One Year and May Numbers!

Today, exactly one year ago, we got our very first wait list numbers. It's hard to believe that we finished our dossier one year ago!  We started this journey at #98 for a girl and #78 for a boy.  Today one year later, we are for a girl:

and for a boy:

That's a pretty good amount of movement in one year!  We have moved 40 spots on the girl list, and 33 on the boy list.  This means that many more children are orphan's no more and we praise God for that!  Obviously, from my posts lately, we have seen a significant slow down in the number or referrals each month.  We are uncertain about whether or not we will ever get back to where we see 5 or more referrals a month, and this honestly puts a damper on our spirits some days.  Hubs and I were talking the other night about how nothing about this process is easy.  Adoption involves beauty and loss.  And the pain of this seemingly never-ending wait is heavier than we would like to admit at times.  These are days when we cry out to God on behalf of our child and ourselves.  We know that the days of this adoption were numbered before it was even a thought in our mind, but the waiting is still hard.  One year later, and we are starting the process of renewing some of our paperwork and updating our home study.  Today and yesterday were filled with fingerprints at 2 different offices, once again.  It feels weird to be doing these things again, but also feels like we are on the move again, working towards the light at the end of the tunnel.  After one year on the wait list, we can say that we have grown so much.  We are not the same people who started this process 18 months ago.  We are saying yes to things we said no to at the beginning.  God had been working on our hearts and we feel there are exciting things ahead for our family.  If you are still hanging on this journey with us, thank you! We appreciate the prayers more than you will ever know!  We have no idea when we will see our child's face, we are still praying fervently that it will happen before the end of the year, and invite you to pray with us.  We are trusting this unknown future to our God, who has made himself known to us more than ever over the last year.  We know everything is in his hands, and there is no better place for it to be!

Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day, and it was the 2nd Mother's Day I have had on this journey, yet without a baby.  This journey is long, this journey is hard, this journey is not convenient, but it is MORE than worth it, and it is beautiful!! I have gotten to know my Father so much better.  He is doing things in my heart, in our hearts, that never would have made sense to us at the beginning of this journey.  I thought back to this post that I wrote over 1 year ago...wow, time has flown! And I still echo every word of that post.  We are currently on the latter end of the time frame we were first quoted to get a referral at the beginning of this process.  And had we not made it to this point without a referral, our hearts would not be in the place that they are now.  Our Father knows exactly what he's doing, and he continues to reveal HIS plan, in his timing.   I am blessed to be surrounded by people that get it and are constantly encouraging me in this walk, as I got many "Happy Mother's day" notes yesterday letting me know that even though my arms may be empty this mother's day, my heart is full and ready to welcome this child into our family!  And even though this was my 2nd mother's day on this journey, and I'm praying like crazy that I will not experience a 3rd with empty arms, I am blessed to have realized that Christ is better! He is the best of all his blessings, even this blessing of a child that I am longing for daily. My friend Rebekah wrote this post yesterday and I am so thankful for it and her heart.  I pray that we all realize that Christ is better than whatever it is we are longing for today, He is the only one that can satisfy!

April Numbers

Well, another month has come and gone and I'm here to post our April numbers.  We didn't see as much movement on the list this month....even though several referrals did go out, they were just older kiddos that went to families that were behind us on the list so it didn't affect our numbers.  So for girl we are:

and for a boy:

The gap between the 2 numbers is slowly closing, so who knows what we will end up with!! Even though we didn't see as much movement as we would have like this month, God is hearing our prayers and we feel like he is getting ready to move in a big way.  I have heard story, after story this week that has pretty much brought me to tears of how God is working in the lives of those around us.  It is so encouraging to see our Father taking care of the little details.  It encourages us and our journey to hear how he has worked in the journey of others.  It just seems like our Father has been showing himself mighty lately, and we have no doubt he will continue to do so.  We cannot wait to see how he will be glorified in our story in the months to come.  We are trusting and believing great things on behalf of our precious baby!!!

And just for some cuteness...head on over to our friends blog, they are in ET right now picking up there son for forever!!!! He is absolutely precious and we are thrilled for them to finally have their boy in their arms, never to leave! Praise God, who sets the lonely in families!!