I read somewhere last week that "Adoption is the new pregnant"... I kind of laughed that statement off, when I first saw it, but I do think there is so much truth in it, as well. Clearly, both a pregnancy and an adoption have the same end-result, and we couldn't be more excited if we actually were pregnant again. At the end of this amazing journey, God will have gifted us with new life, not by knitting together our child in my womb, but by knitting this child together in our hearts. So... It is with great expectations and joy that we wait patiently and do our part for God's amazing plan to unfold for our family as the months go by and as we prepare the way for this little one to come home to our family that God already ordained in His great plan 1000's of years ago! Now, that is amazing... Praise be to our Lord!!!!!
FIRST TRI-MESTER ~~
Of course, at the age of 42, I am slightly grateful that I do not have to go through an actual pregnancy again, with all of it's physical trials and changes, but we will be heading into this adoption with all of the emotional attachments and spiritual gratitiude, and love, as if we were expecting :) We also have been thrilled to be able to tell anyone and everyone of God's wonderful plan for our family. Yep, telling people this time around has been just as fun and exciting, as when we announced that we were pregnant with each of our 3 biological children. Each time is special. We announced our thrilling news, as you probaly read in my earlier blogs, to our families about a few weeks into the whole process, when we knew we were approved to move forward. This is kind of like when we waited to tell our families when we were pregnant. We didn't announce this news with ultrasound pictures or jars of pickles, but we were able to share the joyous call we felt in God's knocking at our door! We then told our kiddos. After much thought about when, because we wanted to involve them in this process, but we know for their sake and for our sake and because of a long time line, that we didn't want to make them and us crazy about an end date. Just like in pregnancy, we waited to tell them until we knew this was going to happen (typical 12 week wait to share news after you get past the first tri-mester), that God was calling not only us but also them to this journey, and that everything was going to be okay in moving forward. We then announced this wonderful news to all of our friends - everyone that would listen really :) It is tremendously exciting!!! So many friendly words of congratulations, some cards of support, words and questions of encouragement, etc. The only hard part about announcing an adoption over announcing a pregnancy is time line. So many want to know about this child and when we can bring him/her home. It is great, though, to be able to educate and advocate for the adoption process; you never know who may have a calling on their hearts that is just hard to hear right now, so I am grateful to be able to educate people about the process. With a pregnancy, however, you get to tell people about your due date, which is such a nice, concise way to close your story. With adoption God needs time to grow this heart preparation, so I feel blessed to say things like "All in God's timing... not our own", and show others that we are resting in the trust we have for God's great plan for us and our new life :) Having patience is so difficult, when you want something so badly to happen quickly, but God knows when this needs to happen, so we wait patiently and tell everyone with great expectations and joy about the Lord's perfect plan for us.
Our kiddos are doing great with the adjustment of the expectation of a new brother or sister in our family. They feel a part of this process through daily prayers offered up on behalf of our new child... "Keep our new brother or sister safe. Keep them warm. Give them a hug for us!" God is changing and preparing their hearts, too. It is amazing to see this transformation in their spiritual lives! They are also pooling their spare money together to help off-set the cost of adoption - hee, hee, hee, that they have from doing their chores. We are up to a whopping $22.39. They are already sharing and making room in this family. They collect cans on the playground, so I keep a huge garbage bag in the trunk of our car for times of hitting the "mother load" of cans on any given day, which was 5 cans in one day - whoo hoo. We are up to 12 cans all together, so far. They are already seeing that they can have a part in making this happen - following the call that God placed on their hearts, even if they have no picture of this child to keep them going. God is working in their hearts, too - thank you God!
As I voiced earlier, I feel like we are in the first "tri-mester" of our adoption right now, we are gathering documents and papers, securing copies of this, that and the other thing, and taking parenting classes all to put in our home study binder. This first 3 months is all about the home study binder and growing it with all the care and effort we can muster! The home study binder is what our case worker will use to evaluate us as they do their home visits with our family - interviews with us one-on-one and interviews as a family and seeing our home function as a home and family in preparation for one more life to add to it. We are on the eve of sending this home study binder in to our case worker; I kind of feel like I did when I was pregnant in the first tri-mester of each of my 3 pregnancies... a bit nauseated at all of the "work" yet ahead, happy and thrilled that we are indeed in a "family way", and sort of feeling out of sorts that things are not progressing fast enough!
I would ask that, if you are reading this, would you be willing to say a quick prayer over our homestudy binder, as I send it out into the world from our hands...
1.) That all things are filled out correctly and that we didn't forget anything...
2.) That when our binder is looked at by our social worker that she would do so with much prayer and consideration on her part.
3.) That this quick pace we are on can be continued, as now this journey is somewhat out of our hands and into the hands of someone else.
4.) That we grow a wonderful and Godly relationship between our family and our case worker.
5.) That the millions of orphans waiting for a forever home will be cared for in orphanages that care for them well until that glorious day they are matched with families that will soon see/feel their calling to move into action on their behalf and begin to diminish that million + number little by little by giving even just one a home!
Thanks for being the hands and feet of Jesus just by praying. We appreciate all of your prayers on the behalf our little one so far away from us right now but always so close to us in our hearts!!!!
