Up.
Down.
High.
Low.
And so goes the "adoption rollercoaster".
This has been a week of seeing God move...watching Him work...and just sitting back in awe, gratitude and love. We feel humbled and blessed that God has asked us to go on this adoption journey with Him. For our hands are actually His hands...and our feet are really His feet. And He has great plans and great work for His hands and feet - over in Africa.
Please pray for us as we continue on this amazing adoption journey to bring our son home.
And stay tuned for another post soon...for tomorrow is our first home study visit. I am quite certain my house has not been this clean since we moved in. :)
Blessings!
Lauren
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
For the past week, I have been researching on the internet, sending e-mails and talking on the phone...all in an effort to make a decision regarding which agency we will use. I must admit....it is stressful (as in capital letters, lose sleep over stress - add in more punctuation here please).
So I, in my typical nerdy fashion, have a spreadsheet for each agency....listing pros, cons, basic information, non-basic information and the (drum roll please) fees. Now if I could just handpick a specific quality from this agency, the case manager from this agency and the fees from this agency, we'd be set.
And as if choosing an agency wasn't stressful enough, we also need to finalize the country we would like to adopt from. We are adopting from Africa....done deal - no need to discuss - as God made that quite clear to us. BUT, what He didn't let us in on is the specific country.
Did you know there are 54 countries in Africa?? (Me neither...until I began looking). So I began researching the countries that allow international adoption to see which countries we can adopt from (based upon ages and other factors) and narrowed the list down fairly quickly. 54 countries became 5 countries within a day.....now we're talking!! Those 5 countries quickly became 2 for my husband and myself. I really feel God is leading us toward one specific country with such a great need, I can't even begin to imagine or comprehend.
So stay tuned as we finalize these decisions...we'd appreciate prayer as we are making these SO important decisions about choosing an agency and selecting a country. With these decisions, we are one step closer to our child. May we follow where God is leading.
Blessings,
Lauren
So I, in my typical nerdy fashion, have a spreadsheet for each agency....listing pros, cons, basic information, non-basic information and the (drum roll please) fees. Now if I could just handpick a specific quality from this agency, the case manager from this agency and the fees from this agency, we'd be set.
And as if choosing an agency wasn't stressful enough, we also need to finalize the country we would like to adopt from. We are adopting from Africa....done deal - no need to discuss - as God made that quite clear to us. BUT, what He didn't let us in on is the specific country.
Did you know there are 54 countries in Africa?? (Me neither...until I began looking). So I began researching the countries that allow international adoption to see which countries we can adopt from (based upon ages and other factors) and narrowed the list down fairly quickly. 54 countries became 5 countries within a day.....now we're talking!! Those 5 countries quickly became 2 for my husband and myself. I really feel God is leading us toward one specific country with such a great need, I can't even begin to imagine or comprehend.
So stay tuned as we finalize these decisions...we'd appreciate prayer as we are making these SO important decisions about choosing an agency and selecting a country. With these decisions, we are one step closer to our child. May we follow where God is leading.
Blessings,
Lauren
Friday, April 15, 2011
We've Been Adopted...
God let me know some time ago that our family wasn't complete...have you ever had that feeling or realization? And yet, at the same time, God was whispering that we would not add to our family in the same way as we had with both T and J...instead, we would add to our family in the same way that both my husband and I became a part of God's family...through adoption.
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. Ephesians 1:3-6 (NLT)
Adoption is a beautiful thing...if you have not had the opportunity to watch the video "Children of God" by Third Day, do it now. Click on the link below and prepare to be moved.
http://thirdday.com/adopted
But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. John 1:12 (NLT)
Lauren
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. Ephesians 1:3-6 (NLT)
Adoption is a beautiful thing...if you have not had the opportunity to watch the video "Children of God" by Third Day, do it now. Click on the link below and prepare to be moved.
http://thirdday.com/adopted
But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. John 1:12 (NLT)
Lauren
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Time
It's time...time to start a new chapter in our life...time to follow where God is leading...and He is leading us to open new doors that will forever change our family tree.
We have had the thought of adoption in our minds and on our hearts for several years...and have always thought "someday...maybe...when the time is right." But this year, God started "working on me" and I realized that I can't wait until the time is right 'to me/to us' as God was whispering the time was now and His timing is perfect...so we began REALLY talking about adoption and we have now officially began the adoption process. WHOO-HOO!!
SO...we've started this blog to capture all of the moments, good and bad, that we go through as we work on bringing home the child God has chosen for us.
Hope you enjoy the ride as much as we will!
Lauren
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