Homestudy part 2

Well... quick update! We are meeting with our social worker on Wednesday at 11am. Pray everything goes well, that we enjoy getting to know each other, and that the Lord makes it clear to us the next steps to take. We are so excited to have this meeting as each step gets us closer to our baby!! Thanks for your prayers!

Homestudy

Paperwork is officially DONE!! So glad to have everything in order. It is ridiculous how much information they need from you when you adopt a child. They must may know more about us than our families... in fact it is entirely possible :-) So..... we meet with our Social Worker, Becky next week. She is out of town until Monday but we will talk on Monday and set a date for our home visit. Hopefully I can keep Gunner from messing up the house too much before next week! So today is a day full of cleaning the house and working on our birthmother profile. I am trying my hand at digital scrapbooking to make our profile. I am using cropmom.com and I like it so far... just hard because you can't do some basic things like copy/paste or change the color of objects so you have to be creative with what they have to offer. Anyway... its fun for me because I feel like every day and every project brings me one step closer to being a mommy! My heart is also filled with joy today thinking about my friend Tera who just got home with their 6th child this week. God is so faithful... even on the days when I feel like nothing is going right and I just want the process to HURRY UP :-) Thankful for such a sweet reminder!

God's "Plan B"

Recently I have been reading Dr. Moore's book "Adopted For Life". It is a great read for anyone but especially for those thinking about or pursuing adoption. He has a chapter in the book entitled "Don't you want your own kids?" Just the title makes me laugh a little because of how many times I have heard that exact question or some version of that question. It used to hurt my feelings but I am starting to understand more about that question. I have even come to the point where I am thankful for that question because it has really brought me to a deeper understanding of who I am in Christ. As Dr. Moore states in his book "...for many who've never experienced adoption, adoption seems to be simply a Plan B for people who can't have children." For me, that was never the case. Not because I'm especially holy or in tune with God or even because of the beautiful spiritual picture that I now see adoption is. Really, God has just put it on my heart from an early age. I always knew that I would adopt children, whether I was blessed with the ability to have biological children or not. Lately though, the whole "Plan B" mentality has got me thinking. Really, I'm a lot more like the adopted baby we will soon have in our home than any child that would come from my womb.
Romans 11:17-18 says, "If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you." I was the wild olive shoot and I have been grafted in among others that "biologically belonged" to that tree. More than that, when God chose me, I had nothing. I was an orphan and looked nothing like my Heavenly Father. That is why I chose the verse I did at the top of my blog:
Ephesians 1:3-8, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding."
I am so glad that God chose me, when I was unlovely and orphaned. I am so glad that I am not "Plan B" for God, but rather deeply cherished and loved as His heir. I am so thankful that he has given us the opportunity to experience in some small way a part of the joy it must bring our Father to bring us into His family.

New Blog

Well... here goes. I have wanted to start a blog for awhile, but was afraid that I wouldn't really be able to keep up with posting. Starting the adoption process has given me an excuse to jump in I guess. I wanted a way to let people know where we were in the process and how they could be praying for us. I also feel like it will be good for me to have an outlet. Any of you that have been through the process of adoption know that it is a very emotional process and not for the faint of heart. So I am hoping to be able to get out some of my thoughts and also gain clarity as I "talk through" things on my blog. I hope that our journey encourages others to consider how they can become involved in the ministry of adoption and that we will bring glory to God through the ups and downs of this amazing time in our lives. I want to give anyone that plans on keeping up on my blogging fair warning... I tend to be long winded... just ask Kevin :-)