Adoption Chronicling

Wow, where to begin. God is Awesome, is an understatement.

I must start writing down all the events that have taken place in the last few months.

Most recently and most importantly this last week has given us quite a turn of events. 

To begin, I must preface with, "To God Be All the Glory!"

If you are new to our journey, let's begin with last summer. 

To see how it all began back in July, click here.

July:

We began our journey with our initial adoption inquiry which was sent in on July 26, 2013.

-At this time, we could only look up hill at all the requirements that still had to be met before completing this process. 

August and September:

As soon as our inquiry was accepted, about three weeks later, we paid the hefty fee to begin the "Application and more"

We managed to get all the medical forms filled out, and ALL 6 or 7 inspections completed. 

We also continued to fill out paperwork that was requested. 

We became debt free this month of the remainder of our  Sallie Mae student loans,

Sold Daniel's White Mercedes Benz,

Paid off my car,

purchased a new-to-us car for Daniel in cash 

AND

We began our adoption process!

At this time, our prayers looked like this:

"God is so good,  please pray for us in the following ways:

For us to continue to have peace as we journey through.

For us to be patient and trust God and His timing each step of the way.

For Dan and I to continue to work well together accomplishing each task together. 

For God to give each of us the wisdom for answering independently, tough 98 short answer questions. 

That God would be knitting together the most precious perfect baby for us and that we would be chosen for the child that needs us the most and visa versa. 

That our child would be healthy, his heart, his organs, his brain, his entire body. That he would grow to love Jesus!

That the birth mother would be caring for herself during this time of pregnancy. That she would take care of the precious life within her and that God would be preparing her heart for the journey of adoption."

Our friends and family began to be on board with us in prayer and we felt the blessing and peace from God as we embarked on this journey. 

October:

To see more about this second update, click here.

By this time, all of our references, medical paper work, employment verification, TB tests, background checks, fire escape routes, floor plans, etc. had been completed and were sent off to the agency. 

Hannah was so excited as we talked more and more about "baby brother".

She helped us mail off the first packet.

I began to experience and witness my daughters excitement for a baby brother,

"When we got into the car to go in to the post office, she asked me if we were doing this for baby brother since I said we had to mail something to the adoption agency. When I said yes, her face lit up with her "Oh" face! She is so excited about having a new sibling. 

She loved that she was able to put the sticker on to mail it. "

Hannah began being an integral part of our joy and excitement as we anticipated the eventual arrival of baby brother.

To this point, we had completed most all of the paperwork.

I also found a "Big Sister" shirt in size 5 T for Hannah. I felt confident that she would be able to wear it at the perfect time. 

At this time, our prayers looked like this:

"For us to have a good balance of getting things done, while also taking time to relax and spending time together without working. I praise God that we have been able to work together so well at accomplishing all this together. What a testimony that is for us in our marriage!

That we may continue to be diligent and have wisdom as we answer these loaded questions.

That I would remain peaceful and not anxious about having inspections done at a certain time.It does ware on me, to constantly have to call some of these places and check in, not to mentioned the 3 hour time frames that we must wait for someone to come. We've already had a gas inspection scheduled and he was running late and we had to reschedule for another day. 

Pray that God would reveal to us what it is that should be portrayed to a birth mother in her letter and also in the book that we will create. 

That we both would  continue to remain patient and trust the Lord and His timing every step we take. 

That God would be knitting together the most precious perfect baby for us and that we would be chosen for the child that needs us the most and vice versa. 

That our child would be healthy, his/her heart, his/her organs, his/her brain, his/her entire body. That he/she would grow to love Jesus!

That the birth mother would be caring for herself during this time of pregnancy. That she would take care of the precious life within her and that God would be preparing her heart and giving her comfort as she endures selflessness and grieving in this journey of adoption. May God bless this amazing birth mother, whomever she is!

November and December:

Due to the holidays and Daniel's travels, we did not accomplish much over these two months. 

To see this post, click here.

What we did accomplish this months was having our 3-6 months emergency fund complete. 

Now, we were debt free, except the house and had saved what we set for our goal.

Adoption was on the back burner for while.

At this time, we still needed to complete the following:

We need to take the time to finish answering the questions that we have to answer.
We need to take our two 2 hour online child care classes and take a short assessment. 

I need to be CPR certified again, for an updated card. 

We need to put together the pictures of our home that we have taken.

We need to write our Birth Mother Letter

Begin our Family Book for the Birth Mother

We also began looking at purchasing some books on adoption and seriously talking with Hannah about where baby brother would be coming from and where she came from, etc. We had some wonderful conversations. Yep, my three year old believes that she was in my belly and a hole was cut in my belly button, she was taken out and they " glued" my belly button closed. And, she also says that a baby can only be in your belly if you are married. She is content with all that as am I. 

Our prayers looked like this:

"Please be praying that we would find the time between Daniel traveling, family time, and adoption attention time. We have only been in two months but because we were SO motivated, we almost got a little burned out going so quickly. So, here we are, we've hit a thin wall. We were just talking the other day about how we just need to get it all done...just do it, don't think about doing it, but just be proactive. 

Will you pray that we will be proactive and make time for all that is important?"

January:

We completed all paperwork and mailed it off!!!

I began our Birth Mother book.

To view more on this post, click here.

This month, our prayers looked like this:

"Please be praying for us as we continue on this journey. 

We still have the Home study to complete, pray that God would really be at work in our hearts and that we would be open and willing to what He has planned for us. 

We are working on our Profile Book that our Birth-Mother will look through to select a family. 

We also will be having some fundraisers through Chick-Fila here where we live, stay tuned for more details on that to come. We are saving, saving, saving and praying that the Lord provides all that we need for such a wonderful decision we have made. 

This has truly been a "family" journey. 

Hannah has known from day one what we are out to do and she has been so excited ever since! 

She prays daily for her baby brother and baby sister, as she puts it :-)

Pray for our Birth-mother and her baby. Pray the baby is growing and developing healthily and that he or she will be just a perfect fit for our family. Please pray that the Birth-mother would be healthy, making good decisions for herself and that she would be supported by her friends and family to continue on with this adoption process. Yes, I am referring to a mom that we don't even know, but I know she is out there and I want her and her baby covered in prayer as much as possible. We have been praying for her for months!!!"

February:

We scheduled and competed part 1 of our home study. 

I completed and ordered 4 copies of our Birth Mother book or Family profile. 

We headed down to Killeen, Texas where we met the social worker and saw the agency office. For more information on this post, click here. 

We also called and scheduled our Chick Fil-A Fundraiser that will be THIS Friday, March 21st from 5-8 and Greatwood Chick Fil-A. 

March:

I re-joined facebook this month because some church friends had recommended that we post our fundraiser on the SW Houston Adoption page. So, I went ahead and posted it, and figured maybe more families would get the word and head out for support!

Our second Home Study was to be March 7th. We anticipated this day for a few weeks and were so very excited to be done with all of this process. 

On Thursday, March 6th we were having issues with our water heater and ended up having to spend $1200 on a new water heater. Thank you Dave Ramsey for teaching us about the importance of an emergency fund. We had an emergency, but it didn't quite feel like one because we were prepared. And, we had made sure that this water heater was replaced because we had to have our home study the next day and also knew that we would be gone for a few days. 

We were sad and frustrated about being "stood up" by our agency on the day of our actual "home visit study", little did we know that was the beginning of God's grander plans. That day, I remember being so frustrated and I was in such a funk that nothing could change my attitude, or the way I felt. I felt that the agency did not value or respect our time, as a potential adoptive family. I realize things come up, with social workers and their busy schedules, but I still don't understand why we did not receive any contact that day. We had been preparing so much for that day and then were ready when the time on the clock came. We waited and waited and heard nothing. 

I texted and called the social worker, only for her to respond saying that something must have come up and the director was unable to come. 

What was most frustrating is that they were coming from 3 1/2 hours away and could have called us to at least let us know they were not on their way. The social worker then proceeded to say that she hoped this had not been an inconvenience for us. 

In fact, it was. Daniel took the day off. We had childcare that morning and delayed packing for Dime Box that day because we wanted everything to be neat and tidy. 

When we received the text that she was not coming, I was furious in my head. I kept questioning why this was happening. The strange thing for me, was that I was not angry that she didn't come or show up...but I was angry at the lack of communication that we received. I believed that we were treated poorly and that made an impact on me. 

I prayed a lot about that and Daniel and I still came to the conclusion that this WAS STILL God's plan and we were not going to be discouraged. 

So, we packed up for Dime Box, and headed that way on Friday evening, much later than we had originally anticipated.

 We spent an amazing weekend there with our best friends and the kids just had a blast. Daniel left for work on Sunday and Hannah and I along with our sweet friend Nicolaas stayed till Wednesday. 

Upon getting home on Wednesday night, Daniel was home as well, so that was a nice surprise.

That night, we ordered our Fundraiser Shirts and Postcards and began advertising. To see that post, click here.

God's Amazing Story:

Thursday, March 13th

I got a Facebook message from that same friend from church, Jenny, who encouraged me to post our fundraiser on the group page. 

She messaged me this message,

"What agency are you using? I got a call just yesterday from a friend who was seeing her social worker for a follow up visit with her new baby. Long story short, the SW is looking for paper ready families as she has 2 babies coming in April! I have her name if it's something you'd like to look into. Let me know;)"

As I read this message, I immediately got a knot in my stomach and chills. 

The next message in my inbox was this one:

"Hi Sarina, I just left you a message on FB. Please contact me when you can. I'm a friend of Jenny Fridges. I have some adoption information for you. Thanks!!"

So, I immediately called her and she shared with me that she had a 10 weeks old baby and that her social worker who had just visited her shared that she was looking for paper ready families that might be interested in adopting one of two babies due at the end of April. The first case was a biracial baby, the mother is Caucasian and the father is African American. My ears and eyes, throat and stomach all perked up when she said that. We continued to talk and she also mentioned there was a full Hispanic child as well. I gave her permission to call her social worker and tell her about us. 

Within the hour, Charlotte of AdopTexas, her social worker called me. She and I talked on speak phone and Daniel was there too. She gave us the entire profile of this birth mom who lives IN Houston and who is HEALTHY, baby is HEALTHY and it's a BOY! 

She asked us some questions about were we were in the process and what we were looking for. She said that she thought we would be a good fit for this birth mother and she was excited to present us to her. 

(Do you remember all along when we had been praying for a healthy birth mom and healthy baby boy? 

Do you remember when we said that this was all in God's hands when we felt stood up?)

God decided to completely turn everything around. 

We thought we had it all planned out. We were going with the agency that we thought was the best fit for us and things were moving smoothly. we were at peace. Then all of the sudden, just when that peace was being challenged with our agency, this new turn of events pops up. 

So what was God doing?

From Friday to Thursday, we had been sought out.

We believe that God led this two individuals to us because He had greater plans. 

]Thursday, Charlotte asked us to send over a copy of our previous application from Child Placement Center. She sent us some of her documents and we filled them out. The weekend went on as we had plans with our friends and we touched base with her on Sunday. On Saturday night, we realized that there was a crack in the ceiling and water was causing this crack. So, we knew we had a leak somewhere. Emergency #2 in a weeks time. On Sunday morning, as we were heading to church, Daniel called a plumber. Daniel felt as thought he may need to come back from church early to be there for the plumber. I'm not sure what happened, but the plumber never wrote back and we stayed at church. This was an important day because this was the Sunday we had been waiting for to wear our custom t-shirts and hand out as many post cards in bible classes as we could. On our way to church Daniel and I were very tense and frustrated about the situation because I didn't want him to leave when we had planned to "advertise" for our fundraiser. Anyway, this all worked out and we both stayed and had a very positive response. We can see God's blessings weaving all throughout this last week. On Sunday, we received several donations from people we didn't know and we had been receiving donations the previous days from people who we never expected would be a part of our journey. This has been quite a humbling experience. A huge blessing came on Sunday when three different people pledged to donate a very generous amount of money towards our adoption. Another family is having their daughters 2nd birthday party in our honor for our adoption. In lou of gifts, they have asked that their guests bring a check or donation to our adoption. I don't know about you, but this has been such a God Story. I could never have written it better. I see God all over this and I an amazed at how much blessing he can pour into our hearts. I remember walking back into the church doors after hearing about the birthday party and my heart was rejoicing and saying, "wow, thanks God!" He certainly is taking care of us. If this is truly his plan, he has to do something big and let me tell you, HE IS! 

When we got home from church, a plumber from our church gave Daniel a lot of information on how he could fix the roof himself. Did he know that we had just spent a huge chunk of money on a water heater and that we didn't really want to spend another amount on having a plumber come out to fix it? No, of course not! But God....(I love that) But God made it happen that this man continued to guide Daniel on how to fix the problem when he could have very easily charged us to come out anf look at it and fix it himself. What a blessing. 

So, Sunday afternoon, we scheduled an appointment to meet on Monday to give Charlotte our birth mother book and all of our existing paperwork copies from the previous agency. 

  Here we were, Sunday night--spending another long night up--making copies and organizing everything.

Monday came and we met. We brought all our paperwork and book. She talked to us about transferring everything over to her agency and that she would meet with the birth mother next week and present our family to her. She asked us to consider whether or not we wanted to make the switch from the other agency to hers and if we wanted her to do out home study. We are having to do the finger print and background checks again and we had to get an abuse background check notarized.  Sitting there in that office, knowing we had been working with one agency and now were talking with another was difficult. It was definitely an awkward feeling. I felt like we were almost betraying our other agency, but we felt such positive peace about this one. I had to rest in the direction of my husband for this decision. I felt queasy and just felt bad all around. It was very uncomfortable. After our meeting, Daniel called our social worker from Child Placement Center and let her know that we would be going with this agency and working with this social worker. She responded well and also mentioned that they may refund us our home study fees, since we had not completed it in full to this date. She wished us well and the call ended. I sat there with Daniel and felt peace again. We were amazed that they might actually reimburse us money we have already paid, wow! And, the social worker wished us well and was excited for us. 

Tuesday, March 18

God Continues to Amaze Us!

I was teaching this morning in the nursery at church called, "Sonshine class" for our Ladies Bible study. I got a call from Daniel this morning and I was shocked at the words that came out of his mouth, " Today, I got an unexpected promotion and I am no longer an Electrical Engineer--I am an Oil Field Quality Field Engineer and I am now part of management. This comes with a pay increase as well as less travel. If I travel it will be scheduled well in advance." My response: WHAT?!?!?!?!? Are you KIDDING me? What a blessing. God knew that we were in need of this bonus--less travel, more income for THIS adoption. Wow, I was speechless. I am amazed at how my attitude has changed. I used to think that things happened because I did something, but NO, everything happens because God wants us to give Him all the glory, give Him all the praise. This was all about God. This once again reaffirmed our peace and our thoughts of the direction we are headed. We decided to celebrate with dinner this evening with our family and good friends. It was a plan!

The day continued and I left church to pick up Hannah from school. 

I picked her and Nicolaas up and we headed to the park to meet Abby. We talked about our fundraiser and logistics of Friday. I called the marketing director to let her know that we will have approximately 300 people coming!! Oh my goodness, amazed. And Abby asked the Celebrate Recovery leaders if they would also order Chick Fil-A that night for their meeting. They said yes, and the marketing coordinator said that she would even drive it to the church herself so that we could get the funding from the order. AMAZING. God moving once again. After fun in the park, we headed home to get ready for the dinner that night and Hannah insisted that she wear her Cinderella dress because she wanted to look beautiful for Papa at dinner. 

Before we headed out the door, I saw a call coming in from Charlotte. We knew she was meeting with her doctor today to schedule her induction date, but that was about it.

I answered the call and it was Charlotte telling me that this birth mother had called to let her know  that she would be induced for a C-Section on April 28th (The exact original due date I had with Hannah). She then proceeded to tel me what her needs would be following the birth of the baby and also that she spoke with her about our family. The birth mother was very excited and really liked what Charlotte had to say about us. Charlotte said that she didn't want to present us with any further cases because she didn't want us to get confused and because she wants to see if this will work out well. Charlotte will meet with this birth mother next week on Tuesday and show her our book, and all our information. The birth mother said she is anticipating seeing our family and is excited. Charlotte said we would know for sure next week if she would choose us 100%.

And yes, my daughter wore her dress up Cinderella dress to the restaurant to impress her daddy. Priceless!

We got there and after ordering our food, we announced this amazing news. 

We also announced our name, but I'll let you hold off for a little while until things are a bit more final.

Before I complete this longest blog post ever written, I want you to see how God has been working and how much we are amazed at his timing!

In a one week Summary:

Water Heater breaks

Homestudy Flop

Dime Box Fun

New Opportunity

Roof Leak

Agency transfer--all that entails

Promotion

Hopeful news about baby boy!

Now we pray...

Everything we have prayed about in our journey, with our birth mother with our baby boy,etc is turning out just as we had been praying for. We have to remain humble and continue to be faithful and trust that God has chosen our child. We are so hopeful and praying that THIS IS IT! A total of 8 months already and we may have a new baby? Wow, God. 

If God can do this for us, how much more can He do for YOU, if you put yourself on the line and JUMP. Just a thought. I am speechless at the grace, goodness, blessing and divine intervention of our Great and Magnificent God!

Please continue praying as we wait for good news and as we fund raise, praying that God will provide the remaining funds needed! We are a little over half way there.

Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow!