Our Joy! and a little update

We are filled with joy! Joy that can only come from Christ. He has filled our hearts with encouragement and great peace! Everyone we talk with about this adoption process so far offers support, prayer and excitement for our family! We are clinging to Christ during this process... there are so many unknowns and yet, we know that God has a plan for us. 

Somewhere, either physically or just in God’s great plan, there is a child that will one day call us mom and dad and that is breathtaking. A child that will gain two brothers in our sons and, we pray, lifelong friends and teammates. A child we hope and pray will feel God’s great grace on his or her heart and life forever.

While we will feel joy while gaining a member to our family, we must acknowledge that someone else will be enduring loss simultaneously. Our hearts will never quite understand that loss but we will pray our child feels wanted, loved, seen and ultimately full of joy while his/her mother feels complete peace that only God can provide. Thankful is a word I feel will never quite cover it and I'm not certain the day will come when words will ever be enough. 

A sacrifice will have been made for us to grow as a family and we pray the process of adoption will continually point us and others to the cross: Christ’s sacrifice for us so that we may be adopted into his family. We pray that all of our children will come to the understanding that each of us, once saved, has been adopted into a family of which God is the head. How loved we are and how far Christ had to fall for our sakes is not lost on us. We don't see ourselves as saviors by any stretch but there is an abundance of God's grace in the process and we want to cling to it and point to it for our children and others. Our joy is complete in Christ! 

"It is important to realize, we adopt not because we are rescuers. No, we adopt because we are rescued!" David Platt

"But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you."

Psalm 5:11

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Update: We are still waiting and will likely be for a while, though we never know when the phone might ring! Our paperwork is completed and other than a mandatory training in September, our home study is finished! YAY! Our caseworker [who has been a huge gift to us] has informed us that while we aren't fully "approved" until that training is finished, our agency will not keep us from being contacted if we are a perfect match in the meantime. That is exciting! Though the waiting is still happening we are now actively waiting, there is a possibility of something wonderful now that we have officially opened this adoption door! 

It's our new day dream to think about what this child of ours might look like, who they will be and what God's plan for us is in this giant adventure! We are excited to be telling more people about this adoption now that our home study is finished and our approval is near. The response has been a true blessing! People that have gone through this process before us are encouraging and full of priceless information and people that we love have come right alongside us with prayer and check-ins on the process and we are SO thankful. It's a giant encouragement to know before we even meet our child that he or she is already so loved by many people. Rob and I (and the boys) have open hearts but seeing that others do as well is amazing, a true testament of what can come from following God's plan. It's a leap and we are thankful that God has been so good to us and continues to show us his lovingkindness daily!