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It has been eight months since God led us to adopt.  So much has happened since then.  First, thank you for praying for us and thinking of us often.  Many have asked so we wanted to write and give an update on how things are going. 

Last winter we decided on an agency to do our adoption through.  The agency is called Chosen Child, which is located in Allen.  We fell in love with this agency at orientation as they shared their hearts for both the adoptive parents, but also the birth moms. This is what attracted us to them most.   They have a huge desire to minister to each birth mom as they walk through this process of placing and then through the grieving process after placing.   They desire for them to know Christ and the love He has for them.   They have a support system for them to lean on.  They do not have to walk this alone.  Most of Chosen Child’s birth moms come from Hannah’s House where the girls can live during their pregnancy and for a year after placing.  They also have girls from the surrounding communities that do not reside at Hannah’s House.

In December we had our home study.  Then at the first of January we were approved.  In mid-January we entered the placement phase.  This is the phase in which we began to be introduced to birth moms who are looking to place their child for adoption.  During this phase we are introduced to birth moms by means of a family book that we put together.  So far our profile has been shown to one birth mom.  She did not choose us.  She delivered the day after Annette’s first surgery to repair her first broken foot (Annette broke both her feet in February).  The Lord has reminded us through this that He has us in His hands and knows what is best for us.  He has a perfect plan and already knows the baby that He will place in our family.  We rest in that.  Our profile will only be shown to those girls that desire to place their baby in a home where it will have siblings.  We have three of them praying for this sweet baby and ready to welcome it into our family.  We are hoping to get a girl between zero and two years of age.

During this time we have been overwhelmed with the generosity of so many.  Our adoption cost is $18,550.  To get into the placement phase we needed to pay $8,550.  We were able to make this payment in January.  We were able to do this with the generous gifts of so many.  It started with a garage sale we had last Fall.  Many donated items for us to sell.  We made just over $1,000.  Annette made tutus for little girls and dolls.  We also had a fundraiser at Gatti Town.  Then we have had others give us financial gifts.  We could not have made this payment at this phase without the kind and sacrificial gifts of so many.

So, what is next?  When a birth mom decides to place a child with us we will then pay the final payment, which is $10,000.  Again, because of generous gifts we have $1,270 to go toward this amount.  We are very thankful!

Until a birth mom chooses us we simply wait.  So we are in the waiting phase.  We like to think of it as God’s waiting room.  He is preparing our hearts daily for this wonderful opportunity to extend His grace to a special child and even beyond.  While we wait we are preparing our house.  A family gave us a set of bunk beds and now Noah and Pierce are sharing a room, which has freed up a room for our next child.  Pierce is loving this.  Noah really likes having Pierce in his room at night, but is thinking he might like to try moving upstairs.  We also are being equipped every month by our agency.  This has been such a blessing, as we have been learning about things such as the legal process to relating to the birth mom.

As the Apostle Paul say, Thanks be to God for His indesribable gift (2 Corinthians 9.15).  We thank God for His generous gift in Jesus and we thank Him for His likeness in so many, which has extended to us such a generous gift.  We are so thankful for so many prayers, donations and financial gifts.