Hey everybody! Look what God can do!

Let me just start with saying that I serve a good God.

Matthew and I attended the Adoption Seminar yesterday & I walked in nervous and anxious for what was ahead.  I feared that this seminar would be a collapse of all the hope we had for adopting, or perhaps lead to Matt & I not agreeing on how to go about this.  But, as the day went on, I could just feel the Holy Spirit working in our hearts and binding all of our hopes and dreams together.  I feel closer to my husband more than I ever have before.  My favorite part of the day is when Matthew leaned over and whispered that he had changed his mind.  In a hushed voice he went on to tell me that God will direct the right child to us, and we should be open to any age, race, gender, and even open to adopting multiples!  My heart leaped for joy seeing God work in my husband and reassuring him that He is in control!

So, after an entire day's worth of testimony, legalities, monetary information and technicalities, we could not have left more ready to be parents!  We even made an awesome new friend, Becky, who made an adoption plan for her baby when she became pregant as a young teen.  Her testimony is beautiful & she will be sharing it here on this blog.  I hope everybody comes back to read it and learn about what it is like being the birthmother in an adoption plan.  I know you will be so blessed to read it!

So, now, we begin the paperwork!  Here is a little bit of what the process is going to look like for us:

• Seminar
• Application
• Letters of reference
• Letter to birthmother
• 2 page photo collage
• Cut our first official check for the adoption ministry to process all this!
• Interview with the adoption Ministry
• Apply and pay for a pre-placement assessment
• LiveScan finger printing/background checks
• We interview alone with a social worker (11/2 hours a piece)
• We interview together with a social worker (2 hours)
• Social worker comes to our home for a final interview
• Medical exams to ensure we are going to be around for awhile!
• At the same time we are doing our pre-placement assessment:
• Our profile will be available for birth mothers to see and decide if they'd like us to adopt & parent their sweet baby
• We wait for a call from an adoption ministry counselor saying we have been matched and we will be bringing a baby home to be a part of our forever family! 

So, please, as you can see, there is a lot ahead of us!  Matthew and I are really looking forward to all of this, but it will no doubt going to be a roller coaster ride as we venture out into the unknown.  The awesome thing about this is that we won't be venturing out just the two of us, our God is with us and He will minister to us and equip us to minister to a beautiful girl, the birthmother, who will be trusting us to care for her baby.   Thank you everybody for your support, your prayers and your touching calls, comments, text, emails.  It fills me with joy knowing that God is using this.  I remember years ago the devastation I felt knowing I'd never carry a child & now I think I'm not sure I'd want to make a family any other way.  Adoption is permanently etched on my heart.  God can do anything and everything and what seemed to me an impossible burden to carry He has turned into an amazing blessing!