Growing and thriving

Our sweet Michael is now well past the 7 month mark and quickly approaching 8 months. His sisters love him like crazy! He is trying many new foods, sitting up on his own, and making us all laugh with his many fun noises, babbling, and grunting. We love him so!

Below are some pictures from today, Easter Sunday. I feel so very blessed today for this family of mine, for God's faithfulness in bringing Michael into our family after stepping out in faith over 2 years ago and the wait that followed. And most of all, so deeply thankful for the death and resurrection of Jesus and that I get to teach my kids about Him!

Our official court date to finalize Michael's adoption is in just over 3 weeks, on May 8th! 

We are so excited for this day when he will officially become a Sportel. :)

Michael James!

I have a long overdue update!

It's time to introduce our son Michael James!

This past week marked 3 months that our sweet boy has been home with us! While his adoption is not finalized and may not be yet for several months, we have had "legal placement" of him since January 26 when his birthmom had her court date and legally relinquished her parenting rights. We have an open relationship with her and have seen her twice since we took Michael home and also communicate regularly. We will not put anything on social media such as Facebook until after his adoption is finalized, but felt like we could update this blog for those following.

Michael so quickly became a normal part of our family. Watching Alena and Nora love on him and adore him has been such a beautiful blessing. While the nights can be exhausting (still) and being in the baby phase again is an adjustment, the transition to being a family of 5 has been smooth overall.

Michael is so social and just loves to be around people, always with big smiles. We love him so much and have often reflected in the last few months how God's timing and plan really IS perfect, despite the many hard times in the waiting process.

Thank you so much to many of you who have journeyed with us in this. Please continue to pray our family, Michael, and his birthmom. We appreciate your support and will continue to appreciate it as we raise Michael!

Here are a few pictures from the past 3 months.

The above 2 are the day we brought Michael home, right after he met the girls.

Above 3: first week with us.

Christmas time- We have 3 kids!

That face... those eyes!

First family winter hike with Michael.

He adores his daddy. :)

He slept through Alena's birthday party, but we grabbed a picture of the 5 of us before bedtime.

He keeps growing and we are excited to continue to see who he will grow to be!

He's here!

We have had quite a whirlwind of a couple of weeks! After so much praying, waiting, wondering, and anticipating we suddenly have a sweet 3 month old baby boy in our home, and wow are we all enamored with him!

We first knew about him when we received an e-mail about his case the week before Thanksgiving. We responded with a "yes, we'd like our profile shown" like we often had in the past. Honestly, 18 months into saying "yes" without being chosen, we didn't get too excited or hopeful. But then Monday morning, November 21, I saw a missed call on my cell phone while at work and quickly stepped out of the office to listen to the voicemail. Our caseworker was trying to get ahold of us! I called her back and quickly found out that the mama of this boy wanted to meet with us and that we were the only family she wanted to meet with to see if we would be a good match for adopting her son.

We ended up meeting her the next day after a 2 hour drive for dinner along with another support person in her life and caretaker of her son. We were all quite nervous but it went really well. It's hard to explain but after being called to this process and waiting on God's timing for the child He wanted us to welcome, it felt... holy to be driving down there, going through this awkward yet necessary meeting. We were instantly at ease meeting these women and have so much love and respect for them already.

This past Monday, December 5, we drove back down to meet our sweet boy and bring him home with us. We are looking forward to a continuing relationship with his birthmom who has made this difficult decision. We have nothing but respect for her and are just so honored and humbled that she chose our family to welcome him in. While we are excited and so in love with him, we know there is much heartache on her end.

And so here we are, not even 60 hours into having him, and we are so in love with him. I had often wondered and honestly worried about what the bond would possibly be like with our adopted child, especially after having 2 biological children. I already feel so bonded to him as if he is my biological child. It is truly a gift. He is truly a gift to us. People sometimes make comments about how it's great we are doing this and how wonderful that he'll have us as a family, and I know they mean well. But living in these first sweet days, I know with all of my heart that we are the ones who are gifted by him.

We currently have "temporary custody" meaning that we don't have legal placement until his birthmom goes to court to relinquish her parenting rights, which probably won't be until January. So while this is a risky period for us, we have reasons to be fairly sure he'll stay with us. We aren't holding back from loving him fully and celebrating.

Thanks to so many of you who have walked in this journey with us. It is really just beginning and we are so thankful for the community of people in our lives who have made this possible. Please pray for us and also for his birthmom and caretaker as we are all adjusting to this transition. It is all so surreal.

Waiting

Thank you to those of you who check in here for updates. I am sorry that we have not been faithful in writing more often. There still isn't anything to really write as there is no actual update.

We continue to get expectant parent profiles intermittently and have been generally open to nearly all the situations, but our family hasn't been chosen by a birth family yet.

So we keep waiting.

Some times the waiting is filled with trust, faith, and hope.
Other times the waiting is weighty, hard, and frustrating.
It's hard to describe.

Please continue to pray for us when you think of us. Please pray for our future child and for his or her birth family. Please pray for our family to enjoy this current season we continue to be in as a family of four.

We are thankful for our community of support who can lift us up often, especially when we feel weaker in faith and hope.

Faith, Trust, and Hope

It's hard to believe it's been 4 months since I've posted an update. I haven't written because there just isn't a whole lot to say.

The summer and early fall were overall fairly slow with potential adoption news. In the past month, we have had more circulars come through than in probably the previous 3 months combined. That is encouraging, but there are also many families who are waiting to adopt. We haven't been chosen yet.

This has been quite discouraging at times, especially as often times it seems the birth mom already has preferences before even reading about us, such as wanting a couple with infertility, with no kids, or a stay-at-home mom. One from a  few weeks ago stated "absolutely no day care, only family caring for the child" which would have been true for our family until this month when I switched jobs. Nora now goes to day care one day a week at a great in-home, licensed day care of someone we know and trust. That one felt exasperating because you never know what life circumstances may bring and you can't promise something like that.

This is some of the raw hardness about it all. Some may think we're crazy to begin with because we've been able to have biological children. Some may think we should've gone a different route for adoption or met a "bigger" need in foster care. Some may say this, some may think that…. and I start to say this and think that and wonder if we got it all wrong.

But that's when I'm thankful for the decision-making process God took us through and the call to adopt that was clear in holy moments. Every time I begin to sink into hopelessness, distrust, anxiety, or frustration, I feel God gently nudging me and saying, "Do you trust me?" It doesn't mean I always respond well and come out of it joyful and singing, but it helps me have that glimmer of hope. 

So while it's hard to see friends birthing their 3rd children when I've been "pregnant" with mine longer, our girls growing up so quickly and the age gap widening, and repeated times of getting an e-mail that another family has been chosen, I am continually challenged to have faith, trust and hope by the One who called us to this and knows every piece of the story.

A Waiting Update

I've often had people ask lately how the adoption process is coming and if there is any news. The short answer is that no, there is no news. We are waiting. Summer has been busy with both the usual fun activities but also unexpected things that have made it feel….weird.  It's hard to believe it's mid-July. I haven't been dwelling on the waiting because there has just been so much going on.

We did have 2 potential adoptions that we had the opportunity to say "yes" to having the birthparents look at our profile book. Neither of them seemed likely based on what we knew ahead of time to be their preferences, but with both we went in praying that if that was to be the match God had for us, it would happen. We were not chosen for either to them, which honestly wasn't very disappointing I think because it seemed unlikely in the first place. I have a feeling it will be much harder if the time comes where it seems like the "perfect" fit to us and we aren't chosen.

So for now we keep waiting for more circulars (e-mails regarding potential adoptive children). Nora had her 3rd birthday at the end of June and with our girls now 5 and 3, things are getting increasingly easier. It's hard to imagine having a baby at times. It's also hard to trust in God's timing as the age gap continues to increase between Nora and our next child. It's weird to think that we officially started this process 6 months ago…. in a way it's like I'm 6 months pregnant but have no idea if the due date will be another typical 3 months, 3 weeks, or 3 years.

So though it's hard at times, we continue to have faith in God's perfect timing and plan for the child and birth family He will match us with. Please continue to pray for us, for our future child, and for the birth family throughout this process.

Puzzle progress!

We finally had the chance to build more of our puzzle to see where we are at in this fundraiser we are doing! Here is our progress! We have been overwhelmed with blessing by the amount of financial support we have already received. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

We have 202 more pieces to go to build this puzzle and complete this fundraiser. Each piece is $5 and we have been writing the names of our donors on the back so we can hang it in a double-sided frame when we are done.

If you are someone who has considered supporting us but thinks that a small donation of $5 or $10 isn't enough, please don't! Every little bit truly helps us! Please view our fundraising page or click on the link on the right side bar if you'd like to donate. Thank you!

Ladies' Night Out: Clothes Swap TONIGHT!

We hope you ladies will consider joining us tonight, even if it's last minute! AND even if you haven't had a chance to grab your old clothes, come anyways because there will be plenty! Here are the details:

• Where: The Point Church, 2449 76th St. SE, Caledonia, MI 49316
• When: Friday, May 29, 2015. 6:30 pm start arriving, first round of selections at 7:30pm.
• Suggested minimum donation: $10 per person, plus bringing your 10+ items of clothes, accessories, etc. (on hangers if shirts/dresses).
• Bring 10 items of clothing or accessories that you want to get rid of and then you will shop from all the other clothing and accessories that the other women coming bring! 
• The proceeds will be split between our adoption and the adoption that Rachel’s brother Justin and his wife, Shawnna are pursuing!

Here is a picture from the clothes swap we attended in Novemeber 2013 that we LOVED and which sparked the idea of this fundraiser! From left: Me, my sister Jenna, my sister-in-law Shawnna, and my mom Doreen

Breakfast Recap

We had our breakfast fundraiser last Saturday which was a great success! It went well thanks to our awesome family and friends who helped us! Thanks to all of you who came out to support us in this way! We are so blessed by the "village" of people in our lives that are helping us make this dream and call a reality. We had approximately 250 people come and raised a profit of about $4000 from the breakfast and bake sale! Here are just a few pictures of the event.

Breakfast fundraiser tomorrow!

It's tomorrow! Please join us and bring your family and friends! Pancakes, sausage, fruit, coffee, and orange juice will await you. 😊 We also have around 75 baked goods and 30 bags of coffee available for purchase! See you there! ☕

Officially approved!

We received this exciting piece of mail today! We are now officially approved and a waiting family! Thanks to so many of you for your support, encouragement, prayers, and financial donations so far. This is just the beginning of it all and we certainly need your ongoing love and prayers!

Home Study Review

Well we finally met with our caseworker again today to read our 15 page long home study report that he wrote. Wow, it was crazy to read all about ourselves in so much detail! We have been keeping very busy with preparing for the big fundraiser breakfast next week, making our profile book for birth families to look at, and making our online profile for birth families to review. It was so good to read through the home study report today, meet with our awesome case worker, and just take a step back to remember the focus and reason for all this craziness: following God's call and getting ready for the child he brings to our home!

When you think of us, please pray for us! Pray that God will continue to prepare our hearts to welcome this child into our home, and that we will trust and have faith in His perfect timing. It's a bizarre feeling to feel emotionally pregnant without the general idea of an ending in sight, but it's also thrilling! We should be officially approved in the next few weeks and then will be a waiting family!

Growing Puzzle!

I thought it was about time for a puzzle update. So far $730 in donations has built these 146 pieces of our puzzle! Thank you again to all of you who have supported us so far! We cannot begin to express how grateful we are for your support. Please continue to pray for us whenever you think of us; we sure need your prayers! Please also spread the word about our adoption to anyone you wish and encourage them to visit this blog and read about our family. We're excited to continue to watch the puzzle grow. :)

Growing our family.... through adoption!

We are excited to announce that we are in the process of adopting our 3rd child! God has been gradually and persistently revealing to our hearts the need to care for orphans and vulnerable children. Through much wrestling, talking, tears, prayers, resisting, seeking, and finally

submitting and surrendering, we have decided to take a step of faith and obedience to pursue

adoption as the next step in growing our family. It is not a decision we take lightly, but one that

we are excited to pursue because we have total peace and confidence that God has called us to do

this.

As we researched the various options (international, domestic, foster care), it became clear to us

that we were to stay local. While we strongly considered foster care, we weren't at peace with

entering into that at this point in our lives. Yet we kept hearing that we were to do something now, not later, as it is so easy to say. So in early January, we decided to pursue domestic infant adoption through Bethany Christian Services and sent in the initial paperwork. We have gone through our home study process over the past few months (interviews, physicals, fingerprinting, etc.) and are currently awaiting our final home study approval. Our case worker has given us the unofficial “you will be approved” for which we are excited! We should officially be a waiting family sometime in May.

Once we are a waiting family, we will be on a list of families that a birth mother can choose from

to be matched with for potential placement of her child. It could be days or it could be years

after approval until we have a child in our home. Once a birth mother chooses us, we will begin a

relationship with her and take part in the anticipated adoption plan. The birth mother could

change her mind before, during, or after the birth of the child. There is usually an ongoing open

relationship with the birth family in this type of adoption. We are ready to be as hospitable as

possible throughout this process. Once the child is born, we will likely take him or her home from

the hospital with us. The adoption would not be finalized until up to 3 months after birth.

We believe in the sanctity of life and support a birth mother choosing life for her child instead of

abortion, even if she does not think she can raise her child herself. What a powerful act of

courageous, sacrificial love to birth her child and give the gift of life in an inconvenient,

unexpected situation!

Jesus said, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and

follow me" (Matthew 16:24). We’ve realized that for us at this time, this means we are to follow

the call to adopt. Despite the uncertainties ahead, we are ready to be available with open hands

and open hearts to provide a home and a family for this child and to partner with the birth mom

in her decision of choosing life when she didn't have to. 

Please explore our blog to find out answers to some FAQs, learn more about our family, the timeline, and the fundraising that we are doing to help cover the costs of our adoption. We plan to keep this blog updated as we go through the process!