The Latest and Not Necessarily the Greatest

"God is the blessed Controller of ALL things!" was a saying that my grandparents often quoted and in fact had that statement hanging in their home.  This is a good reminder for our family today! 

We have been busy gathering those "last" items in preparing for a new little member - -our crib arrived last week.  However, due to little climbers living with us we have kept it in its box while it is being stored underneath Jonathan's bed.  Anne has helped me pick the nursery theme, and now we are just waiting to hear news of our little blessing so we can get things all set up!

I was able to reach our social worker today and here is the latest - - the birth mother that she was considering for us had been on probation in rehab. This mother recently decided to check herself out.   The birth mother has not contacted the social worker and the social worker has no other way to contact the birth mother.  So unless something changes, it looks like we are back to square one on waiting for a birth mother.

There was another birth mother in Topeka that had been mentioned to us, but that hasn't seemed to progress either. 

God knows where the special blessing is at for our family, we just need to wait upon Him to bring that child to us!  Thank you for praying and we hope you have a wonderful Christmas - - remembering to celebrate the best gift of LIFE that has been given to us through His Son!

Update

I was able to connect with our social worker later this afternoon and she told us of 2 possible birth mothers.  Both would have mixed race boys.  One is due in January, the other in March.  The one who is due in January is currently in jail, and that is the one she is leaning towards for us at the moment.  Will see how it all pans out as we continue to get more details.  The birth mother of course would need to approve us before we could go any further.  Therefore, our social worker, has asked that we send her a link to a digital copy of the pictures we sent her in paper form for our portfolio.  She will then forward it on to the counselor of the gal who is in jail to view. 

We continue to pray as we still have little information about the situation.  The social worker asked me to call her in a few days to touch base with her.  Hopefully she will have a chance to review the case before then so she can answer my questions more adequately (when I called she was at the store with a couple of birth mothers and couldn't answer very specifically). :)

Below I have posted a link to our picasa album with our portfolio pics on it.  Let me know if it doesn't work. :)

https://picasaweb.google.com/102126362746999750636/SnellPortfolio?authkey=Gv1sRgCL2Gh4fBvefmrAE

A Possible Match??

As mentioned before, the purpose of this blog is to keep you posted on the ups and downs of our adoption experience - - - if you were on our journey with us in the adoption of Adia you will remember that it was quite the roller coaster ride.  Will this one be the same?  Who knows? 

We have been busy trying to get things ready for when we might receive that special call.  We found an awesome deal on a crib mattress, but are still keeping our eyes open for a crib. :)  Don't worry, we do have a bassinet, so the baby will have a place to sleep until we find one. :)  We closed on our adoption loan yesterday so we will wait to receive the funds from that which should be within the next week.  Our prayer is that we won't have to pay too long on that loan before we actually are blessed with a child, but we wanted to be "ready" in case something came up at the last minute like Adia did.

I needed to call our social worker, and had tried to reach her yesterday but could not reach her.  If you know anything about our social worker, she is incredibly difficult to reach.  She is so busy caring for others, etc, that she is literally running all day long.  She hosts birth parents, adoptive parents, etc, in her home for as long as they need a place to stay, etc.  Anyway - - I finally was able to reach her this morning around 9:00 a.m.    She couldn't talk long because of an emergency that had taken place.  She did mention that she was glad I had called and was keeping us in mind for a mixed race little boy whose mom was/is in jail.  These are all the details that I know!  So many questions I would like to ask.....  Anyway, I asked her if I should call her back later and she said yes.   So, I plan to retry later today and if I can't reach her, try again tomorrow.  Will this be a possible match?  I don't know, but we have to treat each case that comes along as a possibility because one day, in God's timing, it will be the right one!!  Thank you for praying and going on this journey with us!!

Time of Waiting

Some of you have been asking where we are at in the adoption process.  Well, we are at the stage, where we wait, and wait, and wait some more. :)  We have completed all of our paper work and now just have to pray for the Lord to lead the right child to our family!  I spoke with our social worker this morning, and right now there are not any concrete possibilities.  While waiting, we have been keeping busy looking for good deals so that when our child arrives, we will be ready.  We are getting closer! :)  Thank you for all of you who have been praying!  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving - - we have been blessed with so much to be thankful for!

Meeting with Social Worker

Today was our scheduled time to meet with our social worker, but as some of you know, there was a chance that she was going to have to be out of town and the meeting might have to be rescheduled.  Praise the Lord, she was back in town and we were able to not only meet with her, but go to her house and join her for supper! :) 

We were able to get some questions answered, and now we are basically in the waiting phase.  There is a bus load of birth mom's coming in tomorrow, but she didn't know how many, etc.  Will there be a match for us?  Who knows, but am continuing to pray for our social worker as she tries to find the "perfect" fit for our family.

Re-Try the Fingerprints

I was finally able to get some answers from the KBI and I think, and hope, that we got everything figured out.  So today, we sent the fingerprints back in and are praying that this time, the process will go through!  We are thankful we didn't have to go and get our fingerprints retaken. :)

Fingerprints....

Gotta love all the minute details of paperwork.   Imagine being excited to open a nice big brown envelope in the mail, only to find that your fingerprints for the background checks have been returned.  Grr!!  Am working on trying to contact the KBI as to why.  Our social worker is just as confused as we are so hopefully we'll be able to get this whole thing straightened out without too much hassle!  Thanks for all of your continue prayers and support!!

Meeting Scheduled

I talked with our social worker this morning and the plan is to meet with her on October 30.  Will pray that we'll be able to get all the information to her that she is needing to help with the trail of paper work that comes along with an adoption.

As of right now - - it appears that the possible child, due in January is not a match for us.  We continue to look forward to who God has for our family!  The children are very excited and are wondering why it is taking so long for us to get our baby! :)  So thankful that God is in control!

Great Deals

This past week we finished up physicals and have started trying to figure out all the fun details that go along with taking out an adoption loan.  We are considering two different options at the moment and would appreciate prayers for us that God would provide above and beyond what we could ever ask for in regards to the expenses that go along with adoption.

We have also been having fun keeping an eye out for good deals as most of our baby items have been sold.  SO...we are having to restock.  Below is a picture of some of thegreat deals we have been blessed with thus far.  Thank you for continuing to pray for our family as we wait for our forever child.  The younger children are starting to get impatient, wondering why it is taking so long for our baby to come home. :)  Hopefully this next week, we will be able to touch base with our social worker - - no new updates yet in regards to the possible baby in January.  Will ask about that when we are able to touch base next.

Possible Case?

We received a call from our social worker today about a possible child for us.  She is meeting with the birth mother today, who is due with a boy, at the beginning of January.  We do not know the history, etc, of this birth mother as this would be the first real contact our social worker has had with her.  Please be in prayer as we wait to see how the Lord works in this possible child for our family.  Its hard to not get excited, but I am also trying to be cautious as we went through several possibilities, before we got to take home our precious Adia.  Thanks for praying!  Will keep you posted as we learn more.

We are in the process of getting physicals done, as required for part of our home study, and then next week, I hope to see about getting our home study scheduled!

Our New Journey Has Just Begun!

After spending much time in prayer, we are so excited to finally be able to share with you that yes, we are adopting again!!  God has clearly been making it evident that that is His plan for us as He has been bringing all kinds of details together that we knew we would need if we were to be able to adopt again!  Where are we at in the process?  We have filled out the application, sent in our picture portfolio and other documents and are working on gathering a few more documents that need to be filled out.  We have recruited three people to write references for us and just as of today, we got to go to the police station to have our finger prints taken! :)

Please join with us in prayer as we embark on this new journey for our family!  The kids are excited and are already arguing over whether or not we should have a baby brother or a baby sister. :)  Please be in prayer for the birth parents as this will be a difficult and painful decision for them.  Please be in prayer for us that we will have wisdom in knowing which child God has for our family (its always hard to say no!!!).   One of the next big steps will be to have our home study done and then we are mainly just going to have to play the waiting game as we see how God leads!   Please feel free to join this blog or sign up to receive emails as this will be our way to communicate with you any developments that take place and any pictures, etc. that we would like to share.  Thank you in advance for joining with us and covering our family in prayer!!

If you feel led, please listen to the youtube link in the previous post.  Unto the Least, is a song by one of our friends, Ginger Millermon, that covers the awesome subject of adoption!  Love this song!!

At the bottom of the page, is a picture of our family as it looks right now! :)  Can't wait until we can add another member to our family!

Ginger Millermon "Unto the Least" Video