We have big news!
We are adopting!!
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55: 8-9
How do you respond when God's timing and plan does not make sense? Where do you go when this happens? God knows all things and He is lovingly orchestrating the details of our life and yours.
I start there. Stephen and I both had plans for our lives. We both wanted children. And so we started having babies. We have 3 beautiful girls. After we had Landry(our youngest) we still desired to have another child. So fast forward to 2021, we find out were pregnant. We miscarried at 7 weeks. Three more miscarriages would follow and a cancer scare. Our 4th miscarriage, we lost the baby at 15 weeks. I (Nicole) ended up in the hospital and needed a blood transfusion. Our last 2 years have been a season of trials and suffering. Having questions like the one above and calling out to the Lord from Psalm 13, "How long Lord?". After our 4th miscarriage we've taken time to grieve and just sit in, "Lord, what is next for us?".
Stephen and I have over and over again have come to the same place. We still desire more children. Our girls desire another sibling. God has used all of the details, all our of heartache to open our hearts to adoption. We can look back and see how God was lovingly and patiently guiding us. Relinquishing our own wants, plans and saying, "Ok God, not our will, but yours. Give us open hands". The process of adoption has already revealed how much bigger it truly is. Adoption, welcoming a little one into our home, and the relationship with birth parents is so much greater than we could have imagined. So we will say it again. God knows all things and He is lovingly orchestrating the details of our life and yours.
"But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.". Psalm 13: 5-6. No matter what has happened and what comes. This is where we place our hope.
Which brings us to, why do we need to raise funds? This may come as a bit of a shock to you, but ethical adoption is costly! Domestic adoption can cost 35,000 to 50,000 dollars. During the course of adoption, agency's pay for birth moms medical care, living expenses, and any other expenses necessary to make sure she is safe and taken care of. Included in the overall costs are agency and legal fees. This is why we have set a goal of 35,000 to help ease the financial burden that often overwhelms adoptive parents.
We hope that by inviting you into this process, you will see yourself as taking part in something that will forever change our lives, the birth parents and their child.
