"We know that the Lord does not shut one door without opening another."

That is basically how I finished my last post about our adoption.

God really does have a sense of humor. He also has inspired the awe factor in me, once again. Each time He does this, it's harder to take for granted His all encompassing love for me, His compassion, and His redemption..
Since our last adoption update, there have been some drastic changes. Hang on for this one. It caught us all off guard...

Starting from where we left off from the last post...
As we continued to pray about our adoption in Haiti, our agency shared some information with us that made it obvious that the door in Haiti had slammed shut for us, at least for now.  The biggest issue is that James and I don't meet the age or marriage requirements and we won't for another 4 years. Last year around this time (when we turned in our dossier), the Haitian government was making quite a few exceptions, but now they have stopped doing this. Also, due to the amount of lies associated with our specific kids' case, they are no longer adoptable, and it is unknown as to whether this may change in the future. The uncle/dad refused to sign the abandonment document and has slipped away and can't be found. Also, Haiti is only accepting referrals from 19 approved Hague agencies. Our agency is still working on getting their Hague license, so we were unable to move forward in that aspect as well. Even if we were somehow able to move forward in Haiti, it would have to be without the 3 children that we were matched with. We asked about every option possible to move forward with them but came to a door in our face every time. James and I prayed long and hard about what to do and felt the Lord was telling us to step back from this adoption and wait for Him to show us the next step. We contacted our agency, explaining our stance and requested a refund and for our dossier to be returned.

Meanwhile, we made dinner plans with some dear friends just to share with them what had happened with our adoption and to ask them to be in prayer with us. I had just told our friend that we knew we were called to adopt and that if it wasn't Haiti, we knew the Lord had a child(ren) somewhere that needed a family. We told her we were open to options other than Haiti and would just wait to see where the Lord led us. She then asked us if we would be willing to take an infant. James and I looked at one another and said "of course." She then shared an email that a friend from church had sent her. The email read something like this: " This isn't for everyone but if you know of a good Christian family who wants to adopt and can accept an infant, have them contact me asap. They need to have a home study ready to go." She contacted him for us to see what kind of opportunity this would be. This family had just returned from completing an adoption and were made aware that there were other women wanting to place their babies in Christian families and maintain an open adoption. James and I had never considered completing an open adoption and to be honest weren't sure we were really ok with the idea. We set a dinner date for 3 nights later to meet with our friends and the adopting family who had information to share.

The following morning, I went to view the blog of this adopting family and the most recent post said that there were families urgently needed for these adoptions. I decided I would go ahead and call the attorney and just ask some questions. I called him and explained our situation to him, that we had a home study ready and wanted more information. He then informed me that I had called at the exact right time because he had a birth mom due in a month and the family she had been matched with just backed out 5 minutes before I called. After catching my breath I told the attorney I would talk to James and get back to him. I called to share this with the friend who told us of this opportunity and, she let me know she had been up praying for me since early in the morning. She prayed that if this was the Lord's will that He would open the door and we would have no doubt. I was sure there was no way the door could be any wider open for us.

We set up a skype date for two nights later to meet the birth mom. James and I met Stantonlyn on a Monday night via skype. We asked her questions about her family, her hobbies, what is important in life, why she chose to place her child for adoption, and told her a little bit about ourselves. She had an ultrasound scheduled for the following day, so I asked my friend to make the 4 hour drive to Rogers Arkansas so I could be there to meet Stantonlyn in person, meet the attorney in person, and be present for the ultrasound. If this ended up being a match, I didn't want to miss out! Stantonlyn has the sweetest spirit about her. She is quiet, yet cheerful. She has the prettiest smile and longest richest black hair. The ultrasound revealed that the baby was a healthy baby girl, due September 13th. We left to go back to Oklahoma early the next morning. We heard from the attorney and the translator later that day that Stantonlyn wanted us to adopt her baby. We accepted and moved forward with this adoption, which was a huge step of faith for us. For one we were very nervous that for some reason this may not work out either; neither of us wanted to feel hurt again, especially not so soon. We also hadn't received our refund from Haiti yet, and would have to pay almost half of this adoption up front. We reflected on the other times in our lives that we didn't necessarily see the way but followed the Lord and were blessed because of our obedience...so we stepped out into the water.

James and I talked about names for the baby and ended up keeping the name Selah, which we had chosen for one of our kids in Haiti. The Lord clearly gave me that name for a girl nearly a year ago. We know now that He gave us the name Selah for this child. He did not give us additional names for our other referral in Haiti because He knew we would be initially only adopting one baby girl. Her name means to pause and wait on God. Could her name be any more fitting? Her middle name is Jane. I was cleaning the kitchen one day, and that name just popped into my head. I thought Selah Jane had a nice little ring to it, so I went to see what Jane meant. It means "gift from God." Again. Totally fitting for her and our circumstances.

We kept in contact with Stantonlyn and our attorney and waited for news that the baby was on her way. On August 20th, at 3:30 a.m. we got a call from Stantonlyn that her water had broken, so we got everything thrown in the car (we were already packed) and headed to Arkansas.We didn't make it for the birth but made it very soon after. We brought Addi with us, and our family immediately grew from 3 to 4. She is perfect and beautiful and precious and everything great and good. The hospital was wonderful and gave us our own room. We were able to share our story with the nurses and tell them how the Lord had redeemed our adoption journey and led us exactly where He wants us.
We are here in Arkansas now. Our sweet Selah Jane is one week old today. We should have our court date sometime tomorrow, where the adoption will be finalized and we can leave. We are so ready to have Selah home!

We took Selah's birth family to dinner last night and just broke bread together. We exchanged gifts and said our "see you later" farewells. It was really hard not to cry as I watched Selah's birth family walk away from her, after they rubbed her tiny feet and her chubby little cheeks. It really wrecked my heart. I shared that with a friend and she reminded me that I am supposed to feel broken about that. She encouraged me to choose to praise God for allowing me a glimpse of this brokenness and to remember that He can restore and bind us together in such a way. Thank you for that, friend! It really helped my heart.

For those of you who have asked questions over the summer about our adoption and I didn't quite have the answer, I'm sorry. The truth is, this summer, specifically the month of July, has been very overwhelming. Our family has experienced both loss and new life. We had a garage sale to raise money for our adoption and remodeled a bedroom in a week's time. We switched gears from having older children within a year or two, to having an infant VERY soon. The month of July was a whirlwind of emotion for our family, and really at times it still feels kind of crazy. We are still grieving the loss of our adoption in Haiti but are also joyful for our new journey with our sweet Selah. Please keep us in your prayers as we allow the Lord to take control of our emotions and bond our new family together. Please pray for our sweet Addi, who continues to cry in the evening when we pray for our babies in Haiti,  after she asks again and again if they are ever coming home. She connected with them and she loves them. We haven't given up hope on them either. We never will. We will continually seek the Lord and follow His direction for our lives. We truly desire an Ephesians 3:20-21 life and know as long as we seek the Lord, He will not lead us astray. We know that in all things God is good!

Some ironies about our adoption...just for fun...
Mea is the friend who told us of this opportunity, and James and I were the ones who told her and her husband of the agency they are adopting from. I think it's amazing how that came full circle. Also, sweet Selah was born on Mea's birthday. What a blessing!

Thank you all for your prayers and support. Your love overwhelms us!