God Provides!!

It seems lately that God has been laying everything need for this adoption at our feet.... which I find ironic since we laid it at His feet first! Last Friday we travelled out of town for our first in-person interview with the adoption agency. We were about 30 minutes away from the agency when we got a call that the birthmom we had been somewhat working with was ready to talk with the agency more. Although she had contacted our agency once before, she was not ready to talk much about adoption. I think everything is very overwhelming to her right now... and I can't even begin to understand what that must be like for her. The agency had tried to touch base with her a few time the week before, but she wasn't answering or returning calls. Our friend wanted to make sure that when her friend called the agency on Friday that one of the directors would be available to talk with her since she was ready. I told her we knew for a fact that the director would be there at that time because we were scheduled to be interviewing with her then! Talk about God's timing! After our initial interview they sent us directly across the hall to start our 1st home study interview. They wanted to kill two birds with one stone since things seemed to be moving forward. When that interview was over, we were informed that they happened to have an open spot for 1 more couple at the adoption seminar they were hosting the next day (Saturday). We were so excited to be able to attend it since it is one of two mandatory seminars we have to attend. The seminar was amazing and offered incredible insight into what these birthmoms are going through. Our hearts broke as Tim and I thought of what it would have been like to hand our little Bug over for someone else to raise. These women who choose life for their babies are truly strong women! One the way home from the conference Saturday, our friend called again and said our birthmom was ready to see a picture of our family, so she forwarded her the pictures we had sent a while ago that they were holding on to until she was ready. I was so nervous!! What if she doesn't like us, what if she doesn't think its fair that we already have a biological child when there are thousands of couples struggling with infertility, ton of thoughts and fears were running through my head. Within 15 minutes she replied back with the sweetest message and a picture of herself.... talk about God easing my worries! On Sunday we got the call that she was going to overnight her intake packet to the agency the next day, and felt like God had led her to the family He had in mind for her baby!

This week we began all the paperwork required for adoption through this agency. We had to fill out the official application, schedule a fire inspection, environmental inspection, CPR class, physicals for all three of us (and Cooper too), make copies of tax returns, floor plans of our house, college transcripts, and a million other things. We scheduled Cooper's vet visit... but we were anxious about the cost. Vets aren't cheap these days, and when we are trying to scrape together every last penny to afford an adoption it was an expense we were not happy to incur. A couple days before Cooper's appointment, Tim was given a $100 Visa gift card as thanks for his contribution to a project he was on at work. That gift card covered the entire vet bill, with just enough left over for a Chick-fil-A ice cream cone! Then came the fire and environmental inspection... we were told to be prepared to pay several hundred dollars between the two for odds and ends that needed to be checked. This morning I called the inspector our agency recommended to see if he could recommend someone in our town (he was located a few hours away). He told me to pull up the Texas Real Estate Commission website and do a search for inspectors in my town. He also told me it might be really hard to find someone since most inspectors didn't do environmental inspections. When I pulled up the site, 1 name really stood out to me... it seemed really familiar. I googled the guy and found his picture which also looked really familiar. I called Tim into the room and he confirmed my suspicions.... this guy was in our Sunday School class and played on Tim's church league softball team!!! I gave him a quick call and he was at our house within 15 minutes. We passed the inspection, and when the time came to pay he told us we didn't owe him ANYTHING!!! He was adopted too and was just glad to help! PRAISE THE LORD! The fire inspector came out a couple hours later and we passed that too (and we only had to pay $45)!

We still have a lot to do, and as with any adoption things can always change last minute. But, if I have learned anything this past week, it is that the Lord takes care of His children, and He can move in a mighty way! TO GOD BE THE GLORY, GREAT THINGS HE HATH DONE!!