We've Matched!

My last post was asking for prayers for our upcoming meeting with an expecting couple....those prayers were answered!  We were asked to adopt their baby boy, his due date is August 1st!

Touch Base with our Social Worker

Our social worker is a wonderful woman, she checks in periodically and truly makes me feel "in the loop".  I emailed her a question a few weeks ago, she responded right away, and then followed up again the other day.  She got us linked up to a blog through LSS that provides us with timely information and monthly adoption statistics.  She also mentioned that there were several expecting women looking at family profiles.  It made me want to vomit.  OK, I didn't really vomit, but it made me nervous!  I want ALL of the families to get selected....we met so many wonderful people during our training and I know they've been through what we have.  They want to grow their families, too.  But, I want us to get picked, too.  I have faith that we will get matched with the right family/ies, but I also fear rejection along the way.  Probably because it seems like we've had so much in the last two years.  Rejection, loss, sadness.  I feel like we should get some sort of "get out of jail free card", but I know that's not how it works. 

After about a day, I felt less nervous and went back to my normal, "it will all work out" mentality.  We will wait patiently and trust. 

I know of someone....

I hesitate to even post about this {because it doesn't seem like a big deal} but then I reminded myself this blog is about our process.  So, here's part of the process.  We had someone that we know mention in an email the other day that they know a woman looking for an adoptive family.  I didn't react like I thought I would.  I didn't put together an email with our profile, web address, etc, etc, etc.  I didn't ask about the woman, I didn't give a sales pitch.

I feel like if it's meant to be it will work out.

I walked the friend of ours through the process and answered some questions about private adoptions versus adoptions through agencies.

I told him that if she was interested in information about us or LSS, that I would be happy to provide it.

I don't want to push.  I don't want to be aggressive.  I want to respect this woman and the difficult decisions that she has to make. 

I don't expect anything to come from this.  If it does, I'll certainly be overjoyed. 

I'm keeping my trust in the Lord, that He'll guide us through this process and that our family will grow.  And, I'll trust my intuition that the right match will work out for us.

Garage Sale Day #2

The second day of our big adoption garage sale was COLD, too, but at least we saw a sneak peak of the sun every so often. Jamie was there with me most of the day and we got additional help from Kari and Mary Kaye. We had some friends stop by to visit which was really nice! The grand total from the two days was $1,219! UNBELIEVABLE! With Mary Kaye's monster cookie sale (she makes the BEST cookies and sold them at work for $2/cookie) and another donation we received, we are well over $1,300! We have a lot of people to thank for the great sale--so many people donated their items and time. We have a decent amount of things leftover, so boxed it up for a sale later this year.

It was fun to answer questions about our adoption during the sale. Lots of people asked where we are adopting from and were surprised to hear "Minnesota". Most people assumed we were adopting out of the country.

One woman commented that she serves as a guardian for pregnant women from time to time. She worked with a woman that placed her baby for adoption last week...they found the adoptive family through word of mouth. Of course, I was thrilled to meet her! She mentioned that she will be working with another woman soon, so I gave her some information about our family and our number. Before learning more about adoption through research and training, I think I would have been more aggressive and excited. But, we've learned that the right match will come along, and that you will know when that connection is there. So, I figured if it's meant to be, she'll call!

We met another woman that was about my age and was adopted. She said her birth mother tried to locate her, but she didn't have any interest in meeting her birth mother. After all, she had a mom and a dad, and that's all she needed. It was interesting to hear her perspective.

It was a very encouraging day, and we're $1,219 closer to covering our adoption costs (about $22,000-$25,000)!