God is in control

this past week I have been looking back over the past almost year at just God's perfect timing. this time last year Brian and I were very much ready to start a family. we started praying that God would open up the doors. He started tugging on our heart strings. We thought we were ready for a family but as I look back I see that God was just preparing us for what was to come. here is a short list of what God has been doing to get us ready for this family that we thought we were ready for a year ago:

- in May of last year we joined an AMAZING small group at church
- in July we joined the Orphan Ministry at our church which is what God used to lead us to begin our family through adoption
- throughout the summer 3 of our friends found out they were pregnant (we now have 5 friends that are expecting and 1 just had their sweet baby girl about two weeks ago)
- in September we started the process of international adoption. met with out adoption agency and switched to Domestic Adoption so we could have a newborn for our first child
- in October because of God's favor we were able to get in the training class (we were supposed to be in the February one)
- Fall last year our jobs proved to be very supportive of our adopting and very flexible with our schedules to go to all our adoption meetings
- ever since October God has proved faithful to bring incredible friends and family along side of us to provide financially for this adoption.
- February we ordered baby furniture that should be in sometime in May
- March of this year waiting for our adoption approval with ONLY $4000 left to go!

God is just so good about his timing. it amazes me that he waited till we were surround by an amazing group of friends to walk with us on this journey. right now i am so emotionally torn about how to prepare for the arrival of our sweet baby boy. i so badly want to prepare for him to come really soon but I emotionally need to prepare for him to come sometime in December. God is certainly in the details. i feel completely confident that it's ok that i might not be completely prepared because i have an incredible group of friends who will be prepared for me. God has blessed us with friends that are also growing their families right now and we can just soak in all that information from them. we have an amazing church body that is filled with people joining in on our journey from a distance. people enjoy hearing our story and we love sharing it. God is even surprising us with how is providing for this adoption financially. i BELIEVE he will provide the last $4000 in the next two months.

we ask that you please pray that this approval process will go quickly and that we will be paired with a birthmom sooner rather than later. most of all please be in prayer for our baby boy as he is waiting in his mommy's womb. pray he stays healthy and that God will send his angels to surround him and him mommy during this time.