WE ARE OFFICIALLY WAITING!

As of January 3rd, we have been officially approved to adopt through Bethany, and are now officially waiting for our second child! YAY!

I've had a lot of people ask what happens next.
First, we have to get our profile books into the hands of the agency. I just ordered them, so they should make it to the Bethany office in a week or two. I am so very glad to be done with this project - it took an inordinate amount of my free time to get it done.

You can see our profile book HERE.

  To all people waiting on scarves, thank you for being patient with me! I have been spending so much time on this book, our paperwork, and holiday craziness that I haven't had as much time to crochet. But I am getting back on it now that we don't have as much to actively do.

Once Bethany has our books, they will show them to expectant mothers who would be a good match. Josh and I had to answer an extensive list of questions about what kind of birthmother/child we are looking for, and the birthmother also indicates her preferences. They show her any books that apply, and then she picks a family (or families) that she wants to meet. Ideally, they look at profile books in their 7th month of pregnancy. So we got our first email about profile showings for two expectant mothers in Augusta, and they are both due in March. So unless a birthmom decides really late in her pregnancy to make an adoption plan (which is possible but not likely), then March looks like the soonest our child would be born. But it could be years!

The spiritual intensity of this new season in our journey is already manifesting itself. Please pray for us as we will be regularly making decisions about who sees our profile book - we just want to make sure it lands in the right hands at the right time! But more than us, pray for the all the expectant moms considering adoption plans ... they have so much information to wade through, and such a weighty decision to make!

We will also be making an online profile as another way of exposing ourselves to women considering adoption plans. We are really only interested in in-state adoption, because interstate is too complicated (with Phoenix) and too expensive.

We are still deciding on how much we will communicate about potential babies. We don't necessarily want to sound the alarm if a birthmother picks us, because she may decide to parent (which would be great for her and great for the baby ... just hard on us).

Our next step? Applying for grants, fundraising, and praying a lot! We have $10,000 to raise - whoa. That includes possible pass-through medical expenses and the legal expenses. We are hoping to get picked for a grant that would not only make donations to our adoption tax-deductible, but also matches every dollar we raise up to $4,000. Unfortunately, that grant committee doesn't meet again until March 1st, so we might just hold off actively raising funds until that time.  We will keep you updated.

Thank you for all your support and encouragement - it blows my mind that we are actually at this point! God has been so very good to us!