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