Meet baby Matthew, and his mama...

Baby Matthew was born Wednesday, December 7 at 9:10 am.  His sweet mama, M, placed him in our arms Thursday, Dec. 8, and that evening, decided she could not live without him and came to pick him up.  Who could possibly blame her?  He's precious.

Although our hearts ache, we truly feel prayed for, lifted up, and completely at peace.  God is so very good, all the time.  We feel we were brought into his and his mama's life for a reason.  Perhaps we were meant to help supply their needs.  Even more so, our hope is to share the gospel with them.  We love them both dearly, and hope to maintain a relationship with them forever.

Please continue to pray for this precious little family.

And please pray for us, also, that we would wait upon the Lord to reveal His plan and His purpose for us in His right time.  We're not sure where to go from here, but we feel completely confident that God is in control!

Thank you, friends.

Meeting M for the first time...

So yesterday, Scott and I had the opportunity to drive down to Corpus Christi to meet M, our potential birth mother. Everything went SO well! M is super sweet. You can tell she truly loves this baby, and she wants him to have a secure home and a happy life. We spent over 2 hours sitting and talking, and it was so fun! Everyone was very relaxed and comfortable.

And now we proceed with the adoption plans! Please pray that everything goes smoothly and that the biological father signs the papers without argument. Pray for peace for M. This is such a hard time for her. Pray for our sweet little baby-to-be, who already has a name! Matthew Hosea. Matthew, because he is a gift from God. Hosea, because it is similar to Jose, M's grandfather's name. Hosea also means "salvation." Our biggest prayer is for this sweet baby's salvation, as well as his mother's.

Thanks for all the prayers and support, everyone!

Update

I spoke to our social worker yesterday and asked if the expectant mom she told me about had made a decision. Turns out Sara hasn't heard from her at all in the past week, and she thinks she may have left to go to another agency. We are totally fine with this! God is in control of this situation. Praying this mother finds peace, and that this baby boy goes to the home that God has picked out for him.

Our other situation is looking great so far. We will meet M (the mother) this coming Sunday for lunch. I am so excited and nervous about meeting her! I hope she likes us. I hope she feels peace about her adoption plan. I hope this works out perfectly for everyone involved!

We will also meet with our adoption attorney this coming Thursday afternoon. Please be praying for all of these things for us! Thanks!

Fundraising

Adoptions are not cheap.

If the adoption situation with the mother in Corpus Christi works out, we will use a lawyer and it will cost us $5-$6K.

If the adoption situation with the mother here in Houston works out, we would go through our agency, of course, and we would need to raise an additional $13K.

And if BOTH adoptions work out, we would need to raise $18-19K!

Wow. That's a lot of money. But our God is a big God, and if these are our babies, then He will give us the funds to adopt them, I am sure of it.

Let the fundraising begin!

On Friday, October 28 at 7 pm my mother will be hosting a 31 party at her home. 50% of the profits will go toward our adoption fund. Please let me know if you can come!

Even if you can't, you can shop through this link. Have fun shopping, and thanks for your support!

Please stay tuned for more fundraisers to come. We would gladly accept donations, as well, of course. There's a link to our Paypal account over to the right -----> if you would like to make a donation that way.

But more than anything, we ask for your prayers! For God's will to be done. For wisdom. For blessings for these two moms and for healthy pregnancies and deliveries. For perfect, healthy babies. And above all, that they would first and foremost be adopted as GOD'S sons.

ANOTHER unexpected phone call!

Yesterday, the girls and I went to the zoo with our friends Sarah, Eliza, and Jude. While we were walking along, I received a phone call. The phone said "Restricted" so I assumed it was our social worker, Sara. My assumption was correct.

Sara asked me if we would mind if she showed our profile to another expectant mother. She is due in three weeks. She had originally chosen a different family, but that family decided not to stay with her, as she is unpredictable and disappears from time to time. We totally know how that goes, and certainly understand how uncomfortable that feels. From our previous experience, we have learned to hold these things in very open hands. If God wills it, it will happen. Otherwise, He has a different plan for us. I have learned to not believe it until the papers have been signed and I have a baby in my arms.

Anyway, we told Sara she could absolutely show this mother our profile. This does not in any way guarantee that she would even choose us.

And if she does? And she has the baby and signs the papers? Then we will gladly take him! And if the other mother in Corpus decides she wants us to parent her baby? And she has the baby and signs the papers? Then we will gladly take him, too!

Wow. Two (maybe) babies! Praying, praying that at least one of them works out.

An unexpected phone call...

This morning I received a phone call from my sister. She said, "Kim, I have good news for you!"

???

My sister went on to tell me about a conversation she just had with her aunt. Out of the blue, her aunt asked her if she knew anyone who wanted to adopt. My sister told her about Scott and me, and her aunt started to cry. Her coworker has a neice that is pregnant, due at the end of November, and would like to make an adoption plan. Apparently, they have been looking for a family for a while.

Could this be our baby???!

We could use a lot of prayer right now, please. If this is God's will, we would love to welcome this little boy into our family. Please pray that things would go smoothly. We will most likely use a lawyer and do this as a private adoption. As much as we love our adoption agency, a private adoption would be a much less expensive option.

Pray for this birth mother, that God would bless and protect her and draw her to Him. Pray for this baby, that he would grow healthy and strong in his mother's womb. Pray for wisdom and peace for everyone involved. And please pray for our finances, that we raise all the money we need to make this thing happen! And please prayerfully consider contributing to our adoption fund, if you feel led to do so. I have added a Paypal link here on my blog to make donating easy.

Thank you, friends, for all your love and support. We are cautiously excited about this possible adoption scenario. We'll keep you updated right here!

Mile Marker 32

Scott and I have always known we wanted to adopt someday. We are pro-life, believing that every child, born or unborn, is created in the image of God and is worthy of life. As John Piper once said, we feel that if we want women to choose against abortion, then we should affirm that choice by being ready and willing to adopt "unwanted" children. God wants them. We want them, too. Therefore, after we had our third biological child, we decided the rest of our children should come to our family through adoption.

When our youngest daughter was 22 months old, we contacted our wonderful adoption agency, New Life, and submitted our initial application. They scheduled our pre-adoption counseling interview for July 2009. At that time, we were given the full application. WOW, did that seem overwhelming! There was so much paperwork to fill out, as well as "Dear Birthmother" letters to write, books to read, seminars to attend, and much more. As we often do when we feel overwhelmed, we kept our adoption packet on the back burner, always putting it off for another day.

In November 2009, we received a call from New Life saying they would like to start our home study, and could we please get our application ready to turn in? We started working frantically, and amazingly, had almost everything finished by the time we visited New Life for our interviews the following week! The interviews went really well, and we had our first home visit the next day. That, too, went well, and after taking CPR classes and having our fire and environmental health inspections done, our home study was completed the first week of December 2009. And then the wait began...

We waited... And waited... And waited...

In February 2011, we got the call. A birth mother had seen our profile and had chosen us to parent her baby boy! We could not have been more excited. It was finally happening! We spent almost 3 months planning and preparing to bring home a new son. Two days before he was supposed to be born, however, we received a phone call from our social worker that the baby had been born and his mother decided to parent. We were heartbroken...

But God knew what He was doing. He was never NOT in control of the situation. Even though we don't understand His reasons, we trust that He wants the best for us and for this sweet boy. This was not our baby. Our baby would come later.

And so we waited some more.

And here we are at mile marker 32. It has been 32 months since we started on our adoption journey. And God is still in control!