Answering the Call

For some of you, you already knew this. For the larger majority, this post is going to come as a complete and total shock. Maybe even some, "Are they crazy?" or "Do they not already have enough going on?" comments. Rest assured - those thoughts have crossed my mind, too. I wanted to put it out into the universe because in the next year or so we could use your prayers as we move forward. We are adopting. A child or maybe children - yes, plural. Humans, not more animals to be really, really clear ;)

We have talked about it for years. It is now go time. I'm excited, relieved, anxious, and about 1,000 other emotions all wrapped up in one. And I've handed all that over to God, so that I can breathe a sigh of relief. I remember the first time I looked at the available children on the website. It broke.my.heart. I remember sitting there crying and telling Jason later that it was the older kids that made my heart hurt the most because everyone I had ever known wanted babies when they talked adoption. By then, we already had kids, and the thought of adding to it with older kids was honestly overwhelming. So on a shelf that idea went.

Savannah has been a beautiful journey in seeing God at work. I have been blessed with people He put in my path to guide me back to going to church - which grew to going to BSF - which grew to going to another church where I looked around and saw so many families every Sunday morning with children they have adopted. All of this was His way of getting us ready to answer a call that I wouldn't have even picked up the phone for several years ago. My favorite takeaway from last year's BSF study was that "God equips those He calls." I have a feeling that I'll be reciting this one often in the months to come. 

Y'all, I'm in the throws of the "terrible two's" up in here, and I knew I really didn't want to relive this stage. We've done the baby stage (3 times now), got the t-shirt, could write a book, etc. But, I wasn't so sure that I wanted older. When we first started talking about this seriously, I (notice I) decided that I wanted a 3-4 year old. Then, I took a step back and actually started to pray about it. This step came a few weeks later than the initial decision, I must admit. I looked online and was hit in the gut again with same feeling when I looked at the older kids. Then, the siblings hit me. There were groups of kids who might be ripped away from the only family they had left in the world. I mentioned this to Jason, and his response was one that he felt that we were meant to have an older child and he wasn't opposed to sibling groups. Just like that. He never pleaded his case, never tried to persuade me to his opinion, but he gave me time to reach the same conclusion. 

So, where are we now, you ask? Well, thanks to my husband who has filled out an insane number of forms and done almost all of the legwork while I hold the fort down here, we are a lot closer than we were ;) We attended a meeting at the county DFACS office, and then decided to go with Lutheran Services. We chose that option because there is a matching process that takes into account what it is that you and your family want and the needs of the child that needs a home. We are not going to foster, as my heart could not take that one. Maybe one day...We have attended IMPACT training which is a 23 hour class only made possible by my wonderful in-laws who cared for our boys. We had our first home visit. Now we wait on our home study writer to contact us!!! Hopefully, that process can be completed in a matter of about a month, then the state office will contact us when our home study has been approved. In a perfect scenario, we could be ready to meet kids by the end of summer. 

We told the boys - well, the older two, and they were excited. We've been praying each night for whoever God wants to be part of our family. We have kept our options open with ages because while we want older, we want to keep the option of a younger sibling open. We do not have any preference to race or gender, but we have certain medical conditions we need to exclude as well as other reasons for the children being placed in care of the state to consider since we do have children already. 

We ask most of all for your prayers. Pray for us as we wait for the next step, since that's what this process feels like for the most part. Pray that in the waiting, God will continue to show us He is here and that we remain encouraged and excited. Pray for discernment as children are presented. My mama heart wants to help them all. In fact, when we were in our training class, we got several flyers for children who were free for adoption. Jason leaned over and whispered, "You can't help them all." But I want to...Pray that we approach any scenario with prayer and not our own desires. I could write about 20 more prayers that you all could be praying for us, and I may add them later so be ready. Until then, pray that we complete the 30 page questionnaire about our childhood and what it is that we feel we would do for a child so that we can get this process moving!