Starting the process

As I said before, I didn't tell Brad what I felt God might lead us to do.  I didn't know if God was really asking us to adopt or not.

Fast forward to February!  God began to speak to Brad.  He had several things happen in such a supernatural way that he couldn't ignore them.  He prayed and prayed.  Finally he looked at me and said something like, "I don't know if this is the right time to say this" (it was late at night) "but I think God might be leading us to adopt."  I pulled out my journal and showed him my post from November 26th.  We were both amazed at God's guidance.

We decided to follow where He leads.  We called a friend who adopted around 20 years ago to find out what agency they used.  When he said they'd used Bluegrass Christian, we contacted the agency to get information.  We met with Kati (the counselor for birthmoms) and got basic information from her.  We connected well with Kati.  She spent time with us and asked us our story of what brought us to consider adoption.  We were very impressed with the ministry this agency has with expecting mothers.  We filled out the basic application and sent it in in early March.

Because Mary (the lady who works with adoptive parents) had several things going on in her family, she wasn't able to get in touch with us until late June.  We began to wonder what we should do.  Thankfully, we prayed and waited.  We met with her in early July and received the assignments to do and the paperwork we needed to fill out.  She said one of the most important things for us to do was to write our birthparent letter.  (This is a letter to expecting mothers that shares about us, our family, our community, etc.  The mother then picks what family she would like to adopt her child.)  Mary said everything else can be rushed if necessary, but we can't be picked unless we have that letter in.

We sent our birthparent letter in early August.  We're working on paperwork and making progress.  Brad hasn't had time to do much of his part because of his work, but if we get chosen, he can do it pretty quickly.  We will do our homestudy after our paperwork is in.  After the homestudy is complete, we'll begin applying for scholarships, etc.

We'd appreciate your prayers as we follow God's leading.  We would love to raise a son, but more than anything we want to bring glory to God.