The Story- Our Adoption Journey: Part 2

So in April of 2011 we called Bethany Christian Services to request an application.  We filled out a preliminary application and then to get the "real" application we needed to send that back with $750.  Ok, this was it for us.  This was the plunge.  It was easy to say we were doing this, now we needed to put our (correction, God's) money where our mouth was.
The week we filled out the preliminary application Adam received a few opportunities for side work.  In that one week, he wrote 3 estimates and completed one job, each of them had one common number $750!  I recall driving to church on a Sunday morning and in conversation I asked him about that work he had done that week.  He told me about the estimates for $750 each, and then I asked him about the work he had completed, he said,  "yeah, they paid me $750."  I must have had a amazed looked on my face because when I turned at looked at him he said, "What?  I put the money in the bank!"  I told him, that wasn't it!  We only needed $750 total to send in for the application fee!  Here in one week time God had supplied three times that!  We both laughed in amazement and Adam told me to be sure to send in the check the next day!  So I did!
In May of 2011 we went to our Bethany office for the first time to sit down and meet with our case worker.  We were so nervous and excited!  It was a great experience.  One question she asked us was, why were we doing this?  We told her about the process God had taken us through over the previous year.  We explained to her that we did not know how this would end.  We told her we very well knew that we could go through this whole adoption process and never come out in the end with a child.  But that was okay.  The peace that we had received knowing we were fully obeying something God had called us to, was already reward enough.  We told her, we didn't know why, or what exactly God had planned for us in this journey, but that is okay, we trusted God.
She then asked us if we knew how we were going to fund our adoption.  We laughed kind of nervously.  We told her, honestly, no.  We told her that if she were to look at our bank account she would wonder why we were doing this!  But, we were more certain about the promise God makes to us that if he calls us to something, he will equip us fully to be able to carry out his work.  For us that would mean providing the money for this adoption.
While we were talking our case worker started crying.  We didn't know if this was a good or bad thing.  She simply apologized saying God was working on a few things in her own life and that what we said was something she needed to hear.
Two weeks later we went back for our second meeting with our case worker.  When we sat down with her she explained that this was going to be her last meeting with us.  She informed us that for a while God had been working on her heart and calling her to go back to school to complete her master's degree.  She said she had kept putting it off because she didn't know how it was possible, or how she could financially do it.  She said after meeting with us, she knew she didn't have to know, if God was calling her to do this, she could trust him to fully equip her!  She thanked us for sharing with her at our previous meeting and wished us well on our adoption journey!
Well, even though this is not something we expected at all, we were so excited!  God had allowed us at just the right time,  to enter into this journey and encourage our awesome case worker to step out in obedience to him!  It was so awesome to see God already use this journey to change lives!  Not just our own!
We were introduced to our new case worker and during that summer we were able to complete our home study with her.  She was also such a gift to us and we have loved and cherished the role she has had in our lives over the past couple of years!
At the very end of July and beginning of August 2011 we completed our home study.  The first week of August we  decided it would be nice to get away for a little family trip and we discussed going down to the Indiana State Fair.  One of our favorite bands was playing a show there and we thought it would be fun to take the kids down to the concert.  I found tickets to the concert on craigslist and started looking at hotel rooms.  I called Adam and told him about the tickets I had found, they were great seats, in the second row!  He told me, go ahead, book a hotel, get the tickets.  When I went back online to do that I, out of habit, checked my email first.  We had an email from Bethany Christian Services.  I clicked on it an read an invoice stating that the remainder of our home study fee was due before they could wait list us, $1750.  Hmmm.... not the most exciting email.  I called Adam back.  We discussed the fact that it probably wasn't right for us to spend money on a hotel room and concert when we needed to pay this bill.  Adam said, "pay the bill."  I paid it.  I will admit it, I didn't pay it with a happy attitude.  I really threw a little pity party for myself.  Telling myself how I was such a martyr giving up this trip all for God's call.  Seriously, selfish and pathetic.
Well, the next week went by and we got wait listed!  That Friday night we went out to dinner and I made the snide remark that we should be at the concert right now!  We got home and put the kids to bed in our "boring, non hotel, home"  and sat down to watch the news.  The anchor came on with breaking news out of the Indiana State Fair, a stage had collapsed at the Sugarland concert!  The concert we were buying tickets for!  The concert we were getting 2nd row tickets for, not just us, but our two boys also!  Adam and I turned to each other in disbelief!  The hair on my arms was standing on edge!  I had chills all over my whole body!  We could not believe how amazing God's timing was.  We could have been there.  If not for the bill from Bethany, we would have gone.  God's timing is perfect.
At that concert that night 7 people were killed and 58 injured.  Not only did he use this journey to change our lives but to save our lives.

The Story- Our Adoption Journey: Part 1

Over the past two years we have said countless times that our adoption story is not ours, we strive to make it Gods.  We love to share it with others, because it is not about us, it is all about Him!  We have had the opportunity to share our adoption journey in a few different venues.  I think it is time to share it here.

We are asked very often, why are we adopting?  What led us down this road?  I will start from the very beginning.

We met when we were 13 years old!  We attended church together, and literally grew up together!  We got married in 2003 and in 2008 we were blessed with amazing rambunctious twin boys!  In May 2010 we started talking about growing our family more.  This is where our adoption story started.  

I would often look at my amazing boys and I cherished their sweet bond that they had even at the age of two.  I would look at them and wonder if twins ever got separated in adoption.  This led me to calling different adoption agencies in our area.  I was just so curious how common it was that a twin situation would come through an agency.  I spoke that day with a great case worker from Bethany Christian Services who answered so many questions.  She offered to send out an information packet and invited us to a informational meeting.  We received the informational packet and looked it over.  I will be honest though, it was quickly dismissed.  We considered adoption very briefly but the list of reasons why it wasn't "right for us" began to develop.  We told ourselves... it just doesn't make sense, we can have our own biologic children, we are not meant to adopt, and of course...it costs so much.  

Well.... little did we know that God had started to work on our hearts.  As we studied Gods word that spring and summer it seemed like everything we studied pointed to adoption.  We would listen to a radio program, and it would point to adoption.  Adoption... the word taunted our minds.  We would discuss to together.  We would think and pray about it alone.  We both put it off.  This wasn't for us.  Or so we thought! 

In September of 2010 we received a mailer from Bethany Christian Services that said they would be having an informational meeting at a church in our local community.  We decided, what could it hurt?  We decided to go.  We attended the meeting in October.  We walked out of the meeting and sat down in the car, we looked at each other, and we both knew our hearts had both changed completely.  There was nothing drastic said or done at the meeting.  I think it was really just a simple thing that God led us to, to allow us to open our hearts up to his will for us, not our plans for us.  

When we drove home that night I remember Adam saying, "ok, I really would like to adopt, but it just costs so much.  I don't think we can do it."  

I knew he was right.  In July of that year I had given into the call to stop working and be a full time stay at home mom.  While I loved being a homemaker... we both missed the additional income.  In the auto body repair world, summer months are often slow, as that summer had been.  Things were tight already.  There was not "extra" for an adoption.  

However, after that meeting in October, we both agreed that we would continue to pray about it.  In December Adam came home on his birthday informed me that there had been some changes at work that day.  In short, in one days time, he found out that his salary would DOUBLE!  This was a HUGE answer to prayer.  We praised God so loudly that day... forget it... that month!  

Well, while one would think this would be our "sign" to go ahead with adoption, we are a little more hard headed.  We continued with the excuses, in fact, the list grew... 

This continued until March and April of 2011.  God did not give up though.  He really taunted our heads and our hearts.  He flooded us with adoption.  It was everywhere...seriously...everywhere.  I even remember one day, the boys were watching a tv show I was in the kitchen behind them.  This show had a word of the day everyday.  On this particular day the word was Adopt.  I stopped dead in my tracks.  I had finished praying about adoption not one hour before.  I am telling you it was everywhere.  However, I did not want to keep nagging my husband about it.  Little did I know, I didn't have to!  God was doing it for me!  

I don't remember the exact day but it was a day in April when adoption came up in discussion again.  We decided we would at least start the application process.  I made the phone call.