Saturday, March 5, 2011
Waiting
Took some time today to go through our list and get our hospital bags ready. I got to make a Wal Mart run and get some pacifiers, teeny tiny socks, mits and diaper wipes. It was so fun to wander through the baby section and so strange to look around and realize I don't even know where to start-we don't know if we are getting a boy or a girl. So many things to look forward to. It sometimes seems unreal.
Online Adoption Fund Raiser With Cookie Lee Jewlery
We are so close to having our adoption paid for. We are having an online fundraiser through Cookie Lee Jewelry to help raise the last bit. They offer super cute, quality jewelry at affordable prices. Please go to cookielee.biz/donnachamblee and make sure my name (Emily Reynolds) is in the hostess line when you order. Please feel free to share this link.
Thanks for helping us bring our baby home.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
The Matching Process
Last week we got a call from Sharon. She needed to find out some details in order to complete her report on our home study. She said she was hurrying to complete it because we were being shown to some moms in particular a mom had requested our profile Monday. I was literally shaking when I got off the phone with Sharon. It was so exciting to know we were being viewed by birth moms and potentially could be matched at any time.
Today Sharon told us that the specific mom she had mentioned had chosen a different family. It was kind of disappointing because all week we knew we could get the call to set up a match meeting.
I was struck today with the realization that going through the adoption and especially the matching process really makes you consider who God is. There are two ways that I have felt during this process. On one hand I KNOW that God has a baby for us and this will all happen in His timing. On the other hand there are so many factors-is the birth mom looking for a family with or without children? Will she want a parents who are the same race? Will it matter that we live so far from Phoenix? Will she want parents who have both completed college? The questions are unending and there are no answers. Then there is the number of waiting families and the urge to watch the numbers dwindle as couples are matched. Depending on your view of God's involvement in the adoption...or in life, actually, you may think these details affect you being matched.
What I have come to realize though is that if we truly believe that God is sovereign (and He is) then nothing matters but that we obey. It doesn't matter how many couples are out there waiting, what your family size is, what your talents or race are. If He is sovereign than HE IS SOVEREIGN! We just have to obediently take each step He lays before us and trust that He will orchestrate the mystery of this gift.
Our response to the ups and downs truly reflects and depends on our view of who God is. Yes, we were hopeful. Yes, we are excited to know we are being shown and that couples are being matched. Through all the ups and downs God will be constant and our trust needs to be placed in Him! Satan will grasp at any opportunity we give him to gain a foothold in our minds and doubt is a tool that seems to work really well. Just a bit of what I has been churning in my head.
Today Sharon told us that the specific mom she had mentioned had chosen a different family. It was kind of disappointing because all week we knew we could get the call to set up a match meeting.
I was struck today with the realization that going through the adoption and especially the matching process really makes you consider who God is. There are two ways that I have felt during this process. On one hand I KNOW that God has a baby for us and this will all happen in His timing. On the other hand there are so many factors-is the birth mom looking for a family with or without children? Will she want a parents who are the same race? Will it matter that we live so far from Phoenix? Will she want parents who have both completed college? The questions are unending and there are no answers. Then there is the number of waiting families and the urge to watch the numbers dwindle as couples are matched. Depending on your view of God's involvement in the adoption...or in life, actually, you may think these details affect you being matched.
What I have come to realize though is that if we truly believe that God is sovereign (and He is) then nothing matters but that we obey. It doesn't matter how many couples are out there waiting, what your family size is, what your talents or race are. If He is sovereign than HE IS SOVEREIGN! We just have to obediently take each step He lays before us and trust that He will orchestrate the mystery of this gift.
Our response to the ups and downs truly reflects and depends on our view of who God is. Yes, we were hopeful. Yes, we are excited to know we are being shown and that couples are being matched. Through all the ups and downs God will be constant and our trust needs to be placed in Him! Satan will grasp at any opportunity we give him to gain a foothold in our minds and doubt is a tool that seems to work really well. Just a bit of what I has been churning in my head.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Pregnancy Care
Today we met with Colleen, the director of Pregnancy Care Center in Havasu. She spent some time getting to know us and our hearts for birth parents and open adoption. She does some amazing works with the moms that come through the center and it was exciting to hear her heart of ministry and find we shared a passion for loving on these moms and ministering to them.
She is keeping our match letter and information on hand in case she has a mom who is interested in making an adoption plan for her child.
I is strange being on the other side of our training and home study and just having to wait. Up until this point we have been actively working to complete paperwork or requirements for our adoption certification and now we have to wait and trust the Lord's perfect timing. It's hard. This journey is so crazy-there are no guarantees, no formulas, no for sure scenarios of how our experience will be. We can do nothing to prepare for our birth mom's situation other than pray. Immediately after we completed our home study and were approved by the agency it felt like we were well on our way to bringing our baby home. It felt so real now it feels so surreal. We know God has a baby somewhere but we have no idea when or how they will come to us. We are so excited. It has been so thrilling to see the Lord's hand in this process. Now we must trust His timing as well. He will bring it all to pass in His perfect timing. So far His timing has been so much better than ours.
Sharon will have all our paperwork ready for us to mail in with our grant applications in the next few weeks. We have figured out our finances and God has graciously worked out our tax return to bring us just short of our goal. So any grants we receive will allow us to use less of the tax return and put that toward our much needed car repairs or student loans. Today we were blessed with two love gifts which brings us so very close to our financial goal. With our return we are only $350 away from having our adoption covered. I can hardly believe it. God has provided every cent. In a matter of a few short months we have gone from not having the $50 application fee to being $350 away from having a fully paid for adoption including all our travel expenses back and forth from Phoenix. Truly we must stand in awe and exclaim, "What a mighty God we serve!"
As always please continue to pray with us for our birth mom and dad and for our little baby wherever they are. God's hand is upon them we are very sure of that!
With all our love and thanks,
The Reynolds Family
She is keeping our match letter and information on hand in case she has a mom who is interested in making an adoption plan for her child.
I is strange being on the other side of our training and home study and just having to wait. Up until this point we have been actively working to complete paperwork or requirements for our adoption certification and now we have to wait and trust the Lord's perfect timing. It's hard. This journey is so crazy-there are no guarantees, no formulas, no for sure scenarios of how our experience will be. We can do nothing to prepare for our birth mom's situation other than pray. Immediately after we completed our home study and were approved by the agency it felt like we were well on our way to bringing our baby home. It felt so real now it feels so surreal. We know God has a baby somewhere but we have no idea when or how they will come to us. We are so excited. It has been so thrilling to see the Lord's hand in this process. Now we must trust His timing as well. He will bring it all to pass in His perfect timing. So far His timing has been so much better than ours.
Sharon will have all our paperwork ready for us to mail in with our grant applications in the next few weeks. We have figured out our finances and God has graciously worked out our tax return to bring us just short of our goal. So any grants we receive will allow us to use less of the tax return and put that toward our much needed car repairs or student loans. Today we were blessed with two love gifts which brings us so very close to our financial goal. With our return we are only $350 away from having our adoption covered. I can hardly believe it. God has provided every cent. In a matter of a few short months we have gone from not having the $50 application fee to being $350 away from having a fully paid for adoption including all our travel expenses back and forth from Phoenix. Truly we must stand in awe and exclaim, "What a mighty God we serve!"
As always please continue to pray with us for our birth mom and dad and for our little baby wherever they are. God's hand is upon them we are very sure of that!
With all our love and thanks,
The Reynolds Family
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Agency Approved!!!
Today Sharon presented us to the agency for approval in the monthly board meeting. She discussed our meetings, personality test results, home study findings, references etc. (basically just every intimate detail about our marriage and family). She called us this afternoon to let us know we have been approved for adoption through Christian Family Care. We are now in the match book and tomorrow she will distribute our 50 match letters to local pregnancy care centers. We are ready to accept the placement of a baby!!! We are so very excited. Thank you once again for your prayers.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Dear Baby
Dear Baby,
Today I spent the day with Kim. We both registered for our little adopted blessings. Tonight as I sit here and think about you and pray for the mommy who is or will soon be carrying you in her tummy I am overwhelmed. I ache for you. I cannot wait to meet you and your birth mommy. I know she is doing a very brave and hard thing and that she loves you very much. I cannot imagine the kind of strength it takes for her to make such loving plan for you. We have been praying for you for a very long time and know that God has a very precious plan for your life. He has taught your daddy and me so much about who he is since we started planning for you. It is exciting to know that God has had your life planned out all along even though we don't even know who you are yet. You are becoming so real to us. We have your little bed set up and your little clothes hanging in the closet. We don't know yet if you are a boy or a girls so we have bins of blue clothes and bins of pink clothes just waiting to be put away. Today I washed all the diapers Papa Doug & Grammy Deni sent so they will be ready for you whenever you arrive.
Your sisters and brothers can hardly wait to meet you. They have been praying for you too-that God would keep you safe and healthy and that your birth mommy will have wisdom and know God loves her as she makes difficult decisions. We are so glad that we will get to know her and that you will too. I am listening to the hymn cd Daddy bought me for Christmas and am so grateful that we serve such an amazing God. I am excited to learn all about you. I cannot wait to see your little face and begin to get to know your personality and dream about how God will use your little life and be glorified through you. You are a miracle and we love you so much. We have worked really hard to get ready for you now we just have to wait to meet your birth mommy and trust the Lord for each day. You are so loved and so longed for.
See you soon.
Mommy
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
Today I spent the day with Kim. We both registered for our little adopted blessings. Tonight as I sit here and think about you and pray for the mommy who is or will soon be carrying you in her tummy I am overwhelmed. I ache for you. I cannot wait to meet you and your birth mommy. I know she is doing a very brave and hard thing and that she loves you very much. I cannot imagine the kind of strength it takes for her to make such loving plan for you. We have been praying for you for a very long time and know that God has a very precious plan for your life. He has taught your daddy and me so much about who he is since we started planning for you. It is exciting to know that God has had your life planned out all along even though we don't even know who you are yet. You are becoming so real to us. We have your little bed set up and your little clothes hanging in the closet. We don't know yet if you are a boy or a girls so we have bins of blue clothes and bins of pink clothes just waiting to be put away. Today I washed all the diapers Papa Doug & Grammy Deni sent so they will be ready for you whenever you arrive.
Your sisters and brothers can hardly wait to meet you. They have been praying for you too-that God would keep you safe and healthy and that your birth mommy will have wisdom and know God loves her as she makes difficult decisions. We are so glad that we will get to know her and that you will too. I am listening to the hymn cd Daddy bought me for Christmas and am so grateful that we serve such an amazing God. I am excited to learn all about you. I cannot wait to see your little face and begin to get to know your personality and dream about how God will use your little life and be glorified through you. You are a miracle and we love you so much. We have worked really hard to get ready for you now we just have to wait to meet your birth mommy and trust the Lord for each day. You are so loved and so longed for.
See you soon.
Mommy
Psalm 139:13-18
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)