I just realized I have never posted a blog about any of the times we have presented to birth moms. For those who don't know, presenting is where one of our agencies shows our profile book we made to expectant mothers. The mothers then take the profile books (usually they have 3-4 family's books), look them over for a few days and then pick a family to be the adoptive parents.
How it works for us is that we receive information about the birth parents. The information includes a little bit about them, their medical history, their family medical history and why they are wanting to give the child up for adoption. Most of the time they give the child up because they cannot provide financially or emotionally for the child. We then get to say yes or no. The reasons we would say no include drug or alcohol use, genetic disorders and things like that. If we say yes then our book is presented.
From there it is a waiting game (have I mentioned I don't like to wait?). The birth mother/parents have several days (sometimes a week or longer) to decide who they want to choose. That's the hard part for us! It's like we know our book is out there and someone is making a huge decision and we so badly want it to be us. It's a really weird feeling. I have come to realize though that it is ultimately not her/them making the decision, it's God. He is going to choose our baby for us. That doesn't always make the waiting easier or the "no" easier to hear, but it's good for me to take myself back to that.
We have had our profile book presented five times and five times we have been told no. To be honest, at times it makes you wonder if something is wrong with you. It is also very humbling. Heath and I think we are awesome and why wouldn't you pick us (sad, but true that we think that) so to not get picked is humbling. This is also a good time to remember that it is God who is the One picking.
This Friday we will present for the sixth time. It is to a birth mother in Florida who is having a little boy due December 20th. What a great Christmas present that would be for us huh?? To be honest it makes me feel a little vulnerable to share with everyone that we are presenting because if we get told no then everyone will know. If we get told yes trust me EVERYONE will know. We will be shouting it from the rooftops! I have come to realize though that not sharing when we are presenting is my pride. I don't want everyone to know, because I don't want everyone to know if we get rejected. I said from the beginning of this blog that I wanted to be open and real with where God has us and what He is doing so to exclude this part of our story here on the blog doesn't make much sense. This is real, and there are real emotions involved.
So here's the deal, over the next few days we need lots of prayers. Please pray that we will trust the Lord and that we will be surrendered to His timing and His plan for us. I also ask you to pray that we will get chosen. To be honest, I sometimes don't know how to get those two concepts to go together in my heart. I want what I want but I also want what He wants. Pray we will want what He wants more. I will keep you updated. If you don't hear anything in the next week and a half or so you can assume we didn't get chosen (I will post about it on here either way when I get a chance but we are closing on our house on Friday and will be in full work mode the next two weeks so I don't know if I will get a chance to post or not) If we do get chosen trust me when I say you will know! Thanks to all those who pray for us. We are in desperate need of His grace as we go along on our beautiful journey.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Just Waiting
I feel like anytime someone asks how the adoption process is going, my answer is always "just waiting." We are just waiting for the opportunity for our profile book to be shown, just waiting for a birth mother to choose us, just waiting to bring our baby home. Just waiting. And waiting some more.
I know that God has perfect timing, but waiting is just hard. His timing doesn't always seems perfect when you want something so bad. I want to be a mom now. I want Heath to get to be a dad now. I don't want to wait.
Today I started thinking about Hebrews 11-you know the faith chapter that talks about the men and women of the Bible who walked by faith. I started thinking about how all of them walked by faith but didn't see what they had been promised. Verses 13 says "All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth." They waited and waited yet they didn't get to see what God promised. They just walked by faith and trusted that He would do it. I want to wait on Him and trust that He is going to do it. I see how even as they waited they were obedient and surrendered to Him.
I want to be like that. I want to wait, and walk by faith that God will do this. And I know He will, it's just not on my time table. So I will keep waiting and fighting to walk by faith.
So as far as an adoption update, we're just waiting :)
I know that God has perfect timing, but waiting is just hard. His timing doesn't always seems perfect when you want something so bad. I want to be a mom now. I want Heath to get to be a dad now. I don't want to wait.
Today I started thinking about Hebrews 11-you know the faith chapter that talks about the men and women of the Bible who walked by faith. I started thinking about how all of them walked by faith but didn't see what they had been promised. Verses 13 says "All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth." They waited and waited yet they didn't get to see what God promised. They just walked by faith and trusted that He would do it. I want to wait on Him and trust that He is going to do it. I see how even as they waited they were obedient and surrendered to Him.
I want to be like that. I want to wait, and walk by faith that God will do this. And I know He will, it's just not on my time table. So I will keep waiting and fighting to walk by faith.
So as far as an adoption update, we're just waiting :)
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Our New House
That's right folks, three days after we closed on our house in West Lafayette we put on offer on another house here in Columbus. You might be thinking to yourself- you're crazy. I agree. Heath and I like to call our life "crazy town" but when God orchestrates something, you have to walk into it. It is unbelievable to us how God so ordained for us to have this house. Let me tell you the story.
The housing market in Columbus is unlike anything I have ever experienced. A house will go on the market and a day or two later it will be sale pending. That's not the case for all houses of course, but usually there is a good reason for that. So finding a house hasn't been the easiest of things for us. We have looked at every house in our price range and there was nothing. There was one house that was on the market that we really wanted to look at before we went under contract on our WL house, but we had decided not to look here until we were under contract there. Of course by the time we were ready to look-Sale Pending. Bummer.
Last Wednesday we set it up with our real estate agent to go look at a house. He said another one had just come on the market that he wanted to show us too. I wasn't thrilled about either of them just from looking at the pictures so I wasn't super excited to go see them. We show up at the first house and our real estate agent tells us that the house we really wanted to see when we first moved here but was Sale Pending was about to be put back on the market because the finances fell through. How did he know? He was the listing agent. No one else knew it was about to come on the market. He asked us if we wanted to go see it last and we said YES!
We went to look at the second house he had lined up for us and while we were there the seller of the other house called our agent. The people who were going to buy it wanted to rent it from him until they could get their financing in order. They were going to pay his mortgage. Our agent told him he was about to show it to us and he would call back.
We walk into the house and we love it!! Did I mention it is in one of our favorite neighborhoods? It has a great floor plan with four bedrooms so we can grow into it and it is way under our top dollar of our budget. We have a decision to make. The guy needs to know the next day if we are going to put on offer on it because he moved and needs his mortgage to be covered so if we don't want it, it's going to go back to the original buyer. That stresses me out! I do not like making rushed decisions like that.
As we prayed about it and thought through it, it became clear that this is the house God wanted for us. No other agent would have know it was going back on the market, no other agent would have the key to get in (the key box was already gone from the sale pending), we set up a time to go look at a house we knew we didn't really want and it "happened" to be in the 1 hour window before the seller rented it, this was of God.
The house is going to be perfect for us. There are lots of cosmetic things that this house needs, but nothing a little TLC can't help. We will close the end of August, get some things done the first few weeks of September and hopefully be in it mid-late September. We are so thankful for God's provision in this! Here is a sneak peak of what it looks like.
The housing market in Columbus is unlike anything I have ever experienced. A house will go on the market and a day or two later it will be sale pending. That's not the case for all houses of course, but usually there is a good reason for that. So finding a house hasn't been the easiest of things for us. We have looked at every house in our price range and there was nothing. There was one house that was on the market that we really wanted to look at before we went under contract on our WL house, but we had decided not to look here until we were under contract there. Of course by the time we were ready to look-Sale Pending. Bummer.
Last Wednesday we set it up with our real estate agent to go look at a house. He said another one had just come on the market that he wanted to show us too. I wasn't thrilled about either of them just from looking at the pictures so I wasn't super excited to go see them. We show up at the first house and our real estate agent tells us that the house we really wanted to see when we first moved here but was Sale Pending was about to be put back on the market because the finances fell through. How did he know? He was the listing agent. No one else knew it was about to come on the market. He asked us if we wanted to go see it last and we said YES!
We went to look at the second house he had lined up for us and while we were there the seller of the other house called our agent. The people who were going to buy it wanted to rent it from him until they could get their financing in order. They were going to pay his mortgage. Our agent told him he was about to show it to us and he would call back.
We walk into the house and we love it!! Did I mention it is in one of our favorite neighborhoods? It has a great floor plan with four bedrooms so we can grow into it and it is way under our top dollar of our budget. We have a decision to make. The guy needs to know the next day if we are going to put on offer on it because he moved and needs his mortgage to be covered so if we don't want it, it's going to go back to the original buyer. That stresses me out! I do not like making rushed decisions like that.
As we prayed about it and thought through it, it became clear that this is the house God wanted for us. No other agent would have know it was going back on the market, no other agent would have the key to get in (the key box was already gone from the sale pending), we set up a time to go look at a house we knew we didn't really want and it "happened" to be in the 1 hour window before the seller rented it, this was of God.
The house is going to be perfect for us. There are lots of cosmetic things that this house needs, but nothing a little TLC can't help. We will close the end of August, get some things done the first few weeks of September and hopefully be in it mid-late September. We are so thankful for God's provision in this! Here is a sneak peak of what it looks like.
Now all we need is sweet Baby Racine to bring home!! So thankful for God providing this house as we go along on this beautiful journey!
Friday, August 3, 2012
Adoption and the Gospel
God has been teaching me so much lately about adoption and the direct correlation with the gospel. There have been several times where it has just been a sweet reminder for me.
First, God Himself adopted me into His family. I once was not adopted. Because of my sin and my rebellion I was an enemy of God. Colossians 1:21 says "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior."I was not part of God's family, I was alienated. That's bad news, but verse 22 goes on to say "But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation--" God sent Christ into this world to be my substitute. He took my sin on Himself so that I could be right with God and be brought into His family. It was nothing I did, it was all Him.
Secondly, I think about how much this adoption is going to cost us. I have to confess I often worry about it and wonder how we are going to make it happen. Two things about the gospel God has shown me through finances. One is that no matter how much I think this is costing us, it cost God more to adopt me into His family. He had to give His only Son and then pour out His wrath on Him to make me right with God. That's a high cost. I don't care how much this adoption costs us, it will never compare to how much it cost God. I just can't imagine. Even though it is costing us a lot to adopt, I am gladly doing it in order to receive a child and love that child (and I would spend as much as I had to). It's the same way with God. He knew the cost and He did it anyway so that I could be called His. The second thing God is teaching me about the gospel when it comes to finances is His unbelievable provision for us. We are within $850 of our goal for what we needed to raise. He has used countless people to allow that to happen. It has over and over again been an evidence of His grace in our lives.
Finally, (I say finally, but I know I have so much more to learn) I see the love of God for me a little more clearly. To be honest, I really struggle to understand God's love for me. That's a different post for a different day, but suffice it to say I struggle. Through this whole process I have been reminded of the deep love God has for His children. I have no idea where our baby is or who he/she is, but I already love him/her so much. I can't wait to call baby Racine my own. God is the same way, He delights in us being His.
I feel like I so poorly stated all of that and know that I will continually go deeper in my understanding of the gospel. I would not have signed up for this, but God has used our adoption process to teach me a lot about Him and about the gospel. For that I am thankful. God really does have us on a beautiful journey!
First, God Himself adopted me into His family. I once was not adopted. Because of my sin and my rebellion I was an enemy of God. Colossians 1:21 says "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior."I was not part of God's family, I was alienated. That's bad news, but verse 22 goes on to say "But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation--" God sent Christ into this world to be my substitute. He took my sin on Himself so that I could be right with God and be brought into His family. It was nothing I did, it was all Him.
Secondly, I think about how much this adoption is going to cost us. I have to confess I often worry about it and wonder how we are going to make it happen. Two things about the gospel God has shown me through finances. One is that no matter how much I think this is costing us, it cost God more to adopt me into His family. He had to give His only Son and then pour out His wrath on Him to make me right with God. That's a high cost. I don't care how much this adoption costs us, it will never compare to how much it cost God. I just can't imagine. Even though it is costing us a lot to adopt, I am gladly doing it in order to receive a child and love that child (and I would spend as much as I had to). It's the same way with God. He knew the cost and He did it anyway so that I could be called His. The second thing God is teaching me about the gospel when it comes to finances is His unbelievable provision for us. We are within $850 of our goal for what we needed to raise. He has used countless people to allow that to happen. It has over and over again been an evidence of His grace in our lives.
Finally, (I say finally, but I know I have so much more to learn) I see the love of God for me a little more clearly. To be honest, I really struggle to understand God's love for me. That's a different post for a different day, but suffice it to say I struggle. Through this whole process I have been reminded of the deep love God has for His children. I have no idea where our baby is or who he/she is, but I already love him/her so much. I can't wait to call baby Racine my own. God is the same way, He delights in us being His.
I feel like I so poorly stated all of that and know that I will continually go deeper in my understanding of the gospel. I would not have signed up for this, but God has used our adoption process to teach me a lot about Him and about the gospel. For that I am thankful. God really does have us on a beautiful journey!
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