God's Ways are not Our Ways

So, we have some big news that we'd ask you all to pray about with us. A couple has asked us to adopt their baby which is due in February. While this may seem sudden, all I can say is, "God's ways are not our ways." And, he definitely has a sense of humor.

Two years ago we decided that we'd add to our family by adopting. We slowly waded through the home study paperwork and got on a waiting list over in Detroit. I desperately didn't want to get pregnant as I wanted to adopt... so we tried to prevent getting pregnant. Three weeks later we found out we were pregnant with Levi.

We stayed on the waiting list for the full year our homestudy was good for, yet no match ever happened. We considered updating our home study this Spring, but we were burried in paperwork trying to get on board with the missions agency, so we never did update. Now that we're looking to move overseas next year, we decided, "let's add to our family one more time by getting pregnant." Well, we haven't been successful, and I began to realize that God doesn't usually do things my way... so I wondered what he'd have happen.

Two weeks ago we found out that a couple from the agency in Detroit had picked us to adopt their baby. We were shocked since we thought we'd been taken off the list (we should have not been an option for them since our home study was expired). Yet, there it was. The birth mom is 24 weeks pregnant, and they don't know what they're having. In two weeks she has her first appointment, so hopefully we'll find out then. After her appointment, the social worker is going to setup a time for us to meet them.

Please be praying for us, as we begin walking through these doors. It's a hard yet good place of dependence as we won't know the outcome until February and all papers are signed. The birthparents could see the baby and change their mind. This also was not at all in our minds, nor anything that we were striving for, so we're thrilled that God so clearly has his hands in this. I could list several things only God could have done and many answers to specific prayers, but I'll save that for another post.

Here are specific prayer requets:
~For God's wisdom and guidance as we pursue this.
~That God would shut the door SOON if this isn't His will.
~That we'd trust him for the finances to adopt (especially as we begin raising support to go overseas too!)
~For the health and safety of this baby, that the birthmom will be making healthy decisions while pregnant.
~For an opportunity to share the gospel with this couple when we meet them.
~For God to be honored every step of the way in this process.

Stay tuned... (and in the mean time, here are some pics of Elijah and Levi)