Growing our Family!

Hi Friends & Family!  Cason is usually the one who writes our blog posts but I am blogging today to share some exciting news… Cason and I are adopting!  We are so thrilled to become parents and feel God has led us to this place in our lives.

We had always thought we would adopt internationally, but after talking with our local adoption agency and praying about it, we really felt that adopting a biracial or African American infant was right for us.  In the United States, there far more African American/biracial infants available than families willing to adopt them.  

After going through the home study process, we created a profile book that was shown to expecting mothers.  After just a few short weeks an incredible young woman from Cincinnati selected us – and she is due May 14^th!  The baby is perfectly healthy as far as we know and we have already had a meeting with the birth mother and social worker.  Over the next few months we will meet with her a few more times and then we will head to the hospital to take our baby home after it is born!  We are in the beginning stages of preparing a nursery and getting our house ready for a baby.  I cannot wait to become a mother!!  Here are our "before" nursery pics!

 

The last couple months living in Danville have been really wonderful for our spiritual growth and our marriage.  We have had so much fun together and feel like we are in a whole new phase of our lives.  Pursuing our desire to adopt has added to the joy God has given to us in the last few months.   We are getting more and more excited about the church we have joined and have been getting to know some great people.  Cason has even signed up to go on a soccer ministry trip to Haiti this fall!

God is really teaching us about His provision.  When Cason got a job in Danville, we had no idea that the town had a wonderful local adoption agency that helps facilitate and encourages adoptions, as well as over 600 adoptive families!  In addition to that, the Lord brought us to a wonderful church that advocates adoption and has multiple adoptive families that attendance.

After some months of wondering what we should be doing and seeking the Lord’s guidance, it is encouraging to see Him orchestrating our lives and bringing us specifically to where we are now!  We are so thankful! 

Please be praying as the process does have some unknowns.  The birth mother is allowed to change her mind up to 72 hours after the baby is born.  Please be praying that she remains strong in her decision to give her baby up and that she is confident in our abilities to parent.  Thank you all so much for your continued support and prayers!

~Colleen

Here's one more nursery prep picture!  

There were over 60 holes in the closet alone! That's a lot of spackling  in that room!! So there was a lot of sanding and we were both covered in spackling dust!