for him. It's such a humbling reality. What a sense of humor He has too, waiting until THE last day of September to reveal His plan and blessing to us. Just when we needed it of course. :-)

The Curtain Project

One of my goals for this year has been to learn to sew and be able to make things for the house. So Ben bought me a sewing machine for my birthday and I finally (let's just say it's been a while since my birthday) put it to use. A friend of mine came over and helped me make curtains for my bedroom and it was really fun. It felt really good to accomplish something like that. Seeing them hanging there, knowing that they are special because they were handmade and no one else has any just like them is pretty cool. :-)

It was quite the experience learning how to use my machine. We had our share of difficulties. I think it took us something like 2-3 hours just to make the first panel. The bobbin kept jamming and we'd have to re-thread the machine over and over and just when we thought we had it all fixed, it'd do it again. I guess it's just part of the learning process. After that though, it went much faster. Caren was very patient and I know I couldn't have done it without her.

I have leftover material so I think I'll try and make some pillows that match to put on the bed!


















Now on to curtains for another room!