Answered Prayers

As most of you know.......WE WERE CHOSEN!!!!!!!!!!!! The birthmom picked Josh and I!! We have been praying for this for over 8 months and God has just blessed us in so many ways. I get chill bumps just thinking about all the little things God has shown us to let us know that this is the path He has planned for us! I know I have said this a thousand times before but God is truly amazing! We have 8 days to prepare for our little BOY!

I am going to tell a little about our meeting for those who don't know and maybe for those who are in the adoption process and wondering how things go. Sorry if you have already heard our story this is probably going to be long! The meeting with Jessica, our birthmom was schedule on Thursday, June 2nd. We got to the agency and spoke with the counselors and then Jessica and her mom got there. She was absolutely beautiful! Josh and I wanted to know about her, but we let her ask us some questions first. She had a notepad full of questions. So the first question she asked was, "What was our outlook on life?" Then her mom preceded to say did we have positive attitudes toward the future. Which was a great question, because for the people that know me know that I have a very positive attitude towards life! So we hit it off right away. Her next question was how do we define happiness and I told them that happiness to me = my family and friends. She had a few other questions and then we just sat there and talked, we never had an awkward moment. I was thinking through the whole entire meeting that it just felt right. Jessica also asked us if we would call the baby Josiah (biblical name). Of course we said YES! How could we say no to a woman that is giving us the best gift ever?!?! As we were talking Jessica mentioned that she was meeting with another couple on Friday which kind of shocked Josh and I (because our counselor told us right before that we were the only couple). But Jessica did say that our meeting went really well and that she would rate it a 10 (on a 1-10 scale!) She also asked the counselor if it was common for the birthmom and the adoptive family to have so much in common! When we left out of the meeting Josh and I felt really good about the meeting and felt that God had definitely put Jessica in our lives for a reason, even if it was just to pray for her.

We were hoping to hear something from the agency on Friday about our meeting, but we heard NOTHING!!! The office was close due to the 4th of July. So we had to wait the whole weekend not knowing the outcome of the meeting. While we were waiting I wanted to look up the story of Josiah and get familiar with the story. While I was looking up the story I ran into something that said the name Joshua came from Josiah. Right then and there I had a WOW moment. I thought to myself that God is telling me that this is all going to work out. He was telling me not to stress! After our busy weekend was over, Josh and I drove home from Pensacola. On our drive home we again heard NOTHING! We started to get a little disappointed. FINALLY --- Josh called the agencies office and got ahold of the other counselors who told us that WE WERE CHOSEN!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh! I cannot tell you how happy we were! For the rest of the evening we were on the phone either calling, texting, or emailing friends and family!

{we have 8 days till our little guy is suppose to be born} I have to say thanks to all of our family, friends and people that don't even know us that have just heard about our story for praying for us! God is amazing and is always working behind the scenes even when you don't think He is there He is ALWAYS listening!!!!!! His plan isn't always what you have planned, it is BETTER!

Josh and I some stuff already, but we are fortunate to have tons of loving, caring family and friends that are throwing us showers! We have been going crazy trying to make sure we have stuff, because we could get a call any minute!

WE will keep y'all posted!

Birthmom Meeting!

I know everyone is wondering what has been going on....so I just wanted to do a quick update and let you know that we are meeting with Jessica, the birthmom tomorrow at 2:00. We are very excited! The counselor said that she is going to be bringing us a picture form her sonogram! Can't wait to see it! Maybe she will let us keep it so we can show everyone! Baby is due in 2 weeks! Please keep us all in your prayers!

The last week and a half has been an absolute roller coaster ride for us! These are a few things that have taken place:

Monday June 8th - Went to Tyson's placement party! Congrats David and Stephanie! Your family is beautiful!

Tuesday June 9th - Vicky (or adoption specialist) emailed us saying that there was a potential birthmom and asked if we were interested in her! Of course we said Heck YES!!!!!! We were extremely excited!!! Received very little information about the situation.

Thursday June 11th - Received another email from Vicky saying that the birthmom wanted to meet us sometime following week and she gave us a little bit more information about the birthmom/birthfather.

The weekend went by and we heard nothing! Monday and Tuesday, has come and gone and we still do not know when we will be meeting the birthmom. This has been a very hard time for us, we know it will happen it is just hard not hearing anything back. Maybe today is the day??? I am suppose to be going out of town on Thursday, but it looks like I might be placing that on hold just in case the birthmom wants to meet with us Friday!

I also want to say that our prayers are with Jeremy and Kelly, they received an email saying that they had a birthmom that wanted to meet with them next month! God is Awesome!

God's Plan is the Best Plan!

Today I was sitting here trying to find blogs about people that had adopted when I came across this blog where a couple was on their second adoption. I love reading about people’s stories because I often wonder about how our adoption story will play out. I can’t even imagine what emotions we will be going through. I wonder where we will be when we get “the call”. I wonder if we will meet the birthparents or not meet them. I wonder where our baby will be born…I could go on and on. Anyway, as I was reading her blog when I came across something she said that really helped me. She said, “I needed to be a bit uncomfortable so I would fully rely on him. God’s plan might not seem right at the time, but his plan is always PERFECT.” It hit me…God is making me uncomfortable because He wants me to lean on Him to help me get through this time. I know I cannot make it through this journey, through this life without Him. So for now, I am going to try (I might not be saying this in a few months, ha) to quit being so anxious, so antsy, and just let God’s plan for us happen! God is in control so I need to stop trying to be in control! I can plan and plan, but it is most likely not going to go my way it is going to go His way - the best way! So I am going to prepare for this baby as much as possible and sit back and watch God do his thing! I love Him!

The Waiting Game

Josh and I got some awesome news yesterday! Our agency emailed us to let us know that they can now show us to expecting parents! I cannot tell you how great it feels to finally be waiting! I thought this day would never come! Josh and I went out to eat last night to celebrate at Texas Roadhouse! If you know me..you know I LOVE that place!

A few days ago Josh was saying how it would be nice if we received a baby by October - November and I thought he was crazy I would like one NOW!! Haha...but yesterday he said, "Ok so I thought I wanted to wait, but I think I would like one now too!" He is so cute! I love him so much! He is going to a great Daddy!

So now we play the waiting game! The only person that knows when we will have our baby is God and I know He has an awesome plan for our future. I can't wait to see what He has in store for us! Please just keep praying for our birth mom/birth family during such a tough time and also pray that our baby is healthy! I will keep you posted!

Home Study was APPROVED!

So I haven't posted in almost 3 months! We have been very busy with the adoption process, we are a lot closer, but we are STILL WAITING! We finished our scrapbooks for the birth moms - which look absolutely amazing! I am so proud of them and very thankful that Lisa and Andrea helped me.

On Monday May 11th I received an email, while volunteering at Church, that said that Stacy wanted to do our home study either Tuesday or Friday. I chose Friday because I knew I had tons of cleaning to do. So I went home Monday night and started cleaning and I don't think I quit until right before Stacy pulled up the house on that Friday! My house had never looked that clean!! NEVER! The home visit went rather well and it was nothing like the horror stories that I had heard from other people. She just looked around the house, asked us a few questions and she was out the door an hour and a half later! What a relief it was to have this done! Josh and I then received an email on the following Monday that they went ahead and approved our home study (YAY), but we were still waiting on 2 pieces of paper. Which we still have not received. I cannot believe these two pieces of paper are keeping us from being shown to birth parents. But, I try to keep reminding myself that God has a special child picked out for Josh and I and the baby is not ready yet so that is why we haven't received these papers yet! I started calling the State of Georgia which are suppose to have these papers, but I have not had a call back --which does not surprise me at all! So as soon as we receive them, the agency will place our profiles online and they can show our scrapbooks!

So in the meantime, Josh and I are just tyring to prepare as much as possible. Even though it is very hard to prepare when you don't know when the baby will arrive or the gender of the baby! But in the end it will all work out! We are just so blessed to have the opportunity to adopt and can't wait to see what God has in store! Please just keep us, the birthparents, and the baby in your prayers! Thanks!

Here is a picture of me with our new stroller/car seat that we just bought! I love it!

Stressed over nothing!

Today I had my individual interview with the adoption specialist. For those of you that didn't know I was suppose to have it on Monday, but Stacy called and rescheduled it for today (Wednesday). So this gave me 2 extra days to worry about it!!!! I got up at 5:30 since I had to drive 40 miles to Atlanta and be there by 9:00. So I left the house around 7:30 which I thought was plenty of time. I drove about 15 miles and it took me about 45 minutes! 8:30 rolls around and I start to get nervous because I still had a little ways to go. Finally I arrived and realized I was almost 15 minutes early!!!!! I went into the interview thinking they were going to ask really hard questions...which they did, but they were most of the questions we had to answer on our Self Study we had to fill out a couple of weeks ago. So I stressed over nothing!!! I always do that...I set myself up by worrying and when something is over I always think to myself that it was nothing to worry about! Something I am trying to work on! So now all we have left is to get our fingerprints done, which we are doing Friday and do our CPR course that we are doing March 21st. After that we wait for all of our paperwork to come in (very slow process) and then we can have our home visit. I will fill very relieved once we have that done.

So....over the weekend my dad came to visit with Josh and I. We hadn't seen him since Christmas so it was very good to see him! We had an awesome visit even though the weather was awful the whole weekend. Dad and I hung out Friday while Josh worked and we went and bought a glider for the baby's room and then we put it together! Saturday Josh, dad, and I put the crib together and I absolutely LOVE it! Those are the only two items we have so far for the baby's room...we are just buying things here and there so when we do get the call about our baby that we won't have to spend a fortune all at once. Here are a few pictures of the room so far....