Thank You All

hello again, it has been a while since i have posted a blog. life and the lack of internet are great things. i just wanted to take this quick moment to say thank you to all the people who have supported us so far through this process we call adoption. it has been amazing to hear the response to the great news of being approved. all of your comments will be captured for our future son to one day read, giving him the knowledge of how many people truly love him and know his purpose in God. thank you all again, we could not make it through without you. we love you all.

brian

$2400 to go....

we're almost there! God is so good and i love sitting back and watching how He is providing for this adoption and all the people he has chosen to walk with us financially. it is nothing short of a miracle and HE gets all the glory. with that said we are still needing about $2400 left before we will be able to bring a baby home.

our profile could already be shown to birthmothers. we really need to be ready soon. i mean, we could potentially have a baby next week or it could still be a year from now. but it would be nice to have all the money just sitting and waiting for the baby to come instead of us getting paired with a baby and not being able to bring him home because we didn't have the money.

thanks so much to everyone that has already contributed. we pray you will be blessed. i can't wait to share with our sweet little boy all the people that have walked along side of us during this journey. it really is so special. God is so good and i just stand in awe!

HUGE prayer request

well this week has been full of so much excitement from finding out we were approved to all of our nursery furniture coming in. yesterday brian picked up the stroller and car seat from the store and we pulled it out this morning. i'm gonna have to start lifting weights to be able to carry that seat. it's hard enough when it is empty. can't imagine putting a 10 pound baby in there too. needless to say this week has been super exciting.

now we have a HUGE prayer request. we found out last night that our adoption agency is making some changes and they will be doing a few things differently (one's we pray are in our favor). before now when a birthmom came in the adoption agency would pick 5 profiles of waiting families that fit the birthmother's criteria. She would start with those that have been waiting the longest. Well with us being the newest waiting family that means it could still be months before our profile is even shown. well now they will start showing the birthmother all of the families that mostly fit her profile and allow God to narrow them down for her. to us this sounds like wonderful news. in my mind i think we are a shoe in and can't believe that anyone could be cooler parents than us. so we are rushing to fill out some needed paperwork for this new process to hopefully turn in tomorrow.

please pray that God will begin impressing our faces and names on the birthmother's heart that is carrying our child. we are praying that as she is digging through the piles she will see our faces and have such a sense of peace knowing we are the right parents.

also in the email we received last night we found out that the waiting time in 2008 was anywhere between 1 month and 4 years. that was a little disheartening to hear. of course we would like it to be closer to 1 month than 4 years. please PLEASE pray that God will allow this waiting time to move quickly and we can bring our baby home soon. we can't wait to share him with you!

WE'RE A WAITING FAMILY

about 15 minuets ago we received an email from our adoption agency. here is what the email said:

Hey Brian and Audra--

Your home study has been approved.....CONGRATULATIONS!!!! I will be sending you an approval letter from Tammy (the director) in the mail. You are now one of our "waiting" families. We will take every opportunity to show your profile when appropriate.

You have done a lot of hard work and now the difficult part now will be the waiting. So take this time to spend together to make memories and to work on the story you will tell your child of the adoption process that will be his story.

Blessings, Carolyn



so God's timing is perfect. now we are a waiting family and could actually have a baby any day now. i'm sure it will still be several months from now but it could be whenever. we are praying now that God will lay it on our babies birthmother's heart to choose us. we know God is already picked out our child so we pray that we will continue to wait for God to choose. please pray with us. this also means that we will need to have all our monies in ASAP. that's pretty crazy. this all is what i imagine it to feel like when a pregnant couple finds out they are pregnant for the very first time. i feel so excited, completely overwhelmed with emotion, and scared to death. thanks so much for your prayers. we prayed that it would happen last week and God knew we needed to wait until monday. we love y'all.

God Is Always Good! Only $3600 to go

God is still working even while we are waiting. we were blessed again this week with financial support and we only need about $3600 to reach our goal. and the cool thing about that is while i'm writing this blog i got word that another $200 is on it's way so that will bring us to needing only $3400. GOD IS SO GOOD!

for our own peace we are really praying that all the money will be in by June 1. i believe that it can happen for sure. if you have a desire to financially support bringing our child home you can email us at brianandaudra@gmail.com

we normally have a chip in button on our blog but i accidentally removed it so brian will be putting it back on soon.

thanks to each of you and we are one day closer to bringing home our child.

worshiping while waiting

i've been spending so much trying to figure out what God was wanting me to do while i'm waiting on his timing. this song spoke directly to my heart. i just need to spend my time face to face with our Saviour who blesses me more that i can ever deserve. i just need to fall more and more in love with him everyday. when you spend time with the Father nothing else matters and he can move and he can work and you wont even notice until he drops it in your lap. even still during this time of waiting God is still providing the money we need to complete this adoption and we are so grateful. God surprises me everyday. After this week we should only have about $3,800 to go before we are to our total! but for now i'm gonna continue to just stay face to face with God and just enjoy who he is.

an amazing song!!!!

WHILE I'M WAITING by John Waller (listen and read)

I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am hopeful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it is painful
But patiently, I will wait

I will move ahead, bold and confident
Takeing every step in obedience
While I'm waiting
I will serve You
While I'm waiting
I will worship
While I'm waiting
I will not faint
I'll be running the race
Even while I wait

I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am peaceful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it's not easy
But faithfully, I will wait
Yes, I will wait
I will serve You while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting
I will serve You while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting
I will serve you while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting on You, Lord

still waiting and figuring out what to do while waiting

once again we are waiting. waiting is getting harder and harder every day. four months ago we turned in our paperwork and it's been 4 weeks since we had our last meeting and our case worker started writing up our homestudy. i never would have thought it would take this long. and it still isn't finished yet. please pray that we would have continued patience because it is getting so disappointing to pray for something that seems to be forever away. i know God has perfect timing and i trust his perfect timing but right now my flesh is beginning to take over and i just want to scream. my baby is out there waiting for me!

i think i've hit this wall today that has made me so frustrated with the adoption process. there are so many kids out there that need to be adopted and its so dang hard and long. i mean don't get me wrong. i wont stop and i'll do it again but it's just taking so long.

and it's hard because adoption is not like being pregnant. i don't have a growing belly that shows my progress. i don't have a due date. i can't plan my maternity leave. i can't track how my baby is growing inside of me. i can't talk to my baby. i can't listen to my babies heart beat. i have no control over how my baby is developing. i have no control over anything right now and it is driving me nuts. i totally feel like there is club for moms or expecting mommies and i'm still not a part of that club. i'm still on the outside. i know i'm being really transparent here but i'm so frustrated with how long this taking that it all just comes pouring out.

i need something to do while we are waiting that is not baby related at all. anyone got any ideas?