Where do you start to do an update when you haven’t updated for over three and half years?  Woah Nelly!  I can’t believe it has been that long!  Needless to say The Todd household has undergone some pretty significant changes since October 2011. 

To say Josiah is the prince of the house would be the understatement of the year!  His presence in our home brings life, joy, fun, laughter, cuddles, running,  kisses, kung fu, Disney Jr.,  etc…the list could go on and on.  He is such a joy and a blessing to everyone he meets.  He is three and a half going on 15!  He loves to play outside and he idolizes his big sisters.  He loves to help daddy work in the garage or outside in the yard. But most of all he loves his cuddle time with Momma!  He will sometimes look at me and say, “I love you Mommy!  You’re my precious girl!”  He melts my heart and has wrecked me for good!

October 21, 2011 was the beginning of one of the greatest miracles we have ever experienced as a family.  I regret not keeping up on our blog and sharing all of the miraculous things that happened while we were in Florida, on our way home, and when we came home.  The moment we were all together as TheTodd6, it was as if a piece of the puzzle was put in its place.  For so long we had felt this strange void in our family.  We knew God had promised us two more members of our family and we knew He was going to bring them to us in very special ways.  We longed for our family to be complete!  When Josiah came home it was almost as if we were complete…we were overwhelmed with love for this little boy and he consumed our every moment.  Sure, we knew in our hearts and minds that our Jeremiah was out there somewhere, but we were so consumed with everything Josiah.  Our homestudy expired, we lost contact with the adoption agency we worked with, and we began doing life as TheTodd6.  We talked about our Jeremiah and we prayed for him every single night, but it was almost like a routine rather than pursuit.  Putting it simply, we didn’t really continue the search for our Jeremiah.

Well, not until a few weeks ago…

I’m not sure how many of you remember or have read any of my previous posts, but let me give a little background information regarding our adoption story and specifically our Jeremiah.  There are two very distinct, very memorable moments in our journey that I will never forget.  They are the moments my sons were conceived in my heart!  I believe it was January 2008.  Steve and I, along with my sister and brother in law, were attending The Call in Cincinnati.  The Call is a multi-denominational prayer service, led by Lou Engle, and was held at US Bank Arena.  It was such a wonderful experience and the presence of the Lord was so real in that place.  One of the primary prayer focuses that day was for the thousands of abortions that are done in our country. An entire generation has been slaughtered and our government has allowed it. We were challenged to not just be pro-life from conception to birth, but from conception to death. We, as 'The Church', must be ready to help these young women and be pro-life through adoption.

As I was listening to one gentleman talk about his adoption story, I had this overwhelming desire to start asking for 2 boys, not just Josiah. Shocked and speechless, I began to barter with God. I told Him that if we were going to have another son someday then his name would have to be as significant as Josiah's. I started flipping through the Bible and looking for names that would pop off the page.

Nothing.

So, I thought to myself "I should reread the story of Josiah. If they are going to be brothers, either naturally or adopted, they would need to have names that were connected in some way." There was only ONE name that literally jumped off the page at me. I seriously thought God was joking and I laughed out loud (you can ask my sister and Steve).  The name the Lord showed me was the name Hilkiah. I was like..."ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I'm not going to name my son Hilkiah!" So, like any stubborn woman, I started looking through the rest of the Bible again, searching for anything BUT Hilkiah.

Suddenly I came to the book of Jeremiah. I repeated the two names in my head several times…"Josiah and Jeremiah."  I liked it.  However, I wanted to find out more about Jeremiah and the significance of his name. So I started at the beginning and read Jeremiah 1:1&2 "The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. The word of the LORD came to him in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah..."

I couldn't believe it! There was the connection between Josiah and Jeremiah AND he was the son of Hilkiah, Josiah's high priest. I started crying.   I knew right then and there that my second son had just been conceived in my heart. I was so excited, and a little nervous, to share everything with Steve.  Instantly the Lord began working in his heart and we knew that we knew that God was bringing us 2 sons!  We came home that night and immediately told the girls. To say they were excited would be an understatement.

Now fast forward 7 years…

We have been TheTodd6 for three and a half years.  We’ve never forgotten the moment our Jeremiah was conceived in our hearts and we have been diligent to pray for him and think about him often.  As I mentioned before, we became comfortable as TheTodd6 and didn’t feel a specific direction from the Lord in how we should pursue our Jeremiah.  But within the last 6 months, multiple people have told us about dreams they’ve had, prayers they’ve prayed, or how the Lord has woke them up thinking about our Jeremiah.  This has been such an encouragement to us!  It has also been a huge wake up call from the Lord about preparing ourselves to become TheTodd7!!  Little by little the promise of our second son began rising to the surface again and becoming a priority in our hearts and minds. 

But we still had no specific direction from the Lord.  We’ve never felt his adoption story was going to be like Josiah’s.  We’ve always known they would each have their own individual story of how God brought them to their Forever Family.  But how?  Where do we start?  We didn’t feel the Lord leading us to go through a private adoption agency again, but we didn’t feel Him leading us anywhere else either.  Many times Steve and I would talk about going through the county to get our homestudy again.  We would look online at the waiting children here in Dayton, but we never got a confirmation that we should go this route. 

Until a few weeks ago that is…

My mother-in-law was sitting in her living room watching TV one night when the Lord spoke to heart very clearly…”Go look on the Montgomery County Adoption website.”  Not sure what He was doing or why He wanted her to look at this website, she obeyed.  As she scrolled through the pictures of the children in Montgomery County waiting for Forever Families, she continued to ask the Lord what He was doing.  Then she saw a picture of a young man she recognized.  My nephew, Cole, was there at the time and she asked him to come look at the picture because she was certain he was one of Cole’s good friends from his class the year before.  Cole confirmed that it definitely was “D”.  (I’m just going to refer to him as “D” right now.) 

Later that day my mother-in-law called Steve and was telling him about Cole’s friend “D” and that he was up for adoption through the county.  She explained to Steve that “D” had lived in a foster home in their neighborhood and had been in Cole’s class the year before.  “D” had even gone to church with Cole a few times during Vacation Bible School in the summer of 2014.  Steve looked him up on the website and showed me his picture.  Our hearts were stirred for this handsome boy and we said a prayer for him.

For the next few days we would bring D up in conversation and wonder about what was going to happen to him.  My mother-in-law showed Rachel his picture and she instantly remembered him.  She had been his group leader at Vacation Bible School last summer.  She came home and couldn’t stop talking about him.  I could see this curious look in her eyes as she asked us about him and wondered how he was doing. 

It got to the point where I couldn’t think of much else.  I would wake up thinking about this young boy and wondering what his future would hold for him.  I would walk the halls at school thinking about him and how he was the same age as most of my students.  It wasn’t until Spring Break that it hit me!  The reason I couldn’t stop thinking about D was because my heart was already starting to pursue him!!  I immediately called Steve and told him we should get in contact with D’s caseworker and get some information about him.  Steve must have been feeling the exact same thing because he didn’t hesitate a bit.  He called D’s caseworker and left her a message.  Making that phone call seemed like a simple gesture, done out of curiosity.  However, for us, it was the start of a brand new journey God was leading us on.

Once again we called the girls into the living room and shared what we felt the Lord was doing in our family.  Being open and honest with them has always been our mode of operation.  They are just as much a part of the decisions concerning their brothers as we are.  We especially wanted to talk with them because D is so much older than Josiah and the journey is going to be drastically different then our last adoption journey.  We especially wanted to hear from Hailey because D is only a year and half younger than her.  Bringing a pre-teen boy into the house will definitely bring some changes in the way things are done around here.  The excitement and emotion that filled our house was surreal.  Rachel could hardly contain her excitement as she told stories of her interactions with D during VBS.  Leah was over the moon because his birthday is the day after hers and she loved the idea of sharing that special bond with him like Rachel has with Josiah.  Hailey was overcome with emotion as she shared her desire to bring her brother home and finally have our family complete.

The next few weeks were filled with emails, phone calls, applications, and an informational meeting with the county.  We were finally able to connect with D’s caseworker and she has been very transparent and informative.  D’s had it rough.  There’s no doubt about it.  However, the more we learn about him and his past, the more we want to pursue him and bring him home.

We have officially started the homestudy process and we are a third of the way through the classes we have to take through the county.  Our home assessor is super nice and very supportive.  We have expressed our desire to get this homestudy completed as soon as possible.  The sooner we get our homestudy approved the sooner we can begin meeting with D and building a relationship with him.

So there you have it...TheTodd7 is coming soon!  J  We know we have a long road ahead of us, but we serve a God is preparing us more and more every day.  We would like to ask that you join us in prayer for some very specific things:

-       Please pray that our homestudy process goes supernaturally fast.  They say it could take 3-6 months.  We don’t want to wait that long to get D home.

-       Pray that we can start building a relationship with D before our homestudy is officially completed.

-       Pray for D!!!!  Pray that the Lord will protect him emotionally, physically, spiritually, and mentally! 

-       Pray that D will be open to adoption and that he will be excited to be part of TheTodd7!  I can’t wait to share our story with him and explain how long we have waited for him to come home.  His name may not be Jeremiah…but God has confirmed in our hearts that he IS OUR Jeremiah.  J

-       Pray that we can get everything together at the house to be ready for D’s arrival.  We have some very specific financial goals that need to be met as well as some remodeling in the house that needs to be done.  Pray that the Lord helps us be disciplined and strategic with all of this.

Thank you for allowing us to share our journey with you!  We are excited, nervous, anxious (in a good way), and most of all, honored that God would choose us to share this journey together as a family.  He is a good God who cares for His children.  He is still in the miracle working business and we are anxious to see how this miracle unfolds.

I promise there will be updates more often!  (Well, maybe I shouldn’t promise…but I am sure going to try!)

Love you all!!

Shannon

Week full of MIRACLES!!!!

What an AMAZING, MIRACULOUS, OVERWHELMING week we’ve had. There’s NO possible way I can even begin to try and share every detail of everything that has happened in the past week, but I definitely want to share the highlights because I haven’t had a chance to update since we got to Florida. I’ve gotten so used to being able to share all of the details when I update the blog, so the past week has been hard. :) There simply hasn’t been enough time to sit and update everything the way I would have liked to. However, I am determined to get an update out today so I am going to do the bullet point method again.

As you know, we got the call last Wednesday letting us know the BM wanted us here in FL when the baby was born. We were overjoyed with this news. We rushed around packing things up and had a great time together on the road trip to Florida. Here’s a very brief description of the major events that have happened in our lives since the last time I posted…

THURSDAY NIGHT -
· We arrived in Florida around 8:30 and settled into an apartment that was made available to us for the week. It’s been such a blessing this week to come home to a cozy little apartment instead of a stuffy hotel room.

FRIDAY -
· After unpacking and trying to wind down from a long road trip, we finally headed to bed a little after midnight. As I was falling asleep I remember hearing a train outside the window. I didn’t think much about it at the time, but would later make an unbelievable connection to something the Lord had spoken to me several weeks ago.
· My cell phone rang at 3:30am and it was the director of the agency (Miss S) here in Florida. She was at the hospital with Josiah’s BM and she was in active labor. The BM wanted us there at the hospital so we shot up in bed, frantically got dressed and headed to the hospital. We carefully made our way through the small unfamiliar town (with the help of our GPS) and made it to the hospital by 4:15am. On our way to the hospital I noticed that we had to go over at least 6 different rail road crossings. It appeared this little town was surrounded by trains. As we were approaching the hospital we passed a cute little train station. As I mentioned before, I will post soon about the significance of trains in this whole story, but you need to know that I had seen the train station near the hospital in my mind weeks before we ever knew about the situation with this BM. God was blowing me away with the little touches He was putting on this journey just to remind us that He was in it from the beginning.
· Miss S met us out by the nurses’ station and we followed her into the BM’s room. She was in so much pain and instantly began to apologize for getting us out of bed so early in the morning. I was amazed at the instant connection we had with her. (Side note…I hate having to refer to her as the BM. She is so much more than that to me, but I want to respect her and the privacy of this situation so I can’t share her name. I couldn’t think of a name that I wanted to use so I decided to just stick with BM. Just remember, she’s not just some woman who gave me her son. She is my hero who I love more than I ever thought I would.)
· We decided we would wait in the waiting room until she had her epidural and got some rest. Miss S sat with us and we talked for several hours as the BM rested after getting her epidural. Miss S explained to me that the BM wanted me in the room with her when he was born if I was comfortable with that. I wasn’t sure what to say because I was so overwhelmed with the reality of what was happening. All of this was so much more than I ever imagined. God was truly knocking my socks off and showing me once again that He is a faithful and loving God.
· At 7:00am we had not heard anything from the nurses for a few hours so Steve and I decided to head down to the cafeteria to eat breakfast and get some coffee. As we were leaving the waiting room, Miss S jokingly said “You know as soon as you get down there they’ll check her and she’s going to be ready to start pushing.” Sure enough, when we were almost finished eating my cell phone rang and Miss S said “Get up here now. Your son is coming soon!” I dropped everything and ran upstairs, leaving Steve to clean up and bring our coffee up. LOL I could barely contain my excitement. I think I floated all the way up the elevator and into the Labor and Delivery unit.
· When I walked into the room, the BM was sitting up and the nurses were getting everything ready. We talked for a few minutes about how she was feeling and everything that was about to happen. She asked about our trip and again apologized for getting us out of bed so early. All I could do was smile and tell her to stop apologizing. lol She had obviously already talked to the dr about us because as soon as the dr entered the room she looked at me and said, “You must be the adoptive mommy. It’s so nice to meet you. Why don’t you come right over here so you can see your son being born.” I looked at the clock at 8:10 and thought “We’re going to have a baby by 9:00.” Well, five pushes later, at 8:21, Josiah Steven Wayne Todd was born. He weighed 7 lb. 15 oz. and was 21.5 inches long. I was instantly in love. The dr looked at me and said “Do you want to cut the cord mom?” OMG!! I couldn’t believe it. Once again, God was overwhelming with His special touches that were going above and beyond anything I had ever dreamed of.
· I instantly started taking pictures and sending them to Steve who was anxiously waiting out in the waiting room. After everything was cleaned up and put away, Steve joined us in the room and got to meet his son for the first time. I will never forget that moment for as long as I live. From the first touch, they were instant buddies.
· As I look back on the rest of that day and all day Saturday, I can see how anyone on the outside of this situation might think the events of last weekend could be a little awkward and even uncomfortable at times. All I can say is that God was at the center of everything that happened in that hospital and I will cherish the time we got to spend with his BM. The hospital was very small so there weren’t any open rooms for us to stay in with Josiah. It was obvious though that God had ordained for us to spend the next 24-36 hours with Josiah’s BM making memories and hearing about her story in more detail.
· I ended up spending the night at the hospital with Josiah and his BM so I could take care of him through the night. The hospital didn’t have a typical nursery so the only place he could stay was in the room with the BM. She was nervous about being there by herself because she knew it would make saying goodbye even harder. I volunteered to stay with her and we had a great night. I was honored to help take care of her and of course I was thrilled to be there for my son’s first night in this world. It was a great bonding time!

SATURDAY
· What an emotional day! Steve and I spent a majority of the day talking and ministering to the BM. She had so many questions for us and God allowed us to impart some wonderful things into her life. We prayed together and even ate a wonderful lunch together provided by the hospital.
· Surprisingly, I hadn’t cried at all since we got to Florida. I am usually an emotional basket case and can cry at the drop of a hat. The BM said she is the same way, but we were both amazed that neither of us had shed one tear. She believed it was because the peace of God, that passes all understanding, had filled that hospital room and helped solidify that we were doing exactly what He wanted us to be doing. However, when it came time for us to say goodbye to her, the emotions started flowing and I cried all the way to the car. She is by far the most courageous person I have ever met! I truly believe that we will meet her again someday. She has a long road ahead of her so we covet your prayers for her. She has a desire to follow God’s plan for her life and stop making some of the choices she has made in the past. We believe that God is ready to radically change her and make her life something beautiful. However, we also know there’s an enemy out there who would want nothing more than for her to fall again and turn her back on the Lord. Thank you for your prayers for her.
· The BM signed consent and the other paperwork Saturday afternoon while we were at the store. When we returned to the hospital, she had been discharged and it was just the three of us. As much as I loved the time I got to spend with her, it felt wonderful to be there with just Steve and Josiah.
· Josiah wasn’t able to be discharged until 48 hours after birth, so I stayed at the hospital with him Saturday night. One really cool thing that happened that night was we go to Skype with the girls. We were missing them so much and we knew they were chomping at the bit to see their brother. We have walked this journey together as a family from the very beginning. It was hard not having them here to experience it all with us. This has been especially true as the week has drug on and on.

SUNDAY
· Josiah was released from the hospital and we brought him to the apartment. It’s really important for adoptive parents to bond physically and emotionally with their adoptive child. I have several amazing friends who gave me some great advice about this bonding time and some things we could do to help the bonding process with our son. We spent the next several days being very intentional about bonding and talking to him. As each moment passes, we fall more and more in love with him and we realize more and more what a blessing he is to us.

Now it’s the waiting game again. After consents were signed on Saturday (10/22), everything was sent to the lawyer’s office on Monday. The way I understand it, the lawyers here in Florida had to submit all of our paperwork to the state ICPC (Interstate Compact for Placement of Children). Basically, ICPC is the process where Florida has to approve and recognize the adoption in their state and then send the information to Ohio so they can approve and recognize it in their state. Until both states have done the paperwork and communicated with each other, we cannot leave the state of Florida. We are so anxious to get home to the girls and the rest of our family. It’s getting harder and harder to be so far away and be stuck in this small town.

If any of you have ever walked through a miracle or a time in your life when you knew God was moving in a mighty way, you can understand what I mean when I say the enemy (the devil) gets really mad. He often attacks people in these times as a way to discredit what God has done or as an attempt to distract and discourage people from what God has or is doing. Well, we have definitely felt some of this spiritual attack this week. Even though we would not trade the time we’ve had with our son, it’s been a very lonely week here being so far from family and friends.

We covet your prayers for some very specific things…
· A speedy answer from ICPC. If we don’t hear anything today then we won’t be able to leave Florida until at least Monday. They don’t process anything for ICPC over the weekends. There doesn't seem to be a sense of urgency with anyone besides us so we easily get frustrated when no one keeps us updated.
· Encouragement for us as we wait. We are constantly reminding each other of the waiting period we went through to get to this point in our journey. We know that God is still in control and He has a reason for us still being down here. However, it’s easy to look at our circumstances and get frustrated. This little town is far from a touristy town so there isn’t anything to occupy our time during the day.
· Continued prayer for the BM. She is a beautiful person who has an amazing heart. We are praying God radically gets ahold of her heart.
· Continued prayer for Josiah. He is absolutely perfect and we can’t wait for you to meet him. He melts every heart he comes in contact with.
· Safe travels when we finally get to leave. We are so anxious to get home, but we know traveling with an infant will be much different than the trip down here. :)

Thank you for your continued prayers during this entire journey. I can’t wait to update later with more pictures and more details about the special little things God did while we were here in Florida. We are planning on having a HUGE party in a few weeks (I don’t want to call it a baby shower…it’s SO much more than just a baby shower.) We would love to have you all there. More info about that later. We love you so much!

We Are Here!

After a long day of traveling, we finally arrived to our destination. We are overwhelmed with the love and encouragement we have received through texts, Facebook, email, and phone calls. It definitely helped make the trip go by faster. :-)

Some of you may not even be aware that we are already in Florida. Everything has happened so quickly that we haven't been able to keep the blog updated. Before I give an update on everything going on, I need to share some important things. When we got here we were able to have a great conversation with one of the caseworkers from the agency in FL. We are actually staying in an apt under her house. It's a HUGE blessing and very comfortable. She gave us some advice (that I wish I had known a lot sooner), but nonetheless, I am going to take her advice from here on out. The main thing is making sure that any communication I share via the internet be very general. There are details in this situation that should not be public knowledge. I have not shared any of these details, but I have mentioned the BM name and I mentioned where exactly we were headed. I have gone back and edited our blog as well as deleted some of the posts on FB that mentioned any of this information. My heart's desire has been to honor her and the courageous spirit she has. I NEVER want to disrespect her or the process. This is all so new to us and sometimes the excitement of it all gets the best of me. The hard part is that I know we have SO MANY people who have joined us in this journey and I want everyone to know every detail of what God is doing! It's ALL for His glory! From here on out I will only refer to her as the BM and I will not be mentioning anything about where we are. Please respect us (and especially the BM) by not posting anything that includes her name if you know it or the city we are in. I hope this makes sense to everyone.

So, here's a quick synopsis of the past week...
- MONDAY we had a wonderful conference call with our agency and the agency in FL. We found out a lot of details and were very excited. Very nervous...but extremely excited.
- TUESDAY: bought a car seat and stroller in faith that we were going to need it this week
- WEDNESDAY afternoon I got a call at school saying that things were progressing a little bit with the BM and she requested we be here for the baby's birth. We were shocked. Last we had heard we were going to have to wait 24 hours after he was born before we were even going to get the call to come down. Now she wanted us to be here for the birth. We were so overwhelmed! Within a few hours we packed, made arrangements for the girls, said goodbye to the girls and family, and headed down the road.
-TODAY: The plan was for the BM to be induced and we would be here. It looks like it's going to be postponed until tomorrow morning. We are settling in for the night and going to try and get some rest.

It's been a whirlwind past two days. However, according to the caseworker here, the next 48 hours might be even more crazy. The main reason is because there are so many unknowns. We will try to update on FB when the baby is born but we will not be allowed to post any pictures or any details about him. I know this is going to be so hard for so many people, but it's just another way we can honor the BM and follow the recommendations of the agency here in FL. As soon as I get the green light to post things...I promise I will.

We covet your prayers over the next 48 hours. We still have an amazing peace and we know God's hand is in every detail. We can rest assured that there are NO unknowns to the Lord. He has orchestrated every detail and that alone gives us peace. I'm not superhuman though. I know that I am going to need His strength to walk me through the next couple of days. I may even need His strength to get some sleep tonight. :)

Thank you for the outpouring of love you have shown us. You are a huge part of this journey and we are blessed you have joined us. Our prayer is that you will feel the love of Jesus through all of this just as we have. He is worthy of our praises!!!!

Good night! Check FB tomorrow...I'll try to keep you posted. LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Florida Bound!!!!

Whew! What a day! I have SO much to do tonight so I have to make this update quick. I promise to update with more details later this week or this weekend. If I leave something out and you have questions, please don’t hesitate to comment on here or comment on Facebook. We are also going to attempt to use Twitter this next week, so look for us there at: @Steve_n_Shannon.

We originally thought we were going to have a conference call tomorrow with our agency and the agency in Florida. However, Sunday night we got an email requesting a conference call for this morning at 10:00. After an amazing hour long conversation with the caseworker in Florida and our agency here in OH, the decision was made that we should head to Florida later this week.  (I still can’t believe it!)

My heart has gone out to this BM all day long. I now know why I have always said that BMs are my heroes! There will never be one ounce of judgment passed on her by me because in my eyes she is being very courageous knowing she can’t care for this little baby.

As it stands now she will definitely give birth to him on Thursday (which…as I mentioned before…is Rachel’s birthday. To say Rachel is excited would be an understatement! To say all 3 of the girls are ecstatic would also be an understatement.) The agency still wants to wait 24 hours until we come to the hospital in the event that the BM changes her mind or that his medical situation is really bad. They don’t anticipate the BM changing her mind at all, but just like in every adoption, there’s still that risk. They also don’t suspect any medical conditions with the baby, but they want to be extremely cautious because of the smoking and drinking she has done during the pregnancy. Steve wants us to leave Thursday night, go as far as we can, and then be super close to the hospital when we get the call on Friday that he is ready to have us come see him. We will definitely keep updating on Facebook and Twitter during that time because the girls will be here in OH and they want to know every detail.

Thank you for your continued prayers. Although it seems we have found Josiah, we are still guarded and anxious about all of the things that could potentially go against us. We covet your prayers as we get everything together to take to Florida with us, get stuff together here at home, and prepare to leave in a few days to pick up our little boy. In the words of Leah…”I can’t believe that something I have prayed for my ENTIRE life is about to come to pass.” For 10 years I have carried Josiah in my heart and in a matter of days, I could be carrying him in my arms. Wow! We serve an amazing God!

Good Night All! We love you!!!!

Florida on Friday??? Your Will Lord...

It is with an extremely guarded, yet overwhelmingly peaceful heart that we bring this update to you tonight. It’s been quite a while since we updated everyone on our adoption journey and the main reason has been because there hasn’t been anything to update you on. It’s been months since we have heard about any specific situations from our agency and all contact has been lost with our connections with Lil Sinclair. We do know that Lil Sinclair is due anytime now and we pray for him often. We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God brought that situation into our lives so we could continuously pray for him and his BM (birth mom). God has an awesome plan for them and we are thankful we had the opportunity to pray for them specifically.

I started this blog describing our hearts as extremely guarded, yet overwhelmingly peaceful. If you have read about our journey so far you are aware of the ups and downs our family has been on. Many times we have been stretched emotionally and spiritually beyond our comfort zones. Because of the nature of our journey thus far, we have become extremely guarded when open doors present themselves to us. We have committed this entire journey into God’s hands since the beginning and we trust that any doors we are not supposed to walk through will be closed according to His will for our family. The situation I am about to share with you would have rocked our world had we gone through it a few months (or even a year) ago. However, because of God’s faithfulness and everything He has taught us throughout this journey, we have an overwhelming peace that we can’t exactly explain. As you continue reading this blog entry, remember that above all else we want the Lord’s will to be done in this situation and we want Jesus to be glorified!!

This past week has been a very emotional one for our family. My (Shannon) grandpa passed away last weekend and we spent the first part of the week with family celebrating Grandpa’s life. Wednesday was a day of rejoicing as we shifted our emotions from days of grieving to a day of celebrating new life. Just one day after laying Grandpa to rest, we were celebrating the birth of my cousin…Kaitlyn Dawn. After visiting her in the hospital that morning and congratulating my Aunt & Uncle, we headed home to attempt to get back in the swing of things. Not even 20 minutes after we walked in the door, I received an email from our agency asking us to call them ASAP and that it was very important. I called Denise and she began to explain a situation with a BM in Florida. Very simply here’s what we knew…an agency in Florida had seen our profile and chose us for this birth mom to look at. Initially we were under the assumption that we were the “chosen family” but later realized it was a bit more complicated then that. We were told we needed to decide if we were interested and whether we wanted to proceed with the process or not. Coming off of the emotional week we had just experienced, we asked if we could take a few hours to talk about it and pray about it. After lots of conversations with each other, conversations with our parents, and conversations with God, we decided we were going to look at this as an open door of opportunity. Even though I desperately wanted a crystal clear answer from the Lord, we both felt that our faith in the Lord would guide us through and He would close any door that didn’t align with His will for our family. We sent an email to our agency that night and began the waiting game.

Thursday morning came and there wasn’t an immediate response to the email we had sent the night before. We waited all day and finally I couldn’t take it anymore. I emailed our agency and asked if they had heard anything from Florida. She said the BM had several profiles to look at and as soon as she made a decision they would let us know. That’s all we knew as we went to bed Thursday night and anxiously awaited some answers Friday.

Friday afternoon we finally received a phone call from our agency. The BM had made her decision and it appeared we are the family she chose. Now let’s talk about the waiting game! We are planning on having a conference call with our agency and the agency in Florida sometime Tuesday or Wednesday. We hope to have some of our questions answered then. Until then…we wait. However, in the meantime, we need you to be praying. What specifically should you pray for? First and foremost…God’s will to be done in this situation. If this is God’s will for our family then we want everything to go according to His plans. However, if this is not our son, then we pray He will make it clear and begin shutting doors. We also pray that if this is not His will for our lives that He will place this precious little guy in a Godly home that will love him and raise him to love Jesus! Second, we pray for emotional strength and wisdom beyond their years for our girls. We never want to lose sight of the impact all of this has on them. We always want to make them a priority and we ask that you pray for them as much as you pray for us. We have taken every step of this journey together as a family and it has made us stronger because of it.

Thank you for your prayers and your constant encouragement! Several people have already shared with us that they will be taking several days this week to fast (in many different ways) and pray for this situation. We are going to join them in a time of fasting and we invite anyone else who is comfortable with this to join us as well.

We will update as soon as we know more…

An Update With NO Update

It’s hard when there isn’t much to update. I think that’s why I’ve been putting it off so long…I’ve been hoping to have something more exciting to share with everyone who follows our blog. Unfortunately, there isn’t anything new to share. I will update you on a few of our “Lil” ones we have shared about in the past few posts…
We have had so many “Lil” ones come into our lives in one way or another. You might remember us asking for prayer for Lil Ohio. This situation was presented to us by our agency. A BM (birth mom) in northern Ohio wasn’t sure when her due date was and it seemed she was in pre-term labor. She was at the hospital and it looked like it was going to be an immediate situation. She wasn’t sure what she was having, but the doctors were going to try to do an ultrasound even though she was pretty far along. She liked our profile and the agency was working with her to develop her adoption plan. As far as we knew, there was a strong chance we were going to be traveling to the Akron area to be there for the birth of our son. The doctors were able to stop her labor, but they were unable to find out the sex of the baby because of how far along she was. She was able to go home and our name was taken off the table because there was no way of knowing whether this baby was going to be a boy or girl. This precious momma had been raised in foster care and knew the heart ache of being passed from family to family. Her one desire for her unborn baby was that the adoptive couple would be a strong couple committed to each other and to their family. She also wanted to make sure that whoever the adoptive parents were, they needed to be at the hospital immediately because she was concerned about the baby not having anyone there to bond with right away. Her care and concern for her unborn baby touched my heart in such a precious way. Even though we were disappointed again, we continued to pray for this BM, Lil Ohio, and the adoptive parents who were blessed to be his/her forever family.
The other “Lil” one we asked you to pray about is Lil Sinclair. Although I still do not feel released to share names or some of the other details, I do want to share the impact this has had on our journey. I have always joked with people about how I think at least one of our adoptions would take place…what if it’s a friend of a friend of a friend? Then one day I got a phone call from a friend (I’m going to call her Miss J). She began telling me about her friend (I’m going to call her Miss A). Miss A works with Miss J and Miss J thought I should contact Miss A about a conversation they had earlier that day. She said Miss A has a daughter (I’ll call her Miss G) who attends Sinclair. Miss G came home and told her mom that a girl in one of her classes that she had never talked to approached her out of the blue. Long story short, this girl was pregnant and was interested in Miss G adopting her baby. While my friend, Miss J, was telling me about this situation, my heart immediately went out to this girl at Sinclair and her precious baby. She wasn’t sure what she was having, but at the time she believed she was not going to be able to raise this baby and she knew adoption was an option. I rejoiced that she had chosen life and not abortion and my interest was piqued at the whole situation. I ended up contacting Miss A through email and explained who we were as a family and how I knew Miss J. Over the span of a few weeks we talked through email, texting, and even on the phone. I have never met Miss A face to face, but the conversations we have had on the phone have been some of the most inspiring and encouraging to me. She is such a wonderful lady and she has a desire to use her own experiences in life to minister to young women who find themselves in tough situations. Her heart was moved for this girl her daughter met and she was convinced our paths had crossed for a very specific reason. Every few weeks I would hear from Miss A and she would update me on any conversations Miss G had with the girl at Sinclair. We would pray together and talk about the possibilities the future held. One conversation in particular I shared with her my desire to open a home someday for pregnant girls who have nowhere else to go. I told her all about the details of the House of Pearls and she immediately began to share with me some of the things she had gone through in her life. I knew right then and there that she was destined to be a part of my story. I wasn’t sure exactly how, but I knew I wanted women like Miss A surrounding me in this adoption journey and in my plans for the House of Pearls.
WARNING…I am about to be very transparent and even a little raw…
Fast forward a few months…things had gotten really awkward for Miss G at Sinclair and therefore my conversations with Miss A were few and far between. I received a text from Miss A in June letting me know that Lil Sinclair was a boy and that I needed to pray for his momma because she wasn’t sure she wanted to give him up for adoption anymore. Praying for her was something I did on a daily basis. However, I was not prepared to receive this kind of news through a text and I definitely wasn’t prepared for that to be my last contact with Miss A. I knew there were ways I could contact her, but at that point I knew that prayer was the only thing I could really do. The fact that this BM was planning on keeping her baby was not what I was struggling with. It was the fact that I couldn’t and still can’t figure out why God would allow this situation to come into our lives and get so close to our hearts.
It was during this time through the summer when my faith really started to fade. I began to doubt whether this was really something the Lord had called us to or if this was just some crazy idea I had. One day I was broken and confused and really frustrated with this whole journey. I was at a breaking point and I was so hurt that I hadn’t heard anything about Lil Sinclair for so long. In the midst of my pity party I heard the Lord ask me if I was still going to trust Him. He asked me if I would still trust Him even if Lil Sinclair was not my son. He asked me if I could see the impact Miss A could have on my future ministry even if nothing ever came of the situation with Lil Sinclair. I was dumbfounded. Of course I trust Him, but I still wanted answers for why I would be introduced to a situation that has only left me empty handed and saddened by the potential of having our son home by the end of 2011. It didn’t help that we didn’t hear anything from our agency for several months too. We literally had NOTHING going on in the area of our adoption journey and it was extremely frustrating! Not only that, but we had just finished completely remodeling our house in preparations for the day when our boys would come home. Was it all for nothing? Why were we even wasting our time? Who says He doesn’t give you more than you can handle?
This mentality lasted for several months. It affected the way I thought about Josiah and Jeremiah. It affected the way I talked about our adoption journey. But most important, it affected my relationship with God. I knew I still loved Him & I knew I would serve Him all of my days, but something had happened in me because of all the pain we have been through on this journey. I was at a point where I wasn’t sure I could do it anymore. I wasn’t sure I had the emotional strength to continue on this journey and allow my heart to be crushed anymore. That’s when His GRACE intervened and the Lord met me once again at my low point.
I’m SO thankful for His intervention in my life and I can’t wait to tell you about the “train” that is coming! :)
As for Miss A, Miss G, Lil Sinclair, & his momma (who will always be one of my heroes)…I still haven’t heard anything. I hope that one day I can get an update on how they are doing. I know that whatever decision this precious girl makes, Lil Sinclair is going to be a blessing. I pray for them daily and I ask you to do the same. I may never know why this situation was brought into our lives. I’m ok with that…because I know that one day my boys will be in my arms and I will be able to look back and say “It’s been worth it all!”

Not letting another night pass...

For weeks now I have been feeling a strong urgency to update our blog. There hasn't been anything new to share with anyone, but I have felt an overwhelming urgency to update and let people know that we are still here and still waiting. I've even told Steve a few times..."Don't let me go to sleep tonight without updating out blog!" But like all "good intentions" I would end up falling asleep and not updating anything.
So, here I am. It's a Sunday night and it's almost midnight. We have been back in school for a week now and I know I should have been asleep a long time ago. However, tonight has been a night that I have needed for a while and I just couldn't go to sleep without posting something on here. I'm not going to share everything that's on my heart because I want to make sure I word it the right way. I want to make sure that I don't miss one part of what God is doing in me, in Steve, in our family, and in this journey. He is the reason I am posting this tonight. It's for His glory that I refuse to give up when the situations around me look hopeless and it feels like we are going to be waiting forever. It's my faith in the promises He's made that gives me hope. He is not a liar and He does not go back on His word. He has proven that to me tonight through a conversation I had with my sister! I can't wait to share all of it and I promise I will explain more tomorrow. But for now...I must sleep. :-) I just couldn't let this night pass without documenting it in our blog somehow. I look forward to the day when I can share this blog with Josiah and Jeremiah. In a way, I want this to be a glimpse into the anticipation and expectation we have felt all along this journey. I want them to know that tonight was the night I made a choice...and I will tell you all about that choice tomorrow. Good night!

A Special Mother's Day Tribute to ALL Moms

Wow! What an amazing Mother’s Day it has been. I am so blessed to have the three most beautiful girls in the world and a wonderful hubby too. I must admit though…it has been one of the most emotional Mother’s Days I have had in a very long time.

It actually started late last night when our nephew, Luke Nathaniel, was born. I was one proud aunt when he came into this world as handsome as anything I had seen. After getting to bed super late last night, I woke up to breakfast in bed served by some very excited girls. We ate breakfast together talking about the day and everything we had planned. After they left my room to get ready for church the multitude of emotions started stirring. I wasn’t prepared for all of the thoughts and emotions that would swarm my mind throughout the entire day. I want to share them with you as a special tribute to all of the moms out there.

Did you know there are different levels of motherhood? (This isn’t anything researched or scientifically documented. I just made it up, so bare with me. LOL) All day today I have thought about the different women in my life and the different levels of motherhood they find themselves in. I’ll start with the obvious levels that I immediately thought of this morning. These women are those who have given birth to a child and celebrate today with their biological children. Some of them are at the beginning level because this is their first Mother’s Day. I have several friends that are at this level and it is so exciting to celebrate with them. There are also those women who have celebrated several Mother’s Days over the years with their children and each year it gets more and more exciting to see how their children are going to honor them. Then you have the women whose children are grown and are having children of their own. They are now at a totally different level because they get to celebrate Mother’s Day as a mom as well as a grandma. Wow! Talk about a blessed woman!

Then my heart began to think about the women who were celebrating Mother’s Day here on earth while their child or children are celebrating in heaven. I can’t even begin to imagine how that must feel and I am not going to even attempt to put into words where my heart went as I prayed for these Mothers on this day. Some of the women I thought of lost their baby before they ever had the chance to hold them. Others lost their child while they were very little and never got to see them grow or walk or lose their first tooth. Some lost their child after only a few short years of being their mommy. And yet others lost their precious child later in their life, but still sooner then they were prepared for. All of these women deserve to be honored in a very special way. My heart aches for them.

The next group of mothers that were on my heart this morning was the “expecting” mothers. This has become a very real and exciting level of motherhood in our family, as my sister and brother-in-law just found out they are expecting their first child in December. I was so excited to send her a text and wish her a Happy “Expecting” Mother’s Day as she celebrates spending the next couple of months bonding in a miraculous way with her ‘Lil Peanut’. Needless to say, I am SO excited!!!! I have several friends and family members who find themselves in this level of motherhood and I can’t help but bubble up with joy for them. It was so cool to start the day off with the memory of being there last night when little Luke was born. What a wonderful Mother’s Day present he was for my sister-in-law.

As I sat in Sunday School this morning, my heart immediately began to think about some precious women who find themselves at a different level of motherhood. I call this the “promised” level or the “longing” level of motherhood. My heart is burdened for those women who know God has promised them a child and they long for the day they will become pregnant and His promise is fulfilled. We read about Hannah this morning and the prayers she would pray to God during her barren time. She was such a faith filled woman, yet she struggled emotionally with the fact that she had not been able to get pregnant. I immediately began praying for very specific people in my life and I prayed Hannah’s prayer over them. Once again, I can’t imagine how they must be feeling today of all days. In my mind they are still mothers and they still deserve to be celebrated. Faith is “the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen.” The women I am thinking of know they have been called to be a Mommy and their hearts are already filled with so much love for their children. They don’t have the evidence of their faith yet, but I know we serve a God who is more than able to do above anything we could ever imagine. Will you pray for these precious women today and everyday? They deserve our prayers and they definitely deserve to be celebrated today.

Another level of motherhood I thought of today was a very special one to me. These are the moms who know there is a place in their heart that could only be filled by the adoption of a child. They understand that their child may not have been conceived in their womb, but they can tell you the moment their child was conceived in their heart. These are the moms who didn’t give up on the search and sacrificed so much in order to bare the title Mommy. They may not have given birth to the child, but they know beyond a shadow of a doubt, they are exactly who God planned to be the mother of their child/children. Although I do not have my boys in my arms yet, I know that this is a level I long to be at.

The last level of motherhood I thought of today is linked very closely to the previous one. The precious women who find themselves at this level will forever be my heroes. They are the women who know they were not meant to raise the child they carried for nine months and they choose to give that child an amazing gift…a forever family. I have to admit…my heart went out to the women at this level of motherhood in a very special way. I don’t know the exact scenario or situation that will present itself when it’s time for us to get Josiah and Jeremiah. However, I know that I will love their birth mom with a love I can not even begin to imagine right now. You see, my vision goes beyond just getting our sons. I want to minister and love on the ladies at this level of motherhood in a very tangible way. I want to be a blessing to them and a refuge when they don’t know where else to go. Oh how I long for the day when I can open the House of Pearls. (More to come on that at a different time.)

By the end of the day I was an emotional basket case. I had literally been all over the map with my emotions and yet in a very peculiar way I was so grateful for the epiphany the Lord had showed me today with all of these "levels". I realized that He loves Moms so much and that He is the One who gives them the strength they need to do all of the amazing things they do. I realized that this Mother’s Day I find myself in a few different levels of motherhood. I am so blessed to have three biological children who knock my socks off everyday with the blessing they are to me. I find myself excited and longing for the day my boys will be home and our family will be complete. I am anxious to see how God is going to use me to help young mom’s who know adoption is the plan God has for them and their unborn baby. Until then, I am going to continue to pray for all of the moms I know at all of the levels I have just described to you. I am also going to hold on to the promise of Josiah and Jeremiah! One day my heart will be complete.

Thanks for reading. Keep praying for all of the Lil ones that we have encountered along our adoption journey. Especially pray for Lil Ohio and Lil Sinclair. Hopefully I will have more information on both of these lil ones soon that I can share with you. Until next time…be blessed!

Finally...An Update

Two months? Really? Has it seriously been two months since our roller coaster ride with Lil Oklahoma? Wow! I sincerely apologize for not updating sooner. I’m sure many of you who follow us on our blog have assumed the outcome of our previous entry. Here’s a quick update… After the birth mother had the evening to think about everything, our agency thought it might be a good idea if I wrote her a letter. They asked me to include in the letter an explanation of how we would make sure this lil guy’s culture and identity as an African American would be incorporated in our lives. They asked me to identify any African American family friends who would be influencing our son as we raised him as our own. I have often thought about all of this, but I had never put it into words. We have several good friends from different races and cultures who already pray for our boys on a regular basis. I have always known that they will be an important part of our boys’ lives, but I had never thought about the impact this information could make on a birth mom. I was at work when our agency requested the letter so I locked myself in my office, prayed that God would move my fingers on the keyboard in order to write what He wanted me to write in the letter. 30 minutes later I was emailing our agency the letter God inspired and hoped it would be enough to convey my heart to this precious woman in OK. Hours passed and we still hadn’t heard anything. I had a peace about it all day, but I was still so anxious to hear her official decision. Part of me was ready to get on a plane that afternoon and yet another part of me knew he was not meant to be my son. Even with all of these feelings, nothing could have prepared me for the phone call I received right at the end of the school day. My cell phone rang and it was Denise from our agency. She informed me that the birth mother had chosen the other couple. My heart sank and for a brief second I had to tell myself to breath. I needed to get out of there as soon as possible. Where was Steve? Where were the girls? These were the thoughts going through my head as I walked straight to my office, grabbed my stuff and told Steve & the girls we needed to leave immediately. Steve was at the school for the middle school Bible Study and asked someone else to cover for him so we could leave. When we got to the van I told them that the birth mother had chosen the other family and instantly the grieving began. The next few hours were spent crying, praying, talking, and crying some more. The girls had so many questions and unfortunately some of them we didn’t have answers for. However, throughout it all, Jesus was glorified. Even though the girls had questions and there were moments of being mad & confused, their faith in the Lord never moved. He was and IS our ROCK. His peace truly does pass all earthly understanding. The rest of the evening consisted of going to dinner at a fun restaurant with my mom and praying for “Lil Oklahoma”. We may never know exactly why he was brought into our life for such a brief moment, but we do know that we have the distinct honor to pray for him, his chosen family, and his birth parents. He will never know it, but he has played an important part of our amazing journey. Since then a lot has happened. In an earlier post, I talked about “preparing for rain”. Well, the Lord provided miraculously through some very generous people and through our tax return. In a matter of weeks, we have finished the basement and turned it into our family room, put the walls up in the old family room and made it our master bedroom, and started the final touches in order to move all of the furniture around. We are hoping to have everything finished by the end of April. We’ve said for 2 years now that we were “ready for the boys whenever God wanted to send them to us.” However, we really didn’t have a space ready for them at our house. Sure…we had plans for their room, but we hadn’t started anything. I am proud to say, that in a matter of weeks we will be officially ready for them whenever He decides it’s time for them to come home. Since the time of Lil Oklahoma we also had a brief encounter with a situation that involved “Lil Florida.” This situation wasn’t nearly as emotional as Lil Oklahoma, but it taught us a lot. First of all, it taught us not to submit our profile unless we knew we could act right away. I’m not going to go into all of the details because it is so frustrating. This precious little guy was a preemie and desperately needed someone to come to his rescue. Although we jumped at it initially, the Lord made it clear to us that this was not our Josiah or our Jeremiah. Regardless, he is now on our list of “lil” ones to pray for along with his birth mom. This situation definitely opened our eyes even more to one of the major problems with US domestic adoptions…the outrageous cost. I’m going to resist the temptation to get on my soap box at this moment, but I will say that this is not the last time I will be talking about this issue. I am determined, through our experiences and our journey, to bring national attention to the insanely high cost of private adoptions in the US. Pray that God will allow me to make divine connections and direction. So here’s your prayer list for the time being…Josiah, Jeremiah, “Lil California” & his chosen family as well as his birth family (he was the first lil on our agency called us about, but we were never really involved in anything with him), “Lil Oklahoma” and his chosen family & birth family, “Lil Florida” and his chosen family & birth family, “Lil Sinclair” & his birth mommy (I might explain later…waiting on the Lord’s direction), Lil Dayton (again I might explain later…waiting on the Lord’s direction), and continued favor in our fundraising. We held a pancake breakfast shortly after Lil Oklahoma and we raised over $1000. Praise Jesus! We plan on having a spaghetti dinner soon & we will update about that as well. Our heart’s desire is to raise enough money that we can start a scholarship fund for future families who want to adopt. If you would be interested in investing in this please contact us. The last thing on the prayer list is that Jesus would be glorified in EVERY moment of our journey and every second of our lives. He truly is our ROCK & we know that His promises are true! Thank you for taking a few moments and sharing in our journey. I promise not to wait 2 months before the next update.

All Aboard The Ultimate Emotional Rollercoaster

Ever stood in line for a roller coaster and been so excited you felt like you were going to jump out of your own skin and at the same time you were so nervous you could throw up. Then you get on the ride, you commit to riding it by buckling the seat belt, even though everything in you is wondering if this is really the right choice. Through the twists, turns, hills, speed, and loops you continue to wonder if you should have ever gotten on this ride. Somehow though, you have convinced yourself that it is fun and you will probably do it again someday.
That is exactly what our day has been like!
Let's start at the point we decided we were going to get on the roller coaster. This afternoon we received an email from our agency letting us know about an urgent situation somewhere in Oklahoma. The baby boy is already born and he is going to be discharged from the hospital tomorrow (Feb.8). They needed any profiles of interested families ASAP. We asked them to submit ours and in less than an hour we got word that we had been chosen! They said we needed to be in Oklahoma tomorrow and we needed to have $7000 ready today and another huge chunk of change ready for the agency in OK. We barely took any time to deal with our emotions. WE HAD BEEN CHOSEN!!!!
Our agency called and explained that the birth mom had not wanted anything to do with the choice and her social worker and the agency had been the ones who chose our profile. We immediately went into frantic mode. God provided miraculously! We had to get to the bank, have some paperwork notarized, and head home to get packed. We decided I (Shannon) would fly to OK first thing in the morning and Steve would drive the van down tomorrow so we could have a car down there. Plus, we would only have to buy a one way ticket for one person. Everything was going great and we were flying on adrenaline. We still hadn't heard from our agency with any details and worry started setting in (mainly only in my heart...Steve had a supernatural peace the entire time).
Our agency finally called back and told us what the delay had been. (This is where the roller coaster started going super fast and looping everywhere.) Apparently after our profile had been chosen and we had already been notified, another profile was submitted. This other family has already adopted a little boy a few years ago who is African American. (Did I mention the little guy in OK is African American? In all of my dreams about my boys, one of them has always been African American.) The social worker wanted to be fair to the birth mom and give her one last chance to help in the decision process. We were able to be on a conference call with our agency and the agency down there. We were able to share a little bit of our heart and we got some questions answered. They told us we should hear something soon and so we ended the conversation very encouraged. Then..................We didn't hear anything for hours! I was an emotional basket case.
It was weird. I was so emotional (and still am) yet deep in my heart I know that God is all over this situation. He is in control and my one desire is for His will to be done in our lives and the life of this precious baby. I am so thankful that this birth mom chose life for her son and I know that God is going to do what is best for this little guy. Knowing all of that doesn't necessarily take away the emotional turmoil I am feeling as we wait for the decision.
We finally got a call from our agency around 9:30pm. She said the birth mom was having a very difficult time and she was super emotional right now. She was so content when she knew there was a family chosen. Now that there were two families involved she was having a hard time knowing that her decision was going to negatively effect one of the families. Immediately my heart went out to her in such a deep way. I started to imagine how she must be feeling and my heart was broken. She is my HERO!
Long story short...she has asked to have the night to think about it. So she will make her decision tomorrow morning and we should know for sure by noon or 1:00 tomorrow. If we are chosen we will be on our way to OK tomorrow afternoon to pick up our Josiah!
Prayer is the only thing I can ask for right now. Sure there are still a lot of financial questions and of course I will be doing some frantic shopping tomorrow afternoon if we end up heading to OK. However, prayer is the most important thing in this situation. Prayer for the birth mom, prayer for this precious lil guy, prayer for my girls because their emotions have been torn just as much as ours, and prayers for Steve and I. We commit this to you Jesus!
(We will update tomorrow as soon as we know anything!)