Our adoption journey so far....

Many already know what has led up to this adoption, but I thought I would share this here for those that would like to hear our story.

We first approached adoption about three years ago when we found out about a sibling group of three little girls that were going to be removed from their mom (kind of a friend of a friend of a family member kind of situation). We knew that they were with a relative and that the relative was going to decide to not keep them. We contacted a social worker and she was very optimistic about us being able to adopt them. Apparently it happens a lot that groups like this never even make it into the system because people find out about the situation first. Our social worker was rushing us quickly through all of the training, but unfortunately the girls' social worker did not want to wait a couple more weeks and put the girls' info out there and they were chosen that day by another couple. We were heartbroken.  We really felt that God was calling us to adoption and didn't understand why it hadn't worked out. A couple of weeks later I found out I was pregnant with my son.

Over the last couple of years we have had a lot of conversations about why God called us to that adoption. Maybe someday we would look into it again. But, we had 4 little ones and then 5 little ones 5 and under! We would be crazy to adopt. Life is so busy. We have a house that really could use some cosmetic work. We always said once the kids were a little older and could help more around the house maybe it would be a good time then to look into it.

Then I read Susanna's "Unsearchable Understanding" blog post last September and it hit me hard! (Thank you so much Susanna for always showing your heart in your posts.) That was us, always saying, "someday we will do it, but the timing isn't right." I was really convicted about how many times God has placed things on our hearts and we would sit and make excuses as to why it wouldn't work or why it wasn't the right time.

I opened up the Reece's Rainbow page one day and started looking around. The children there just melted my heart. I kept getting drawn back to those photos over and over again and Graham would jump out at me every time. After weeks of staring at his photo every day my husband finally said to go ahead and contact them and get more information. We really felt God telling us that this is where he wanted us, but we were hesitant after the last time when we felt he was saying the same thing. Around that time I read something to the effect that God is the rudder on your ship, but a rudder can not steer a ship if it isn't moving forward. So forward we went!

We have really seen God's hand in this whole thing. There are so many doors that have been opened already that we thought might stop everything. We have a wonderful social worker that is working on writing our homestudy right now so we can get that sent out to our agency and they can send it to USCIS for approval. Please pray for this if you can, there is a mountain to move here! This is one of the biggest steps of faith we have taken and we know that God can do it if he wants Graham home with us.

We are not able to work with Reece's Rainbow for raising funds for the adoption right now, but we have some other fundraising ideas in the works!

Quote

"Sometimes I would like to ask God why He allows poverty, famine and injustice in the world when He could do something about it...but I'm afraid He might ask me the same question."

Anonymous

Why Rescue Orphans?

What does the Bible say...

"Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, "Give them up!" and to the south, "Do not hold them back." Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth"  Isaiah 43:5-6


"A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.  God sets the lonely in families.  (Psalms 68:5-6)


"He defends the cause of the fatherless"  (Deuteronomy 10:18)


"In you the fatherless find mercy." (Hosea 14:4)


"You are the helpers of the fatherless." (Psalm 10:14)


"It is not the will of your Father that one of these little ones should perish." (Matthew 18:14)


"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress." (James 1:27)


"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." (Luke 18:16)


"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." (John 14:18)


"Whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me." (Matthew 18:5)


"And Jesus took the children in his arms, put his hands on them, and blessed them." (Mark 10:16)


"Remember those…who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering." (Hebrews 13:3)


"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us…let us not love with word or tongue, but with action and in truth." (I John 3:16-18)


"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in." (Matthew 25:35)


"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves…defend the rights of the needy." (Proverbs 31:8,9)
 "He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me, declares the Lord." (Jeremiah 22:16)


http://reecesrainbow.org/new-family/why-rescue-orphans

Chickens and Guineas oh my!

We got our baby chicks yesterday.  They are so cute and fuzzy! 

Here are the nameless Guinea Hens:

And our chickens (Gold Sex Links, Barred Rocks, and Americanas):

So, from left to right, umm, just pretend you know which is which...

Lemon Drop

Yellow Head

Zig Zag

Sawdust

Blackie

Stripes

Tiger

Goldie

Sunny

and Skunk.

This is Tiger the Americana:

She should give us blue/green eggs, fun!

I Saw What I Saw

Overheard...

Elaina has been reading labels on all of our food lately.  The other day we were having bologna sandwiches and she picked up the package of bologna and said, "Mom, this bologna lasts a long time.  It says on here its good for over 125 years!"

Adoption Update!

We are one step closer towards bringing our little boy home!  We finished our second home study visit yesterday.  I spent the week cleaning the house and going crazy trying to make sure everything was perfect.  K talked to us for a while and asked the girls a couple of questions and that was it.  She got up to leave and said, "Oh, yeah, can I look around the house quick?"  She had already seen the main part of the house walking in, so she just poked her head in a couple of the rooms and said everything looked good!  All that worry for nothing!  :)  We are approved for two kids, but are only planning on one at this point. 

Now, we need to finish a little more paperwork to send off to our agency and then wait for K to write up our homestudy.