Great is his Faithfulness: Some BIG news for our Adoption Story!!

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases

His mercies never come to an end,

They are New every morning

Great is your faithfulness.  Lamentations 3:22-23

Could a verse be more fitting this week?  I mean….   This is the verse that we were to memorize for our girl's She Reads Truth Lent Bible study.  Also this was the verse I made a screen shot of on my phone earlier this weekend.   A verse I will now carry in my heart forever.

So why is this particular verse so fitting right now?   Well it all comes down to this little story.  

For those of you that have been following along with our adoption story and those that haven’t here’s a quick recap. 

• We first became interested in adoption.  
• When beginning to be ready to start the process, we fell in love with a small agency in Taiwan.  This little agency was a ministry to unwed mothers that also happened to do a few adoptions.  Some laws soon changed in the country changing requirements, and the agency stopped adoptions. (Major set-back and heartache)
• We decided to go ahead and announce, and decided to move forward with Thailand. 
• Just as we were about to start the adoption process, we found out we would need to move, that we needed to be in a more permanent home to start the adoption process so parts wouldn’t have to be repeated.  (Major set-back and heartache)
• God provided overly and abundantly the perfect home for us, and made that process happen very quickly!  (however because of reassessing finances we were then set back a bit more while we figured things out)
• We got to where financially we felt ready to start the process finally!!  We went to apply, and found out the Thailand program was shut down.    (Major set-back and heartache and questioning God after so much what his plan was for our family… and questioning his timing)
• We then decided God was calling us to go ahead and move towards doing a Waiting Child only application.   These are children that are harder to place, that are advocated for with a photolisting.  The process is a bit different for matching, and things tend to move a lot faster at the start.   This was a major step of faith for us.   We were trusting God with everything…. Stepping out on deep waters knowing that he would hold us up.   We were completely unsure about everything.   What if this child had major medical issues that we would face expense for?  What if we wouldn’t be the best of parents for the child? Were we really ready?   So many what if’s.   Somehow we had a feeling that maybe just maybe he was leading us this way for a reason- that this was the direction we needed to go to find the particular child that He has for us.  

Friends this was a Bumpy Road thus far.  

We are weak. We are sinful.   It was full of crying out to God, not understanding.    Questioning what was going on when all we could see is a shut door in front of our face.   

But God had a plan. 

A perfect Plan

A plan that he so carefully wrote, wove, and set into motion.  A story that the God and Creator of the universe scripted; an enormous and lovingly elaborate story of love, provision, and salvation.  All he asked was that we step out in faith and trust. 

If any of those things hadn’t happened…. It wouldn’t bring us to today.   To this special time.  It wouldn’t have brought us to her. 

He is loving and He is faithful.

We are Matched!

There is a beautiful baby girl across the world that is our daughter!!  And we are in love.  

So blessed, and so thankful!

For those that want to know more about that story…

The past two weeks have been crazy!  

We really didn’t expect this to happen so fast, but we found a child we were very interested in and felt drawn to, so we requested her file.  We felt very comfortable with her particular needs.  If we chose to move on and pursue her then we were asked to get a medical consult.  We proceeded with the medical consult, and felt very comfortable with it, and decided to move on.   The next step in the process were several pages of essay questions which we marched through, a phone call with a sweet social worker that was a bit over an hour long interview, followed by a selection committee meeting. 

We weren’t sure if any other families were pursuing also pursuing her at this time, but the selection committee decides the best fit for the child.   We were also told that the committee could just decide that you need to do more research on a topic or be interviewed for more information before they meet again to discuss matching the child- this usually always happens for any first time parents.  We really didn’t expect an answer right away.

But then we received a call yesterday, the call that made us parents.  The call that said that sweet little girl is ours.  And we are still blown away. 

Our file is officially with the Korea program now! Yay we know our country!!  And we have a mountain of things on the to do list!  That might be an understatement.   But that’s ok… because this…

Hang in there little girl! We’re coming for you!

[Photo Credit above goes to my sweet friend Katie Kubler who is painting these adorable family portraits for donations for our adoption, so if you haven't yet get yours! Isn't it perfect? ]