A Completed Puzzle and a Big Update!

So much has happened with our adoption process in the last 2 months or so and we are eager to give an update!

 First of all, we are so thrilled to share that we completed our puzzle fundraiser!!! This means that we were able to raise all our funds for the home study portion of the process along with our next few fees! We were blown away by the generosity of our friends and family – both in giving financially and in the way so many of you stepped forward and promised to pray for this process and the little one that will be joining our family. What a precious gift! We are so humbled by the outpouring of support and truly cannot say thank you enough. Once again, we have seen God’s provision as we have stepped out in faith and we’ve been reminded that He goes before us in this process and is leading the way.

 

(Our completed puzzle! Ready to be framed and hung in our home! The back is filled with names and reminders of God's provision through so many friends and family and even complete strangers!

***As a side note... this puzzle is different than the original puzzle we showed on our last blog post. The first puzzle we had ready to go and then it was unfortunately damaged by water :))

That leads to our second BIG update…

 But a little back story first…

Last year at the TGC Women’s Conference I (Denae) heard a speaker from Stand For Life share about the need for the church to wrap around women facing unexpected pregnancies in light of the new ruling by the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. While this ruling was wonderful and a huge victory for life, the speaker challenged those in attendance saying that there was going to be a bigger need than ever before for families to be willing to come alongside women facing unplanned pregnancy here in the U.S., whether that be supporting through foster care, adoption, financial help, etc. While we had never really considered domestic adoption before, I came home and told Brady that I thought God might be nudging us to consider domestic infant adoption and specifically ministering to birthmoms facing unplanned pregnancy.

Fast forward to this past summer and we began talking more seriously about starting the adoption process again. As we considered all of our options, India seemed like the most easy option because we had done the process before and knew what to expect. However, about a month into the process, we heard about a need through our agency for a family to adopt a sweet baby boy domestically (here in the U.S.) with some pretty profound special needs. His birthmom had found herself unexpectedly pregnant and unable to keep the baby. Hearing a small part of her story truly broke our hearts for her situation and we began to pray earnestly to see if God might be leading us to adopt this little guy. After a lot of wrestling with God, prayers, conversations as a couple and with our agency we realized that his particular medical needs would be difficult for our family for a variety of reasons and we had to say no, but we began to see the Lord slowly working in our hearts to reconsider our international adoption plans.

 Over the next few weeks, there was one thing after another that God used to cause us to “pause” for a moment and consider whether we were truly being led to India again or whether God might have another plan for our family right now. In the end, He made it abundantly clear through some very well timed words by our caseworker and those that we came into contact with, answers to prayers, delays in our international adoption home study process as well as some specific needs within our family that made it clear to us that domestic infant adoption was where God was leading. It was a very hard, very prayed over decision because we were so eager to adopt from India again, but once the decision was made, we were amazed at how all of the pieces came together so quickly and how God confirmed our decision.

 All that to say… we are still adopting, but we have shifted a little and we are now adopting domestically, meaning from somewhere in Michigan and we will be working with a birthmom facing an unplanned pregnancy and getting to walk alongside her! We are so excited for that opportunity and feel like it will be such a blessing for us to be a part of supporting our child’s birthmom and family.

We made our decision to switch programs from international adoption to domestic adoption before our homestudy was complete which is great because we can still use everything we’ve done in our homestudy and it will just be written up for us slightly differently! That was a huge relief to us and we were actually able to complete our end of homestudy paperwork this week! Now we are just waiting for it to be written up and finalized by our agency. Once that is finalized, we will create a profile of our family that will be used to share with birthmoms who are considering placing their baby with an adoptive family. If the birthmom chooses our family, we will have the chance to meet with her and Lord willing, build a relationship with her. The timeline varies pretty significantly, but we are told to expect 6-18 months before we are chosen by a birthmom.

We are already praying every day for the mother that is going to be a part of our family’s story and we are eager to meet her. We are praying that God would encourage her heart, give her strength and peace in her pregnancy and give her grace and wisdom as she considers adoption for her baby. We are also praying that God would allow us to have a good relationship with her and that it would be a blessing to both of us. Added to that, we are praying all the time for the little one God has already chosen to join our family. We cannot wait to meet this baby boy or girl and we are so excited to welcome another baby into our family! We would covet your prayers as we continue in this process that suddenly feels very new to us.

We cannot say thank you enough for the ways you have prayed for, encouraged and given financially to support our adoption process. It is so wonderful to know that this little baby boy or girl will be welcomed by such a loving community of friends and family! Thank you for being a part of this journey with us and walking alongside us! We feel so blessed by you all! May God get all the glory in and through this process.