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How Do We Choose?

How do we choose which agency to go with? Jason and I are at a loss. We have gathered the data from the big agencies around Texas, we have gathered from several different maternity homes and children's homes, and we have gathered some from some smaller places. We have talked to lawyers about what they thought about private adoptions. Which one do we choose? All of the them are more expensive than I ever thought domestic adoption would be. All of them have birth mothers who are looking for families for their babies. All of them are special and unique. I want all of them!!! I wish we could open our door to every birthmother out there and yell...."hey, bring your baby over here....let us teach him or her about Jesus....let us have a chance....I promise they will be loved....I promise they will be cherished....hey....over here!!!" Please!!!!

We know that adoption is part of our family. We know we are doing exactly what we are supposed to do. We are both so terribly excited about the idea of adopting and being able to hold our child. However, we are definately at a crossroad. We both want to get the paperwork done and the stuff going, but we are stuck! UGH!! We have been told by numerous agencies that as soon as we get paper work in, get our home study done, and pay for it all...we could have a baby. They even mentioned this summer.....THIS SUMMER!!!! What a blessing!!!

Please pray for guidance. We know we are exactly where we are supposed to be. However, it feels like we are at a circle intersection with numerous roads all meeting at the circle. All the roads lead to joy, but each one is different and unique. Which one will we travel? We don't know. As soon as we do know....you will be some of the first people we tell.

Until then. . . we are on our knees!!

My Comforter

I am about to make a huge confession! I absolutely LOVE for my comforter to lay on my bed perfectly straight. However, it makes me even happier to have my comforter's stitching to run in a straight line up my legs when I cover up at night. Yes, I do believe this is one of my touches of OCD. Jason thinks I am absolutely crazy! However, I can't help it. I get such joy out of laying down, pulling up the covers, and feeling them perfectly stretched down my body - running from my neck to my toes. In fact, it makes me giggle with glee! It is cracking me up to sit here and devulge this information to you.

The reason I am letting you into my world is that I was sitting in church today and I realized that my Comforter delights just as much as I do when I stop and spend time with him. When my life is focused and I am running towards holiness, He is delighted. He probably giggles the way I do when I get into bed.

My love for my denim comforter being perfectly matched with my body doesn't begin to compare to my Savior's joy in being my true Comforter. Trust me, I am in a season of needing comforting, and it is my delight to be in His presence during this season of our family's life.

Update

Below is the letter that we are sending out to family and friends about our adoption process



Howdy!

Jason and I are sending this email to ask for your prayers for us and our family. We’ve recently felt like God was changing our hearts (and this is a huge CHANGE!). We have had many set backs in our attempts to have our own family. We have met with a couple of fertility doctors, and we have decided to put our money into adoption instead of the invasive procedures that we would face. A couple of years ago, we had felt like we were called to adopt from China. We found an agency that we loved, and we were set to begin. However, China has changed some of their requirements, and we no longer fit the profile of the types of parents for which they are looking for their daughters.

Therefore, through various contacts and blessings God has been softening our hearts to the idea of domestic adoption. (This is where the major change has taken place because for the longest time we didn’t want anything to do with domestic adoption.) We are already searching out a new agency, and we plan on getting started as soon as possible. We have spoken to several local agencies that assure us that domestic adoption is a secure method of adding precious lives to our family. We are learning that it is a much faster paced adoption method, and the blessing is that the birth mother will be able to pick us. We will be placed in a group of letters or scrapbooks (depending on which agency we use), and there we will wait with other hopeful parents to be picked by a birth mother. We feel like God is directing us towards a bi-racial adoption. They constantly need parents for bi-racial children, and we want the pitter patter of little feet in our home. We are excited and nervous about the idea of being picked by a birth-mother, fundraising, finding a reasonably priced lawyer, preparing our hearts and preparing our home.

Speaking of fundraising, obviously money is an issue, too! I’m sure we will be doing many fundraisers in the near future. However, fundraiser #1 is (what else?) card making and scrapbooking! Mandy’s offering her services to create stationary (digital or stamped) or create scrapbooks (digital albums or traditional) for any one who just feels like they don’t have time to do them – or for anyone who would like to give a gift for birthdays, Father’s Day, graduation, Christmas, etc. Attached is a flyer with prices, all negotiable, of course, and we’d appreciate it if you’d send it out to as many people as you can think of that would be interested! In the meantime, your prayers and support of bringing a baby home are MOST precious to us, and we can’t wait to share this journey with all of you!!

God Bless,
Mandy & Jason