Presenting

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.