Weekly Update and Prayer Requests

I heard a song on the radio the other day that I normally don't enjoy all that much. Nothing personal, just not my thing - sounds like a teenaged love song with premature and untested promises (ironically though I started dating my husband at 17, I'm full of double standards). As I blocked the song out a line from it hit me straight in the heart "One step closer." Without even paying attention all of a sudden this silly song had me choked up over adoption and children rather than a man and I resented it slightly.

It's true, every day we are closer to having a child (or children, who knows?!). So, every piece of paperwork we complete, every form that is turned in and every phone call I have to make to check up on this makes us just that much closer (dang song).

Here's where we are in our steps right now. The only bits of paperwork left are a form that says we've been fingerprinted by the FBI (whoa, big guns here) and a proof of insurance from our insurance carrier. Once those are received this initial application paperwork is complete! And our file is reviewed and handed to a case worker. The caseworker will call us and start talking dates for a homestudy. Those dates are dependent on how busy the caseworker's schedule is. Small steps, closer every day.

In other fun news we started working on the baby room. This room was a guest/office/put all the weird junk in our house room but we've cleared it out and received a cute crib and dresser from friends and family.



And we've been looking at paint colors - a wonderful activity that sometimes I just like to do even if I don't have to paint!



If you don't know me that well, one tidbit of information about me is I like color, lots of color, bright color, bold color and all of it together! Now, I will try to avoid a color scheme that would make our poor child have seizures but trust me this room will be fun!!

This has been a fun week, paint colors, putting together a crib, talking about baby names. It feels more real than a few months ago but still very theorhetical.

Prayer for this week:
1. Pray again that Christ would be our central hope, focus and joy above all else.

2. Pray that we would still be able to live in today, entrust to God what we have today and not take on worries of tomorrow.

3. Pray for the continued transformation of our hearts into parents that reflect the image of God the Father.

4. To enjoy and be grateful for each step and moment we have right now.

Thank you to everyone who keeps up with us, prays for us and loves us. We could not do this without the support of our friends and family. We are one step closer!

~L&L

Prayer Requests for this Week

Hey Friends and Family!

Just wanted to share some of our prayer requests for this week. Thank you to everyone who keeps telling us "Keep us updated!" and "How can we pray for you?". I'm hoping to keep this updated pretty regularly so some of you can know specifically how to pray and know how we're doing so keep checking back.

1. First many thanks because the application is done. All of the paperwork on our end is finished! So, let's all just thank Jesus for the energy we had to finish that sucker!

2. That God would continue to teach us about the needs this child will have and how we can effectively meet those needs. This includes issues like attaching to us, the nature of his or her relationship to birth parents, raising a child who will probably be a different ethnicity, etc.

3. That we would find a great home for Lily! We haven't officially posted her anywhere yet but will begin to check that out soon so please continue to pray for a great family for her.

4. That Jesus would remain our first and greatest desire and that He would be glorified in us, this situation and all the circumstances we'll be encountering.

5. Pray for the birthmom and dad. We don't know who they are or if they're even considering adoption right now but someday we will meet them so pray for them because this is very hard for them too.

That's it for now. Thank you again for the prayers and support! Can't wait to see more and more what God is doing!

~Lindsay and Landon

Humbled to Receive

I have had it in my mind for the last 14 days that I want to write this blog post and have just now sat down to make it happen! There were some wonderful things shared at our Gladney Orientation, as I shared in the last post, but there was one thing that really stuck out to me and that's what I want to share today.

One segment of our workshop was hearing from birth moms who were making an adoption plan. They were beautiful, bright and funny girls in their 20's. They seemed very kind and extremely level-headed. They came from strong families who supported them. These young women opened my eyes to a different kind of birth mother - one of the best kinds of birth mother. These sweet girls were making a very, very painful decision to give life to a child who they have every natural right to keep and instead surrender their rights and give a precious gift to someone longing for children.

It hit me that weekend that God would be answering our prayers for a child with a woman who is selflessly (and many times painfully) giving her baby to our care. I realized that for us to be given the rights of parents, another parent would have to voluntarily surrender her and/or his rights to be a parent. Sound familiar?

"...but to all who did receive Him, He gave the right to become children of God." John 1:12.

Jesus surrendered the rights He had as God's Son- to be treated with dignity, to receive glory, to destroy His enemies, to rescue Himself off the cross and from betrayers, continuous and unbroken fellowship with His Father, to have a painless and easy life all so that instead I could receive the rights of a child of God. So that now I have the dignity of being called God's child, I have the eternal inheritance of the Son which will never spoil or fade, I have unbroken relationship with the Father and I have life that can never be taken away. Jesus gave up His sonship rights so I could be given those rights instead.

I am deeply humbled to be given the rights of a parent and look forward to meeting the woman and/or man who are selflessly surrendering their rights.

Adoption is bursting with the good news of the gospel, it's there if you look for it!

~L&L