We mailed off our property taxes!
Well, that, and our application to an adoption agency!
Whoo Hoo!
Yup, we are getting started! It's a new season. I completed all the paper work and printed out our pictures as you can see below. What we mailed off is really just the application for the application. We have to get pre-approved by the agency first before they'll let us really start the process. But step number one is completed. If they accept us, we'll go to an orientation in February and then an all day training in March. If all goes well, all of our application process should be done by the summer and we'll be waiting for a birth mom to pick us! Pretty cool.
Fun, huh?!
As you may guess, a lot has been happening in our hearts.
So, what brought us from the last blog post to this one?
After learning that we lost the baby in November, we knew that our journey of fertility treatments was over. To be honest, there was a big sigh of relief. Not a relief to not be pregnant, but a relief that this leg of the journey was over. I felt a huge weight lift off of me. And we grieved.. We were so sad to lose the baby. And to face the fact that our efforts had failed. We would not be conceiving right now.
God has been near. There has been peace in the heart ache. And time has been a balm for our hearts. Over Advent, I began working on a scrapbook of our infertility journey. I'm putting together a collection of all journal entries (beginning with my first journal entry about an ovarian cyst found in 2005), all pictures, cards, emails and notes, and all the blog entries. The scrapbook feels like a book-end to this chapter. Let me tell you though, that we don't feel like the book is finished. Just this chapter of medical treatments.
I can't thank you all enough for praying for us, making us meals, writing us encouraging words, and crying with us. We have felt really supported by our community. We will treasure this time in our hearts forever. I don't want to forget the depths. Though, in my heart something new... a release... a surrender... a new peace has been found. I still ache. But I'm ready to move on. We are ready to move on. We have been praying for weeks about what that would look like.
We have known that adoption was in our future. And lately, God is stirring up something new as well.
Last Sunday, we went to a church to hear Lou Engle, a man who travels the country educating Christians and praying for revival in America. He is a faith-filled man who believes his prayers will come to be. He said he believes that the Church is walking into a new wave of adopting children and helping girls who are in a crisis pregnancy. As he spoke, Felipe and I both felt God moving our hearts. And he gave us a new vision. I knew that there were people in the room feeling the same way we were. I went up to the pastor and asked him to ask the people who felt moved toward adoption to come talk to us. He did... and 27 people (13 families) responded! After the service we got to have a short impromptu meeting with these 13 families about adoption. I'm now staying connected with them as a networker of sorts. My hope is that no one would walk alone down this road. Who knows where this will lead? Pray for us!
We'll keep you updated. And as always, we would appreciate your prayers. And if you know of anyone else considering adoption for the first time, send them our way. We'd love to connect to them.
