So glad we waited on God!

God has been working behind the scenes as we've been waiting on Him.  It has been amazing to sit back and let Him work.  Now I don't mean we've been completely idle.  We felt clear to do our homestudy with Adoption Assistance, Inc so we filled out paperwork and had a homestudy visit.  We've looked at some placing agencies, but just haven't felt clear for one reason or another.  The ones we've leaned toward either wouldn't work with us for some reason (like we already have children or we don't make enough money) or had a very negative evaluation from someone we trust.  So, we've just waited.  We are so glad we did.

As we shared in our last blog, God's Grace Adoption Ministries gave us a matching grant of up to $2500.  Generous friends donated $1129.85 so it will become $2259.70.  PRAISE THE LORD and THANK YOU to the friends who gave!!!  Unfortunately, GGAM cannot tell us who gave.  They will only tell us the total given.  This is frustrating because we cannot thank individuals.  So, if you gave and you're reading this, thank you.  We deeply appreciate your gift!!!  One group that gave was the Pro-Life Ministry from Kentucky Mountain Bible College.  It was so encouraging to be supported by college students (who don't have much money) and to be reminded that God will provide in ways we don't expect.

Sunday I (Marie) was called and asked to participate in a ministry opportunity in October.  I said I'd pray about it and I was to give an answer by Wednesday.  I prayed and talked it over with Brad and planned to call between 4 and 6 to say "Yes!" because I could see no good reason to say "No!"  Brad told me that if God wanted to close the door, He could make it clear.  Well, at 4 o'clock the phone rang. It was a lady from an adoption agency that wouldn't typically work with us because we don't make enough money.  They have a required gross income that we don't meet and then they want you to make $10,000 more per child.  I had e-mailed the agency briefly explaining our situation and asked if they made any exceptions.  Instead of simply replying to my e-mail, she called.  We talked for quite some time and she said that Adoption Assistance does such a good job with home studies that if they approve us, she doesn't care how much we make.  WOW!!  The agency also had been refusing to work with most families who can have biological children, but she told me they changed that policy this week.  God is into details!!!!  It sounds very hopeful that we may have a baby much sooner than we were expecting.  Brad & I felt that the possibility of having a baby by the time of the ministry opportunity and the fact that I received the call at 4 PM (the time I had planned to call to accept the opportunity) was God's way of closing the door and I called to say, "No!"

That night we began filling our paperwork for Graceful Adoptions.  We still have some more to do, but it's not too much considering what we've filled out previously.  Much of it is similar to what we've done before, so it's not difficult, it just takes time to put it in the format this agency wants.  It will cost over $20,000 to work with this agency and we will still have some other expenses.  We cannot use the two grants we've been given until we are almost finished with the adoption process.  (This is to guarantee the grants given support adoptions that are completed.)  We know that God is leading and as someone said, "Where God guides, He provides."

I continue to be encouraged by the quote from George Müller, "The greatness of the sum required affords me a kind of secret joy; for the greater the difficulty to be overcome, the more will it be seen to the glory of God how much can be done by prayer and faith."

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.