Praises and Prayer Requests

December has been a crazy and exciting month! At the beginning of this month we filled out a packet of starter paperwork and mailed a check for our first two big adoption fees. Since then we’ve been working on renewing our passports, getting some “pre-home study” paperwork together, fundraising and filling out the applications for two home study grants that would help offset some of the costs of that portion of adoption. 

We want to share some huge PRAISES from this last month...

1) We’ve sold ALL 500 pieces of our puzzle... that’s SO amazing! A huge thank you to all who gave! We’ve been so blessed by people who gave to buy 1 piece all the way up to 150 pieces! Every donation we’ve gotten is a reminder of what an awesome community of family and friends we have... this has been so encouraging to us and we appreciate each one of you! (The picture above is the puzzle completed... the back is filled with names of those who gave)

2) We finished and mailed in our starter paperwork! This doesn’t sound like much, but getting that in the mail felt awesome! It’s one (small) step done which means we’re another step closer to getting our little guy home!

3) We have heard so many sweet words of encouragement as we’ve announced our adoption. We’ve had families share their adoption experiences with us, we’ve had texts and calls asking how things are going and we’ve had so many of you saying that you’re praying for us through this process. This means more to us than you’ll ever know! Thank you!! 

4) We are so thankful for a fantastic, Christ centered agency and for wonderful case workers. We are so excited to get to know them more as we continue on this journey! 

5) As wonderful as it will be to welcome a child into our home, we are finding out that the greatest part of this adoption is actually the opportunity to learn to trust God more fully. As we’ve looked at information about special needs, read through fee sheets and looked at the long list of “to-dos” coming our way we have realized that there is absolutely no way we can do this process without God’s provision and hand over the entire thing. In the adoption process, so much is out of our control, but we are learning to rest in the fact that not one single piece of this process is out of our sovereign God’s control. He knows the child he has for us, He knows how He is going to provide financially for us, He knows when this process will unfold in His perfect timing and He knows exactly what we need to grow closer to Him through it all. While fear of the unknown can creep in sometimes, what a gift it is to know that we serve a God who knows everything and goes before us! This is a huge praise!

We’d also like to share some prayer requests:

1) We have sent in an application for a home study grant. It would be an amazing gift if we were given this grant as it would help pay for over half of our home study fees! Please pray that those reviewing the grant might choose our family to be a recipient. This would allow us to use some of our fundraised money towards our next agency fee which is due as soon as our home study is completed. 

2) Pray for us as we begin our home study. This is a big step in the process requiring a lot of paperwork, attention to detail and time. We are hoping to get it done as quickly as possible, but please pray for patience and perseverance as there is a lot to do!

Thank you again to those who have encouraged, prayed for, and financially supported us along this journey so far! We seriously can’t say thank you enough! God has been so good! We are excited for what 2019 has in store!