We are "expecting"!!

Adoption has always been something Kenny and I have talked about, even before we married. We always knew that international adoption would be a part of our future, although if asked, we both probably would have said it would be after having biological children. And God, with His funny little way of doing things His way, instead of ours, probably would laugh. ("For He knows the plans He has for you...") We often have plans of our own for our lives, not taking into consideration the paths that God has already planned for us. One would think that we would know better than to expect things to not always go exactly as we have planned..........

A couple of Sunday nights ago (May 18th, to be exact), while at our church's combined worship service, we had one of those eye opening experiences where God finally gets your attention. They showed a video on adoption, complete with statistics about all these children up for adoption in the United States, as well as overseas. Although I don't think Kenny actually got to see the whole video, I sat in the pew in a crazy state of half scared, half excited and just cried. We knew this was something that we were being led to do, but it was as if God was asking, "Hey! What are you guys waiting on?" And when we couldn't answer that question, which took us a couple of days, we made the decision to embark on the wonderful path of adoption.

I don't think that I can put into words some of the emotions that we have felt over the last several days as we have shared this with those around us...excitement, awe, shock, peace, scared, sadness, lack of control, disbelief... We don't have a lot of details yet. We haven't narrowed down an agency or country yet, although we are looking into several Asian (Taiwan & Korea) countries. The first step is a home study. I sent in an application on Wednesday, 5/28, to an agency called Adoption Assistance,and as of 5/29, have already been assigned an adoption social worker. We received a packet on Saturday outlining the home study process and all the different paperwork that we need to gather for the home study and we will schedule our home study as we get closer to collecting all the needed paper work.

We have been greatly encouraged (and educated) by reading and following the blogs of friends and other church members who have been through the adoption process, so my hope is to not only update our friends and family along the way of how things are going, but that this may also be a help to another couple down the road who is adopting. Stay tuned...

Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare. Psalm 40:5

We have a child. Out there. Somewhere. Waiting. For us.