Day 23

Over the past couple of weeks, we've been trying to set up our home study. Since our consultant is out of state, they can't do it for us. They recommended an agency in Anniston. Well, no one returned our phone calls or e-mail. Our consultants did some research for us and recommended another agency in Birmingham. I spoke with the founder of that agency today - he was very nice and very welcoming. They will definitely be one agency we consider.

By chance, we happened to be working in the nursery this past Sunday. I say chance, it was actually divine intervention! A volunteer in our room asked us if we had children - I told her no, but we were adopting. A different lady was in the room holding her own child - she said, you know my daughter is adopted. It turned out that this was the couple many people in our church had recommended we talk with - how great! She gave us the name of another agency in Birmingham that actually has an office here! I have a message into that group! If it works out, that would save us travel expenses. As the lady was leaving, she handed me her home phone and cell number - she told us to call if we needed anything. Again, divine intervention. How wonderful!

Matt, my Mother, and I went to Kids Clothes Connection this past weekend. Wow. Crazy! Mom even got injured as she was getting a buggy. We got there around 8:40 a.m. - keep in mind, it was storming! However, we all enjoyed ourselves. We saw lots of folks - it was great to be able to answer the question of why we were there! We came away with an umbrella stroller, activity play mat (Matt has experience playing under one of these!), an old set of Playskool wooden blocks (I remember having these as a child!), precious overalls for our nephews, and numerous sleepers. The sleepers are now hanging in our newly cleaned out nursery closet! Yes, we've been hard at work. The closet is now ready in the nursery! We're trying to get the room ready because we've just ordered our nursery furniture! We love it and can't wait for it to be in! The brand is Munire, and the collection name is Bristol. Here is a link to the furniture: http://www.munirefurniture.com/bristol_01.htm. The finish is cherry.

So many of y'all have been keeping up with us and following the blog - thank you very much for your prayers, thoughts, phone calls, and e-mails!

Day 8

Our initial paperwork for the consultant is finished - we turned it in last week and are officially rolling! Our next step is to complete the home study - we plan to make some calls about that this week. In our home study, a social worker will gather information about us and our backgrounds by asking direct questions about our families, marriage, and our attitudes about adoption and parenting. Typically there are two or three interviews. At least one will be at our house. I've read that home studies ask similar questions to what a birth mother wants to know about us...stability, a solid marital relationship, love of children, and strong family values. Hopefully, it will begin to prepare us for a chat with a potential birth mother.

Anticipating the visit by the social worker, I feel the need to clean our entire house... ummm...have you met me? I'm a pack rat and probably still have my junior high notes from my friends somewhere in our computer desk. I know for a fact I still have my gray Barbie corvette. Why am I holding onto this? We have started cleaning a little - we straightened the garage - I hardly recognize it now! I'm pondering having a garage sale to get rid of some of our "junk." I'm not quite sure if I can part with the corvette though. Or my Dad's old softball cleats that I wore when I played church league in junior high and high school. Sensing a problem here? Matt is sitting behind me laughing - he's threatened to clean house while I am away one weekend. This makes me slightly nervous.

As always, thanks for your continuous prayers and encouragement! We're blessed!

Day 1

After praying and talking about it at great lengths, we've decided on a consultant to use! We met with the Director/Owner last week and feel comfortable moving forward with the company. We've filled out the initial paperwork and hope to get it in the mail very soon!

For those of you who don't know what a consultant is, I'll give you a brief explanation of it. Our consultant will guide us throughout the entire journey - from initial paperwork to the finalization once our baby is at home with us. Consultants are like a "Buyer's Agent." They will guide us in setting up our home study, as well as creating our family profile (a book about us). Birth parents view the family profiles and use them to decide with whom they want to place their child. Additionally, consultants offer financial advice, help us decide what agencies to apply to, and advise us on finding the right birth mother and birth father situation.

We chose this company for several reasons. We've been praying very specifically for guidance, and the Lord was faithful to provide a peace in our hearts about this decision. The employees are christians - what they feel is important is very evident in all of their publications and the conversations we've had with them. Also, through talking with the company via e-mail, telephone, and face-to-face, we felt comfortable with them and appreciated their patience with our endless amounts of questions. For us, it was comforting to know the owners have two adoptive children. They've been down this road before and hope to assist other adoptive families.

We appreciate your prayers and will keep you posted!

Our Walk by Faith

"...I will walk by faith, even when I cannot see. Well because this broken road prepares Your Will for me..." Jeremy Camp's song, "Walk by Faith," has been such an encouragement to us the past several months. As we begin our adoption journey, I'm reminded of the broken road that has brought us to where we are now. A road that has caused us heartache, pain, and distress. In some cases, we couldn't see why we were going down this road. However, we are now to the point where we are content with our circumstances. We have a peace about our situation, a peace that passes all understanding. We're thrilled with the opportunity to adopt - what a wonderful gift from God!

I'm thankful the Lord brought the two of us together, and I'm thankful for the calmness of our hearts. It is comforting for us to know that He knew the journey before we did. He prepared us for this journey, and we know He will be by our side the entire way. We are blessed to have the amazing support of our wonderful families, dear friends, and sweet church family. We've been overwhelmed by all of the phone calls, e-mails, and notes - thank you for encouraging us and supporting us along this journey!

Through this blog, we hope to keep everyone up-to-date on our adoption journey. Thank you for praying for us and for walking by faith with us!