Our Exciting New Adventure!

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵he predestined usfor adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, ⁶to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
Ephesians 1:3-6


We have begun an exciting journey and I can't wait to share it with you!  This weekend we attended our adoption orientation with Christian Homes.  I cannot even describe what an incredible experience this was.  The weekend was spent learning all the details of adoption (and wow! There are a lot of details!).  We went home after day number 1 a little overwhelmed by the details and especially the cost, but also so excited.  


I was fascinated to learn about a newer trend in open adoption. They told us that many people may offer us many opinions about why they don't think open adoption is good idea.  However, we learned how open adoption is actually the best possible scenario.  Through open adoption the birth mother actually chooses us. She chooses us because she loves her baby so much that she wants to give him what she knows she cannot and because she chose us she would never consider trying to steal her baby back (as some might think would be a risk of open adoption).  We learned that open adoption is now the most "normal" and common practice within adoption. 


On day 2 we were able to participate in a question and answer time with adoptees, birth moms, and adoptive parents.  The  time spent with the adoptive parents gave us such a peace and allowed us to walk away knowing the Lord would provide.  The couples were so open and honest and shared their fears during the whole process.  This spoke so much to our hearts because we shared so many of the same fears.  The best part was as one couple shared about the financial aspect of adoption. They told us how they wondered how they could ever adopt after they learned of the huge costs involved (which is one of our huge fears).  But then they shared how their friends and family were more than excited to support them through this process.  They said that in the end, they had to say, "we have enough, we don't need any more."  How incredible is that?!  I shared this with my father and I think he was overwhelmed by the whole cost.  I'm not sure that he is confident that fundraising portion will work out well, but I have such a peace about it and I cannot wait to share with him about the Lord's faithfulness.  I am confident that he will provide.  


I felt so much peace when they shared how it's in our human nature to think we must "pay" for our baby by ourselves, but then he told us how allowing others to walk along side of us through this process is a blessing to them.  We heard time and time again how we need to allow others to give and how this is what they want to do.  This calmed my heart so much.  


We are now working on our 100 page application on the iadopt jump drive.  We each have to write our own autobiographies and then together we will create our birth mother letter, and finally our photo album for the birthmothers to use as they make their choices.  Tomorrow is my first class as a college instructor and I have a few things to finish for my first class, but all I want to do is work on our application! We are so excited!  The most exciting part was when they told us that the average family is able to meet their baby in LESS THAN A YEAR!!!  That is wild!  This time next year life could be very different!  We will keep you updated on the process.  Thanks for joining us in prayer as we walk this exciting journey!