BIG NEWS!!!!

"You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

The Lord is righteous in all his ways an loving toward all he has made."

Psalm 145:16-17

I just want to start out by saying how amazed I am at the grace of God. He has heard my cries and has turned our sorrow into a beautiful story of joy! Here is how the story goes...

After three years of trying to conceive and several rounds of fertility treatment, Daniel and I decided it was time to stop trying to get pregnant and begin the adoption process. It took many months of tears, prayers, and grieving for us to truly surrender this desire to the Lord and be content with his plan, regardless of what that was. We threw ourselves wholeheartedly into the adoption process and managed to finish our home study paperwork in only 2 weeks. And with the help of a free trial of photoshop, I was able to nearly complete our family profile. All that was missing was one of our letters of reference. We were leaving for Memphis to visit Daniel's family, so my sister checked our mailbox daily until we received the letter and then she was going to mail our package to the agency. Here we are with our complete homestudy...




Well, Rachel called me on Tuesday and said that the letter had arrived and she would be mailing it Wednesday morning. We were so excited to move on to the next phase of our adoption. Wednesday, we had to run to walgreens to print some pictures. While we were there, I picked up a pregnancy test just because I was a little late. (This was not unusual...I have probably taken hundreds of these in the last three years.) We got back and I took the test, not expecting anything out of the ordinary, but much to our surprise, this is what we saw...

(Yes, I took two in a row and then went back to the store to buy about 6 more :) ) I immediately called Rachel to tell her not to mail our adoption packet, but it was already too late. She had mailed it about an hour earlier. However, we were able to contact our agency to tell them not to cash our check and mail our packet back to us.

I am just amazed at God's timing. He waited until we had completely surrendered to his will and until we had shared our story with the world and then he opened his hand and blessed us with the most amazing gift. We are just basking in his goodness and grace!

Tuesday, we had our first prenatal visit and were able to have an ultrasound of our sweet little baby. Although we thought we were 10 weeks along, the ultrasound revealed that we are only 9 weeks. We got to see and hear the heartbeat. Let me tell you...in that moment we were changed. We are so in love with God's sweet gift! Here is our baby's first video:)

I know it's hard to tell what is what, but the head is on the right, the bottom is on the left and the flashing in the middle is the heartbeat!

Please join with us with giving God the praise for the amazing work he has done in us and continue to pray for our sweet baby's health and protection.

P.S. I know that some of you are following my blog because you are also struggling with infertility. I am praying for you daily that God would bless you with a child. I know that this news may cause pain to some, because it wasn't long ago that news of friends' pregnancies only made the sting of my own circumstance sharper. Continue to trust in the Lord and in his timing. Allow him to carry your hurts and find your comfort in his nearness. He is working a plan for your life! Please let me know if I can pray for you in any specific way!

Staining our crib

We have spent the last week sanding and staining our crib so it will fit perfectly with the other dark brown furniture we are putting in the nursery. My sister and my best friend Lindsay we so sweet to help me! We are out of town for a week, but when we get home, we have to do a polyurethane coating and then put it together. I can't wait to get our nursery all set up. I know it will probably still be a while till we have a baby in there, but now we will be ready in case the process ends up being quicker than we expect. Here are some pictures of our fun :)

Lindsay and I working hard...

Trying to take a picture of ourselves with our work.

We put the stain on a little too thick so we had to move it inside so it would dry.
Don't tell my dad :)

This is how I felt when we were finally done :)

Amazed

We were so blessed today! With our adoption fees, we don't have much extra money to spend on baby items, but we were really wanting to get our nursery set up so we could inlude pictures of it in our family profile (and just because it is so exciting to have our baby's room set up!) A family in our church gave us a crib today. (thanks Anne and Stetson!) How cool is that!? I love when I get to see the church working as the hands and feet of Christ. We were praying that God would provide what we needed to get a crib. At the same time, some amazing people who are listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit got to be used to answer our prayer. On top of that, our church nursery was getting rid of a glider and a pack n' play and said we could have them. So in one day, God blessed us with three of the most expensive baby items we would need. The glider needs a little work and TLC, but God also blessed me with a husband who can fix anything. So, today I'm just basking in the goodness and provision of my God!

"And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19

we're "pregnant"...

…well sort of. We have officially begun the adoption process! We are very excited about where the Lord has led us and are looking forward to what He has in store. Daniel and I always have talked about adopting at some point in our future, but we planned to have our biological children first and adopt later on, when we were more financially stable. All my life, I have known that all I wanted to be when I grew up was a mommy. I know it is my calling–It is what I was created for. Well, you can imagine the discouragement and confusion when we just couldn’t get pregnant. We have spent the last few years on an emotional roller coaster of hope and disappointment. Around December, we decided that if we weren’t pregnant by April we would begin the adoption process. Well since December we have prayed so hard about becoming parents and we have really tried to seek God’s will and open our hearts up to his plan, regardless of what that meant. Well, the Lord has opened our hearts to adoption in a way that I didn’t ever think possible. I had to go through a sort of grieving process about the things I will not get to experience in pregnancy, but in that God has given me joy in the miracles and experiences that come with adoption. It is no longer feeling like second best to me. He has brought Daniel and me so far in our faith and in our marriage through this difficult season, and we believe that he has been preparing our hearts for the child he has created just for us!

We have completed our application with an agency called Heart of Adoptions and are just beginning the piles and piles of paperwork we need to complete. We are pursuing a domestic adoption of a newborn baby and are trusting God with the details. We have lots (and lots) of fundraising and planning to do, but God has given us so much hope, joy, and excitement! Please pray with us for a quick and smooth process, for our sweet baby’s health, for our baby’s birth parents, for the finances, and just for God’s leading for Daniel and me.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13