1,2,3... 4? Lord, please send us (soon) one more!

This has been a long time coming, but today is the day we get to take the first big step on our journey towards adoption. Adam and I have been praying, searching, reading, going to meetings, calling, studying, reviewing, praying more, talking, comparing, weighing, and praying again for about five months now about adoption and the who, what, when, and where of it all. This week we settled on our agency and were so excited to fill out their application and put it in the mail today together as a family. Our mail lady was even so kind as to take our picture. : )

In the next few weeks we will be assigned a social worker and begin the heaps of paperwork preparing for the first home study meeting. Please be praying with us for provision, direction, faith, and peace, as well as for God's protection and tender love to be on the birthmother and baby we have yet to meet. We don't know how long it will be before we welcome that next little one into our home (maybe by Christmastime, dear Lord?), but we'll keep everyone informed here on the family blog as we walk this unknown but (we pray) joyful new road.

    my Little Helper signs some paperwork with me yesterday

Adoption is such a beautiful picture of God's heart of love and we're so grateful to be able to pursue this path for growing our family now. For me, it has been a life-long desire, and for us as a family it's always been part of the "picture" we had in mind when we thot about what we'd like "us" to be. We're also so grateful to be walking this road with so many cheerleaders on each side. (That'd be y'all.) That baby, wherever he or she is, I know, is already so loved. Y'allguyses' (southern homeschoolin' there, for ya) love for us is truly amazing and completely faith-building. Already, before we even had a agency picked, the cheering and gift-giving began. How humbling and how sweet. Our dear Church Family stretches across states and even continents. We so often have our breath taken away by God's love thru so many. We love our Savior more because of you.  And we love you back, folks. Thank you. And thank you, Jesus, for giving your life so we all might be adopted by and reconciled with Our Heavenly Father who's love propels our own.

O LORD, you are my God;

I will exalt you; I will praise your name,

for you have done wonderful things,

plans formed of old, faithful and sure.

Isaiah 25:1

"And then the mail truck chugged slowly away, carrying within it's faded blue and white tin frame their postmarked hopes and dreams..."