This was the message I received on Thursday morning while I was at Renew for Moms, my mommy group. I was getting ready to pick up Grayson, but decided to check my phone for any messages. And, I had one!!! This one!! Now, what in the world does that mean? I did as it said and called. Adam answered, which really surprised me. His news??
We've been matched!!!
I said, "what?" He repeated the news. I think I just stood there in complete shock. We were not expecting this phone call until January at the very earliest, so it caught me completely off guard when he said we had just gotten our referral call.
Isaiah 55:8 says “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.
When we started this adoption process, we were told it would take 18-24 months. I was just fine with that. Adding another child into the family when Gray is 2.5-3 sounded good to me. I thought I might be ready then. We also said we would take a child with special needs. With the backgrounds that we both have, this seemed like what we needed to do, or at least were experienced to do. And we preferred a little girl.
But just as this verse states, God's plans are often different than our plans. Fortunately, they are always for the better.
We have been matched with a healthy little boy!!! And are hoping to travel within 4-6 months. That means before Grayson is 2, or right around there, and that this entire process will likely be less than 1 year! This little one is 6 months old today. So, that means, I will have a 1 and a 2 year old running around!!! I should start claiming and clinging to Phillipians 4:13 now.
I can do all this through him who gives me strength
He's really cute, is in good health, and is being really well taken care of by his foster family. Once we get permission, we will post some pictures.
We had our first big adoption fundraiser last weekend and to say it was a success would be an understatement. It was a very stressful week with the garage sale, our first homestudy visit from the social worker, and Adam's parents coming into town, but it finally all came together. We only heard about our neighborhood garage sale two weeks prior, so we started the planning and rounding up donations. We were so blessed to have such wonderful friends donate so many things. Becuase we had so much stuff, we couldn't walk through the garage by Thursday, which made the organization piece really difficult. We posted ads and Adam made some great signs to advertise and try to round up as much traffic as possible. We opened Friday morning to people already waiting and in the first hour had made nearly $100! We had a steady stream of people ALL day long. There was no lull like most garage sales experience. We finally decided to close the garage around 5:30 and someone came and knocked on our door to ask if we would open it for her. Then we had 3 families (close friends) come by that evening to shop. Saturday was another great day with lots of people coming by. I've never seen a sale like this with so many people. We had several people come by, buy stuff, go home, and come back with a box of things they wanted to donate. We gladly took it, but in the back of our minds were thinking, "we're trying to get rid of all of this stuff, not take more." We finally closed the sale around 4:30 on Saturday after two LONG days. We were all exhausted, but so pleased with how it turned out. We were so blessed with good weather all weekend, lots of shoppers, so many donations, and in the end, a VERY LARGE grand total!! God is so good to give us the encouragement and confirmation we need when we start to feel discouraged. We know we are on the right track and are even more excited to bring our little one home as soon as possible. 
