Hey,
I was just thinking about the things I have been saying when talking about the adoption. Especially since choosing Gladney. I have only been talking about and praying for the birth mothers. Why is the birth father so easily forgotten? I am sure it must be just as difficult for him and in some cases more so due to the lack of birth fathers rights. So if you would pray fir them and for me to have as much consideration for them as well.

- Thanks

T-minus 2 days until TX!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey,
Well it is 2 days until we go to TX for orentation at Gladney. I think I should have packed way back when I wanted to cause now I am running out of time! I realize that I am working 3 jobs tomorrow and 2 on Wed. I start both days at 6:00am and end both at 10:00pm! Did I mention that our flight leaves from Charlotte at 7:35AM! There is a little bit of downtime in between but not much. So this evening was my main time to get things done. Of course in the middle of it the power went out! The washer and dryer works so much better with power.

Well now that I have vented all that I will say that we are soooo excited! It has just really hit us what is coming up and the chain of events this will set into motion! Hopefully events that move really fast.

One of our concerns is that we will get so overwhelmed by the information that we will not really enjoy and get what we need to out of the orentation. Please pray that we will go into this with a clear head and an open heart. We know that God is with us, but sometimes it is easy to get so caught up in yourself that we push him back.

Well I suppose I should stop stalling and get to packing!

-Kristin

Countdown

Hey!
Well it is almost officially a week until we go to TX. Soon I can legitimately start packing:-)

God pulled another one of his awesome money tricks on Sun. I had just requested prayer from our church staff for me to trust in God that we will be approved and all things finance related. And then Chris sees an envelope with our name on it. There was money inside! We now can pay for the application and put sone towards the homestudy acceptance fee. So a special thank you to our anonyomous contributors. We are blessed by the faithful support of such wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ. The greatest blessing is the many prayers.

-Kristin

Tidbits

Hey!

Well, the days to the TX trip are counting down (slowly!). I did speak to someone at Gladney and it cleared up some confusion. Not all the confusion but some. Basically, we are in the program for now. Then after we attend the orientation we can purchase the application. Then we need to be approved again and have our home study approved. Then we are officially in the program! So please pray that the process will go smoothly.

We received our packet on the orientation and a little more information on the program. Everything looks good so far. I have been trying to focus on the end result and not think about another approval process. So I have been searching out baby names and working a little bit in the nursery. I have to say although it scares me a little to be so optimistic it mostly feels great! Trusting God is so great it is puzzling why I struggle with it so much.

So, the TX countdown continues…


-Kristin

Waiting for TX trip

Hey,
Well there isn't much new on the adoption front other than the wait to go to TX and get things moving! I have been searching for the perfect outfit (of course I have it all picked out in my head) and have only managed to find the "perfect shoes". Which those of you who know me well (or have heard how Chris found me on the floor of the closet freaking out about what shoes to wear 5 minutes before the social worker came for the home study) know my love of all things shoes! I think that this is an area where I have control so I am being a little nuts about it. I know you are thinking not Kristin!! I rationally know that they will not send us home because I do not have the perfect outfit, it just will make me feel better.

I also in a moment of not quite insanity but close decided to have my hair cut. I got a little carried away with the amount that I had cut off! I am now being told how "cute" it looks (and that is not a bad thing) but it is usually accompinied with it makes you look even younger! Now I know most 31-year-olds are cool with looking younger, but since I already have some people who think I am in middle school, younger was not what I was going for. Oh well it is just hair, it will grow back. I will just wear a sign in our profile picture that says that I am 31 so birthmothers will take me seriously.

-Kristin

Some Info

Hey,
I realize our blog has been kind of peppered with sporadic information. This may have been confusing and we are right there with you! The main reason is that the adoption had been stalled for so long there was nothing to post. Then it seemed like we may be moving forward with Ethiopia. Well, our path has totally changed.

I posted a while back that we were opening ourselves up to any (legal) form of adoption. It seemed like we were not fully trusting in God if we put some many limits on him. Through the research process we have found a program at Gladney that we strongly feel we are being led to. It is thier ABC program. The program consists of adopting an African American or Biracial baby within the United States. We are nervous but excited to pursue this path.

Later I will have a blog post going into detail how this is not because we think children in this country deserve a home more than other countries!! It is very frustrating when people say that to me now, thinking that this is the reason we have switched!

People would tell me that God had something in store for us that we couldn't even imagine. And while I agree with that I couldn't think of what that could be. Finally having a child in our family, what could be better than that. Well one of the exciting things that this will provide us with is the chance to raise a baby from their time of birth. To quote an old favorite Tv show of mine when I was a child (Little House on the Prarie) "It is a dream I made myself forget." So God is showing me that he can do things that I could only dream of!

I know that this post poses many questions. Such as:

-What is the process now?
-Why Texas??...

There will be more posts to follow answering (hopefully) all of those. Right now lets just say that we are moving forward and we are very excited! As always please pray.

-Kristin

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey!

Just wanted to let everyone know that we were pre-accepted into the program that we wante! We are headed to Ft. Worth TX on June 17th for the orentation. We can hardly wait. I was ready to pack last night.

After the orentation we will be able to purchase the full application. If we are accepted at that point it will be lots of things to do (which is great!) and more waiting. This waiting however will be different because we know we are moving forward and actually know what we are waiting for!

Thank again for all the prayers.

-Kristin