When God's not finished...

...and I have now realized that He never is.

As long as we remain open to His plan (even if it seems "inconvenient"), to His blessings (even in disguise), to His promptings (no matter how "crazy" they may seem at times), He will continue to visibly work in and through us.

James and I adopted Selah on September 3rd, 2013.
This time in our lives is marked with much grief, confusion, and sadness as we reflect back on our experience with "our" sweet kids in Haiti and the loss of that adoption due to fraud.
This time is also marked with much joy, hope, and faith as we saw God literally place Selah in our path and lay out the direction He had at the time for our adoption journey.
We experienced these drastically different emotions consecutively which was emotionally exhausting, so to say that we were comfortable and content after adopting Selah is an understatement. We were thrilled with this new blessing and ready to "coast" for a while with no more sudden changes.

Insert God here, again... (not that He ever left)...

In October/November of 2013, we began the process to update our home study. We want to keep our international home study current, in case any of "our" 3 children in Haiti miraculously become adoptable at some point. Through this whole situation and with God redirecting our path to Selah, we also decided that we would become certified to adopt through DHS. We knew that it would be a long process, so we began by partnering with a local adoption agency. We went through the required training and had our international home study updated to a domestic one that is DHS approved.
We filled out lots of paperwork, including a detailed document about what type of child we would consider adopting.
The day before our home visit to finish our domestic home study, we got a phone call. I thought it was going to be to cancel because there was snow and ice on the roads. Instead, I got an "Are you guys ready for you home study tomorrow?" We were. No big deal right. It's all part of the process.

The next few sentences changed everything.

"I have something I would like to run by you before tomorrow. We have looked through the family profiles and have a 10 year old placement that we really think would fit well with your family. Would you consider looking over some paperwork and praying about if you are ready to accept her as a placement?"

I LOST MY BREATH. and then I told her yes please send the paperwork, that James and I would look over it and begin to pray about it.

I LOST MY BREATH AGAIN. Addison had told me just a month before this, out of the blue, that she wanted an older sister "that could drive her around." I brushed her off and told her that probably wouldn't be happening.
I had been praying over the -bunk bed room- almost daily. That's the room that two of "our" Haitian babies were supposed to share. Just a couple of weeks prior to this phone call, as I was praying, I felt strongly that we would have somebody in that room this year. I chalked it up as me just being hopeful that we would get good news from Haiti. I never shared either of these things with James. At the time, it didn't seem to matter.
I also automatically got extremely nervous and had many questions go through my mind.
What if James says "no" and I say "yes" or the opposite? What if it's really not a good fit-how do we determine that? Do we have enough energy? Is this crazy to say "yes" less than a year after we adopted Selah? How on earth am I supposed to be a mom to a 10 year old girl!!!
Immediately. I mean immediately...I was reminded by the Holy Spirit that James and I would not have a spirit of confusion and that God would unite us on this decision, whatever it ended up being. I was reminded that God equips the called. He will lead our every step and even carry me when I am weary. Jesus called His disciples to leave EVERYTHING and follow Him, so surely I can accept a new daughter into my life and share the love that God has so freely given to me.
I also remembered times in my life journey, the many, many times God has shown Himself to me, in my most desperate, lonely state. He rescued me and gave me hope, and He used other believers to help me.
At this moment I realized that it may be my turn to give back what has so freely been given to me.
I called James and told him what had happened. James immediately began to cry and just kept saying, "yes, yes. The answer is yes."
That night we reviewed the information we were given, and the adoption specialist was right, she is a PERFECT match for the type of child we are able to accept. We also have a room ready for her since we had prepared for kids to come home from Haiti. Since we had prepared ourselves for 3 young children to come home at the same time, accepting another placement within a year didn't seem so far-fetched. Together and in complete agreement, we decided to move forward and trusted that if this was not where the Lord wanted us, He would shut the door, just as He had in Haiti.

The door has remained open, and we gained a daughter on March 11th!

Our family is excited to be on this journey. While we realize it's not going to be easy, it's going to be worth it. We are caught in a whirlwind of grace and know that God has enough for all of us. We appreciate your prayers as we make this new transition and are so thankful for your support as we continue trusting God with our journey. He is so good!