Our next step

Well, to say we've been quiet on the blog is an understatement. Lots of reasons for that, but the biggest is that we have had to try hard to be quiet. We have intentionally been still and quiet as we have worked to discern some things, and we are now at a place where we wanted to share what is going on so that we can ask friends and family to pray for us and our little one. While we know we've had a great group of support all along, we have a particular little one in mind that we are now asking you to pray for!

To back up several months, we both felt contentment with the waiting part of our journey. We began feeling a lot of unrest, however, about waiting in the right place. We were being called to open our options in our adoption to include a child with special needs. Because of the busy Christmas season, we did not act on our decision until the first of the year when we had more time to reflect on where we felt God was leading us. Long story short, we officially changed our paperwork with Covenant Care Services to reflect who we are hoping to adopt, and we joined the National Down Syndrome Adoption Network as well. This is a non-profit agency (which has been amazing to work with!) who help both birth families and adoptive families. God quickly showed us that we were finally waiting in the right place ... we received a phone call the week after our registration was complete.

We will share more of what God has taught us through all of this later, but this has been a journey that we could never have imagined! We have been in communication with this child's birth family through email, phone calls, and a face-to-face visit last month. Walking alongside them has been an incredible process, and we are grateful that God has called us to a relationship with them through this placement. Since their story is not ours to share, we will simply ask for prayers for them during the coming weeks. They acknowledge much grief and loss ahead of them, and we pray for them daily as we continue to take things step by step.

While we have been careful to guard our hearts, we decided early on that we would pray for and love this little one as if he is already ours, knowing that God would walk us through any situation that we may face if that doesn't turn out to be. At the same time, we are embracing all of the excitement that comes with expecting a baby, and we are allowing joy to fill our hearts as we prepare for his arrival!

Yes, I did say "his" ... he is a boy! He is due in the middle of June, and we will travel to Ohio when he is born. He has Down Syndrome. At this time, his prenatal testing and ultrasounds are showing a healthy heart and other organs, and it looks like he is growing at a great pace. Please continue praying for him! We are praying for continued growth and health.

That is the short version of a somewhat long story, but we have been spending the past few months praying through all of this. We would love to have you pray for this little guy, his birth family, and our family as we take the next steps. God has abundantly blessed us already through this process, and we prayerfully look forward to the future with our little baby boy!