Praying in the waiting...

As we get so close to finishing our profile needed for our agency for our domestic adoption, we wanted to send out a little update and ask for some specific prayers.

 

 

Making the profile has been time consuming, a little draining and a lot of fun.  Time consuming because I am entirely too picky about it.  Draining because it is writing letters to our baby's birth mother and, surprise....that is not an easy thing to do.  Fun because I love designing it and seeing it all come together. 

 

 

We only have a few more tweeks to make to the book and it will be sent off to get printed.  We have our applications to agencies and our home study all ready and waiting to go, so once we send it all to our consultant, we will start the process of viewing birth mother profiles and requesting for birth mothers to see our profile.  Talk about nerve-wracking! 

 

Through this time of preparing the profile, I have felt God working in my heart and opening my eyes.  Giving me a compassion for these mothers who so selflessly look beyond themselves to their baby's best interest.  He has laid it on my heart to pray for these brave women....especially one in particular.  We don't know her yet, but God does and He wants us to pray for her.  She will be giving our family one of the most precious gifts....and losing one at the same time.

 

 

So, we would love if you would join with us in lifting up our child's birth mother in prayer.  Pray for her health and safety.  Pray for her heart.  Pray that we might be able to minister to her in some way when we are matched.  Pray for our baby...for his or her health and safety.  Pray that he or she would feel loved before he or she is even born and that God would have a hold on that little heart from the very beginning.  Eddy and I would also love if you could pray for us and Grant and Quincey....that God would prepare our hearts to walk this out in a way that would bring Him much glory.  Adoption is messy.  It takes God turning painful things into beautiful things.  Pray that He would do that in our child's life.  Please also pray for financial provision.  God has been so, so faithful to provide and we trust 100% that He will continue to be faithful in that. 

 

 

A LONG OVERDUE UPDATE!!

Although the progress has been slow and the waiting long, God has continued to do a work of preparation in our hearts.  Patience is not easy.  But, we are thankful for the real opportunity to rely on the fact that God’s timing is perfect.  It has also given us the opportunity to teach Grant and Quincey the importance of being persistent in our prayers. 

The rate of international adoption continues to decline.  Not because of fewer families desiring to adopt, but because of the ever changing regulations and additional paperwork that slows down the process.  As a country, we’ve gone from almost 23,000 placements in 2004 to only 7,000 placements in 2013.  That number will certainly be fewer for 2014.  Upon our acceptance into our agency last October, the average number of placements per month was 5.  There have been only 5 placements in the last year.  We’ve been told that we should accept this slowdown as the new norm. 

Since the beginning of our journey into international adoption, we planned on adopting domestically as well.  Our plan was to pursue a domestic adoption a few years after we adopted internationally.

BUT GOD...

His plans do not always look like our plans but we know His plans are always far better than ours.  After months of praying and waiting on His direction, and with the state of international adoption as it is, we have decided to switch the order. We have begun the process of a concurrent adoption, which means we are still waiting on our child in Ethiopia, while beginning the process of bringing our baby home within the U.S.  At first Quincey was not sure about this.  She was concerned for her brother or sister in Ethiopia, to which we explained that we are not giving up on them!  We believe God will bring our precious child home in His perfect timing.

With this change of events, we find ourselves realizing that we may have a BABY in only a few months.  We can’t even express how excited we are at this possibility.  The process of a domestic adoption looks quite a bit different than an international adoption.  We are back to filling out papers, along with making a profile for birth mothers to view.  We will continue to update you here and on our Facebook page (His Glory, Our Joy).

 

Keep a look out for more of our fundraisers!  We are excited about the Christmas Mini Session Fundraiser coming up this weekend at McClellan’s Tree Farm. 

 

 Lib has also been busy making more earrings, which would make great gifts for the holidays.  We are so thankful for everyone’s continued support! 

 

 

-Eddy & Libby