I spoke to our case manager this week, and our adoption will move forward in the new year! Another local agency closed recently and Lutheran Family Services absorbed their clients, which filled the "active pool" to capacity, but more families will move into the "active pool" in the new year (we will be first!).
This step forward has filled all three of us with great excitement! If you follow up on Facebook, you may have seen James' recent comment about adoption to a friend at school (overheard by Wes): "Adoption is where you buy a baby that came from somebody else's 'yooty-ris' (uterus)." I have been laughing about this all week :).
In spite of all my excitement, my heart has been struggling as I second guess our decision to postpone twice for a year due to life circumstances (now that we have decided to move forward in spite of those same circumstances). I fear that James and our new addition will be too far apart in age to connect. I know all of this worry yields no fruit. I know that God's sovereignty reigns over this process. Even so, I need to process these feelings and grieve a bit.
Moving on, National Adoption Month takes place in November. We plan to post on social media about adoption for the first five days, and then execute a fundraiser November 6-10. Due to the creativity of my best friends (thank you Hannah, Jaime, Ricki, Tiffany, and Amanda!), we will be doing a raffle (great timing for Christmas). After we nail down the prizes, we will establish different dollar amounts based on the value of the raffle item (likely ranging from $20-$100).
As always, we will keep you updated as things unfold. Oh, what a journey! We originally met with Emily Frank at Lutheran Family Services in the Fall of 2014. We officially started the process on December 29, 2014. All has been smooth sailing on the agency's end, and they extended grace upon grace both times we "paused" for a year. So, so grateful. Most of all, I am grateful that God did not leave us as orphans, he came for us. And we intend to do the same.
