Adoption update...new profile!!

We have had soooo many people ask us about how our adoption process is going here lately, so I wanted to share an update :).  Our home study was completed and we were officially approved for domestic adoption in March, 2013.  At that time we made an adoption profile book.  This is pretty much a book filled with pictures and stories about our family, what we like to do, where we like to go and just explains what our everyday life is like.  This profile is what is shown to the birthmothers and birthfathers.  This profile is how they choose a family for their child.  So....needless to say, it is very important!!! You have the option to update your family profile along the way, so we decided now was a good time to do that.  We tried to portray what our family is.  We just want to show the birthmother and father who we are and what we love.  Here is a link to our Updated Profile.  Take a look at it and let me know what you think :). 

Another thing I have been hearing a lot is "How long will you have to wait?".   We literally have no idea!! Average wait time is 2 years, but it really is all about God's timing.   I used to say that it is all about being picked...but it's really not.  We will wait for as long as God wants us to wait...no shorter and no longer.  It has felt like we have waited along time, but what we will receive at the end will be so worth the wait!! I do want to share why waiting has been good for us.  When you first start the adoption process, you think you will be one of the families that gets picked right away.  You start out so positive and hopeful...thinking "hey, we are awesome, and someone will pick us right away!"...haha...then you find out that God has other plans and you learn that his timing is always perfect.  So here are some things that I have loved about the waiting process.

1) The anticipation.   I love anticipating something exciting!! I remember being pregnant with Emma and I looooved that time.  Those 9 months that feel like forever are precious....and now when I look back at that time, I remember it as being such a beautiful time in my life.  I know that I will look back on this waiting process too and I will remember how much fun it was anticipating what God had in store for us.  Someone that will perfectly fit into our lives and hearts.  We plan the nursery, we think about the different books we will read them.  We think about what we will tell them about their birthmother and birthfather and help them to understand the love that their birthmother had for them, help them to be proud of their heritage and who they are.   We dream about playing together, Christmas's together and family vacations.  We dream about the look on their grandparents faces when they get to meet them for the first time and they fall instantly in love.  Waiting....some days seems hard, but really it is just anticipating the greatness that is coming. 

2) The Compassion.   When we first started the adoption process, I didn't even know what a birthmother was.  I had no clue really, how the process worked or who was involved. We walked into a Bethany information meeting and one of the first things they told us was, "Look...our ministry is to birthmothers, we support them in anyway we can.  Birthmothers are our first ministry."  I didn't completely understand that at first, but now it is one of the reason's I love working with Bethany.  They put the birthmothers first!    So many people in our culture look down on these mothers and women as individuals. We went into our first adoption meeting and we said we wanted a closed adoption...no contact with the birthmother or birthfather.  Now...we have completely came to the other side and we would love to have a relationship with our child's birthmother.   Most of these women come from broken homes and broken families.  Some of them have been in and out of foster homes and they know they don't want that kind of life for their child.  They know they can't provide for them, or they can't give them a 2 parent home, or they don't have a stable environment, or they just need to get their own life straightened out before they can take care of someone else.  They are making the hard decision...a selfless decision.  They have such great love for this little being that they have carried and given life too.  How great would it be to welcome your child's mother into your life and family and just love her.  I admire these women, and I have a compassion for them that wasn't there when we first started our process.  I will teach our child to love their birthmother and birthfather and it will be easy, because I will love them too.  I will love this woman that gave birth to our child and I will pray for her always.  She is all ready in my thoughts and prayers and I look forward to the day that I get to meet her. 

In summary I feel like the waiting process has been great for our family.  If you are in the waiting process like we are...be excited!! Don't let all the risks involved and all of the unknowns get you down.  Don't miss out on an opportunity to be excited and happy! We have met several families that are in the adoption process too and they have encouraged us.  It is so great to talk to people who have a heart for adoption like we do.  We have learned so much in the past year and a half!!  I have grown to love this process as crazy as it sounds.  Our adoption process constantly reminds me of how Christ adopted me into His family.  He has shown me love, mercy and grace that I can't even explain.  I have to believe that in the same way our children bring us joy, that we as children of the King, bring Him joy as well.  He loves us, unconditionally...even when we disobey Him, even when we do not bring glory to His name.  I know I can't even begin to understand God's love for us, but I believe in many ways, it is exactly like the love a Father has for His child. Romans 8:15 has become one of my favorite verses in the Bible....the Spirit of adoption is a wonderful and beautiful thing. 


Romans 8:15 "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."
 Psalms 68:6 "God setteth the solitary in families...."
Hosea 14:3 ".....for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy"
Psalm 40:1 "I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry."