Thank you for praying!!

We had our intake interview with Bethany last Wednesday and it went so well. I wanted to write sooner and let you all know how it went but my brain was a little melty after 2 hours of interviewing! So now I'm sitting here writing with a crazy stiff neck (because that's what happens when Joy gets stressed) to tell you how amazing our God is.

Leading up to the interview we were a little nervous..."Will they like us?" "Are we too young?" "Is there anything that would keep us from getting a baby?". And going through many emotions like frustration because people that just get pregnant don't have to get the third degree for wanting to be parents. But God is so faithful and confronted every one of our fears and got us thinking rationally. YAY...for rational thinking!!

So we met with our social worker Rhonda, who is an adopted person and an adoptive parent. Needless to say she is intimately acquainted with this whole process inside and out. She asked us everything under the sun from how did we meet to our testimonies to how do we plan to discipline our kids and so much more. We're pretty sure that Rhonda now knows more about us than anybody! We prayed that we would be honest and transparent because God is going before us and already has a sweet baby picked out, we don't need to worry. At the end Rhonda went over the interview with us to talk about our "chooseability". Is that a word? Anyway, she said she didn't see any reason not to move forward. She said we're young, married long enough, stable and good looking (I'm serious...she said that!). So, she doesn't think we'll have long to wait. But we're trying not to get our hopes us about that. We just keeping trying to remember that God knows when our baby will be conceived, when they will be born, when the mother will seek Bethany out and when we will get that call. We are not doing this alone, thanks to all of you who carry us through your prayers and Praise to God for holding our hands and holding us up when we're too weak to stand. My favorite passage from the Bible has been fresh on my mind lately and that is Psalm 139. I have longed to place my hand on my growing belly and pray that passage for our baby but now I pray that God's hand would rest on the womb where our baby grows as I pray,"You knit me together in my mother's womb, I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made". How cool to picture God's hands holding our baby already.

So, now we continue to move forward with...you guessed it: more paper work!! We each have a little 8 page packet of essay questions to fill out and finger printing and some other legal stuff. Then Rhonda will schedule our individual interviews, our home study and then we can turn in our profile and start waiting!

Thank you so much for your prayers and comments and emails and encouragements. Our praises are that we are using an amazing christian adoption agency with an outstanding reputation and that our social worker loves Jesus and loves adoption and already loves us! Our prayer requests would be that we wouldn't stress about finances and for the health and well-being of our birth mom and baby and for the strength to make it through the tough days. Thank you again for taking the time to read this and pray for us. We are truly blessed.

It was a miracle

Our garage sale was amazing this weekend. Our goal for the enitre weekend was $500 and we were going to be super excited and feel incredibly blessed to have reached that goal. Well, God had something else in mind for us. Our total for both days was $2,933.03!!! How amazing is that?! The most we have ever made at a garage sale was $80. So, needless to say we were left speechless and in awe of this God who knows what we need, when we need it.
Thank you so much to all our friends and family who were praying for us this weekend and to all those who donated items, stopped by, helped us both days. This would have been a much more difficult task without all of you by our side.
Well, I hope to have pictures posted soon but our computer is just not cooperating. So, check back...they should be up this week.
We also have our intake interview with Bethany this Wednesday at 9:30-11:30. We are very excited but also a bit nervous because we don't really know what an intake interview is so we don't know what to expect. We would really appreciate your prayers!!
Thank you again for loving us and praying for us....we can't wait to tell our son or daughter someday how much God loves them and how much all of you have loved them before ever meeting them.

Well, I'm very new to this world of blogging. Its kind of scary...so we'll see how it goes. We wanted to create this blog so we could share this journey with our family and friends. We are so excited as we anticipate the long awaited homecoming of our first child and scared out of our minds as we look at all the paperwork and waiting and all the unknowns. So, thank you so much for walking this road with us. Through all your love and support we are reminded of God's intimate love and care for us.

We have 2 fundraisers we are going to be doing so far. The first is a garage sale Sept 28 and 29. If anybody wants to get rid of any junk and donate it to us we would love it! Jake or I can come pick it up anytime, just give us a call. The second is TBA because we don't really know the details yet, so stay tuned!

Thank you for all your encouraging emails and notes. We are so blessed and so humbled. We have 28 steps total in this process and we have already completed 1-5. YAY!!! We have to focus on the small victories! Thanks again for all your support! I'll try to be diligent in my posting so come back and visit!