Answering a Few Questions about Baby #3

I thought I would answer some questions that have been asked on here and on my facebook about our adoption. We are going with the same agency we adopted Vivi from, but they are part of the National Christian Adoption Fellowship, so our profile could be shown to up to nine agencies nationwide, meaning our child will likely not be born in Texas this time around. We feel that this is a high probability because we are requesting an African American infant. Our reasons for doing that are two fold; African American babies are the most difficult for agencies to place in the sense that most of their waiting families have requested caucasian children. We feel a real heart for potential birthmothers who come into agencies and may only have a couple profiles to view vs. their white counterparts who can read through a large selection to make the best decision for their child.

And our second reason is that it has always been our plan since after adopting Isaac that we would seek to adopt another child who is the same race as him, so he would have a family member that he can relate to in that way and his sibling would have him. We have no idea if God plans to expand our family any further past 3 or where in the world future children would come from, so we are going to put our full resources in to this adoption.

This adoption is by far the most we will have spent to bring any of our children home. For that reason, we are raising support to pay for the adoption fees. Our first round of letters went out Monday and we will send our second letters if we are approved with a granting agency. Those letters will allow people to send money to the agency that will award us a matching grant and receive a receipt for their donation to be tax deductible. We will also set up a paypal account on this blog as we have already been offered support from our dear friends oversees...thankyou!! Our homestudy is next Thursday and we hope to be approved and ready to show to birthmothers by July 1st. Very exciting!! But we need to raise our first big installment of $5,000 in just 3 short weeks...yikes! We are anticipating our Lord coming through in the coming months in a BIG way, and we will wait to see how He provides.

We are so encouraged by the emails and phone calls we have received from you and to hear your excitement over our Big News! :) Announcing you are going to adopt is not like announcing you are pregnant. I have been at the news of loved ones who have announced they were pregnant, and the reaction and immediate support they receive is nothing short of a celebration. Adoption is quite a bit more subdued, and in some areas we have received no response at all. So I am serious when I say that those of you who have rallied around us here and on facebook, and in our personal lives, have blessed us beyond any thing we can describe. We even have a friend who has given birth this week and her child has had to stay in the NICU and she has found ways to encourage and support us as her very own newborn works hard to breath and eat. That touches me deeply.

So, I say to all of you...you know who you are... thank you. I know there will be many more of those to come!

And I will end this post with a little treat...

Billy assembled the crib!!