An Amazing Year in 2010 . . .

I get a little emotional when I think of this year . . . in January we really began our adoption process full fledge. There were many ups and downs in the next 7 months, but as I sit here I can positively say it was all worth it! Dan and I were able to attend an adoption conference up in Asheville in March (thanks to my mom for coming up and keeping the kiddo's for the day!). It was so awesome to be surrounded with other individuals who had the same vision and pasion as us! I was thrilled to meet Dan Cruver, who helped start Together for Adoption http://www.togetherforadoption.org/.

We were matched twice within 3 months, in which both cases fell through. It was hard to understand why but as we sit here with our sweet son, Noah, we understand completely why! God is sovereign!

The summer for us stayed very busy, as Dan took 3 classes for his MBA- we felt like we hardly saw him all summer!

He had just finished his last summer class and we went on a short weekend vacation to the Isle of Palms- we all needed it! We really enjoyed that time together as a family and the Isle of Palms is a favorite spot of ours! We returned home and began getting geared up for the upcoming school year. My mom, who is also a teacher decided to come up for two days before going back to work. I will never forget that day, my mom came up in the morning and we enjoyed the day together visitng and talking. That afternoon around 3pm Dan called saying that our attorney might have a baby for us in Pittsburgh- I will admitt, I got excited and then blurted out on the phone, "It's not going to work out, it's too perfect!" (Dan's is from Pittsburgh and all of his family lives there). Dan called me back and said another couple was in the running before us so that it probably wouldn't work out, but that there was an 18 month old in Alabama. I still didn't take either case serious and my mom and I went on with our afternoon. Around 4:30pm Dan called back and said the other family chose to take the older baby in Alabama and that the newborn in Pittsburgh was available but that we would have to be up at the hospital by 10am! This meant meeting our attorney, having a phone conference with the birhtmom, packing for 5 people and traveling 10 hrs to Pittsburgh! It seemed impossible! Everything fell into place and we traveled through the night and arrived up at Dan's family at 6am. We showered and made our way up to the Hospital- nervous, anxious, happy and everything in between! We stopped at a local florist and bought the birthmom a beautiful bouquet of roses and a steelers bib for Noah. As we made our way to the hospital, we received a call from the birthmom- things had taken a different turn as she had a family member die and she upsetedly left the hospital. We continued to go on with the plans and met the social worker at the hospital. I won't forget the sweet head nurse that was there that day, she took us back and we met our son for the first time- it was all so surreal and he was just perfect! Exhausted both physically and mentally, we stayed there until after 5pm working out all the legal details so that we could take Noah with us. I would admitt, I felt strange at first but I am just so thankful for everything we experienced. We had Noah for the 4 days, all the while keeping in touch with his birthmom just praying for God to work out his perfect will in this situation. On Monday evening we received a call from her attorney that she had signed her parental rights over. We took a picture and were all very happy!

Well let me back up just a bit, we were able to actually meet with Noah's birthmom on Sunday and take her out to lunch. What a humbling experience to sit there with her- the woman who carried our son and chose life for him! I will always be very appreciative to her for that!

The next 4 days were continuous ups and downs of legal paperwork. We were praying to be able to take him home with us at the end of the week. God answered our prayer and we headed home on Saturday.

The process of him legally being our son still continues. The birthfather's rights have yet to be terminated. However, we treat Noah as our own son and couldn't imagine him any other way. He fits right in to our family and his brothers and sisters love him to pieces!

Adoption isn't easy, but it just takes effort and patience (which doesn't come easy for me!) and it has such an amazing outcome! Not only do we have an amazing new son but we also hope to get to continue to get to know his birthmom and share the sacrifice of Christ giving His Son.

I am here to tell you that if you have ever thought of adopting, prayerfully continue to consider it. Not only will you help a child but trust me, that child will change you as Noah has done for me already over the last 4 months!

God has really worked on me, not just in the area of adoption, but in many other ways through this process as well!



The year 2010 has been a different and an absolutely amazing year that I am still in awe of!

God is soveriegn and works all things out for His good!

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