Louisiana….or maybe Arizona…or perhaps these mommas just need our prayers

It has been an exciting week for us! First, on Wednesday afternoon I received a call from our agency of a mom working with our partner agency in Louisiana who is planning on looking at family albums next week. She is due in early February with a baby boy. If you happened to be driving North on I-205 and saw the crazy woman in a blue SUV cut across traffic to take an exit (so I could take notes of course!) that was me :). All the information our agency was able to give us about this mom is positive and raises no “red flags” or concerns for us, so I was able to tell E right away that we would love for this mom to be shown our family album. She is planning on looking at albums next Wednesday and has as much time as she needs to decide if one of the families is right for her/her baby (they only show a few albums at a time). Therefore, we may know soon if she is interested in knowing more about us (usually the next thing would be an introduction phone call) or if she chooses someone else or as we have found out before it may take a few days or weeks. Since her due date is quickly approaching I hope we will know relatively quickly, but at the same time I don’t want a mom feeling rushed to make a decision, so I hope she takes all the time she needs! We are praying for courage, peace and wisdom for her and that she has a strong support system as she walks through this process.

Secondly, on Friday I received an email from our agency with a few documents for us to review/sign and news that a partner agency in Arizona had two moms who would be coming in that day to meet with the agency and discuss placing their babies for adoption. Both of these moms are also due in February, so if they decide to move forward with making an adoption plan they will be looking at books very soon and thus we needed to be sure we had all the necessary paperwork in place (check, I’ll be sending the paperwork tomorrow). We are hoping and praying for a call from E this week with more information about one or both of these moms and news that they want to move forward and look at albums.

With all of this news this week I’ve bordered on a little bit crazy and we both have found it more difficult than before to not get “too excited” or stress about the details (maybe because the babies are due so soon?).  A few of the things on our mind have included, what in the world are we going to name our baby,  if we are or are not prepared with clothes/stuff (I don’t feel prepared at all, such as we only have three gender neutral newborn outfits! Kyle says we are fine and will run to the store, borrow from friends etc if needed…you are shocked, I know). I had a friend (thanks Joci!) define it like nesting (which I never really did/felt with Aviya) without the definitive end/due date/expectation and she is so right! We have put this nervous energy to good use this weekend though, Kyle helped me fish the few boxes of baby stuff out of our storage in the garage and I established that not only do we have three outfits, we also have a total of three receiving blankets and a few bottles even. Kyle worked on compiling the information we need for a few grant applications. We know that God is in control throughout this journey, He has led us here,  He has affirmed for us many times that this is what we are supposed to be doing and we know without a doubt that adoption is where we are supposed to be and despite that it is easy for us to get a little nutty and fret about the details (okay, that’s mostly me….maybe). Please keep us in your prayers too, pray for peace, clarity and that we will grow together through this exciting journey.

Since it’s been a while since I posted I had not gotten to share the exciting praise we have regarding our family albums! With the changes to our adoption program a few months ago we needed at least 15 more family albums, they are expensive, about $25-$30 each plus shipping! We knew with the holidays we could find a deal, so we had everyone we knew keeping an eye out for us and found one (thanks Jessica!) through Snapfish to buy one book and get two free (Sweet!). This deal would have made the books about $13 each which was right in the middle of our goal, so we quickly recreated our book on their site and ordered them, our total was under $300, which was great considering the retail value. Through a series of errors some of our books were delayed in getting to us or incorrect, the problem was only with two of our five orders and Snapfish was great about taking care of it and rushing new shipments to correct the problems. THEN I received notification that because of the errors we were going to receive credits for 3 of our orders! This means we received our books for about $5 a piece, that’s amazing, Thank you God!

Thank you for your continued prayers, thoughts & encouragement, even if these three moms are not “ours” we know they need our thoughts and prayers and appreciate yours for them as well. Please also continue praying and thinking of our baby(ies) that they are growing strong and healthy inside their tummy mommy and for that amazing woman (and her family) that she is feeling supported, loved and that her needs are being met.

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