We’re Now a “Waiting Family”!

So, I know we’re overdue for an update. Let me start by saying that we have been so blessed by so many of you who are giving toward our adoption! We’ve now passed 60% of our fundraising goal, and have been able to make our payments to our agency ON TIME when a payment is due! That’s only by the grace of God and through your generosity, so thank you all so very much! We are confident that God will continue to provide for us and see this through! God bless you all! If you feel led to want to give, please be sure to check out our Puzzle Fundraiser page! We’re making some great progress on it!

May was a crazy month as we were getting our home study wrapped up, working on our adoption profile book, and we had some additional reports to complete for our agency, among other things. The good exciting and BIG news, is that all of those things are now DONE! We are officially a “waiting family” now!

What this means is that all the leg work – the trainings, the classes, webinars, all the paperwork, background checks, fingerprinting, doctors visits, and everything else we have to do prior to being able to adopt is finished! Our agency also now has copies of our adoption profile book (which is a 20+ page book we put together that shares information and pictures about us, our home, our family, why we’re adopting, and more). This book is shared with expectant parents when making an adoption plan, and it’s typically the first step in making a match. I suppose you could think of it a bit like a dating service. Expectant parents are given a handful of profile books from our agency, and it’s from those books that they’ll choose the couple/family they want to adopt their child. So, that’s why we’re labeled a “waiting family” – because we’re waiting to be chosen/matched for adoption.

This is a very exciting but nerve-racking time for us. It can get extremely emotional at times, and we could REALLY use your prayers over us! When we went through this period with our first adoption, we waited over 2 years to be matched. We had already painted, decorated, and put together a baby room in our home in anticipation that we could be bringing home a newborn baby at a moments notice. But it sat empty for all that time, and every time we passed by it, it would be a reminder to us of what was missing in our lives.

We also had many instances over those 2 years where our agency would inform us that our book was being looked at and in some cases that an expectant mother had narrowed their choice to just us and 1 or 2 other couples, which would excite us and get our hopes up, only to later get told that we were not chosen. It was heartbreaking, and many tears were shed. It was hard to face that type of rejection over and over. After a while, it got to be too much, and we asked our agency to stop letting us know all the times our book was shown until there was a match. It was a tough time for us, for sure, but God was working in us, and we knew that He was also working to bring our son home to us! And when that time came, all the heartache and pain of that time quickly vanished and became a distant memory! It was totally worth it!

We can’t say with any certainty how long we’ll have to wait this time around. It’s obviously in God’s hands how quickly we might be matched. We could be matched and taking our child home in as little as a few days, or it could take as much as a couple years. But, we have been told that with families that have adopted before, the waiting period to be matched for another adoption could go VERY quickly this time around! We are hoping and praying that the wait will not be long and our son or daughter will soon be with us!

Some encouraging Bible verses I found about “waiting”…

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Romans 12:12

Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD.

Psalm 27:14

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

Lamentations 3:25

But those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31