Finished Bathroom Pictures

We finally finished our bathroom renovation!  We actually did a few weeks back, but I completely forgot to post the pictures of the finished product!   I originally posted the 'before' pictures and progress pictures here.  Here is a look at the finished product...  It was a LOT of work, but we are really enjoying having this bathroom finished and functional.  We are completely done with house projects now!  :)

How We're Doing...

I wanted to check in with everyone after my last post that shared our news of our failed adoption.  We're doing good! We've been SO encouraged by everyone who has sent cards of encouragement, flowers, and emails!  We've felt God's love through the body of believers. We feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family!!!  We know we will find our baby.  It may take a little longer, but that’s okay.  He or she will definitely be worth the wait!

I've been so encouraged by the psalms lately, and this verse really stuck out to me the other day in my reading, and it describes how we've felt during this trial.  Psalm 29:11  "The Lord will give strength unto his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace."  We've been given strength and peace from God, when it seems like we should have lost all hope in this adoption process.  It is that peace that passeth understanding!  I thank the Lord for that...

Also, I really felt a burden from the Lord to write a letter to the birthmother.  I really felt like she needed to know that Dan and I were not angry at her for changing her mind.  I wrote her a letter explaining that we didn't have any hard feeling toward her, and that we still cared about her and her son and were praying for them.  I sent a bunch of verses of encouragement as well. She responded right away, which I was surprised by.  She said she couldn't thank us enough for that email.  She said she thought for sure we hated her, and the fact that we didn't, proved to her that we really are who we say we are. Baby boy was born early, too!  He is already a month old, and he is adorable!  She is really struggling being a single mom and she is still trying to decide if parenting was the right choice for her.  Please pray for her.  She is in a tough spot right now. I know that the Lord brought her into our life for a reason, and if it is simply so I can be an encouragement to her, I want to be that.

We've been super BUSY!  We're trying to finish all of our remodeling projects, especially our exterior work before the snow starts falling!  We've been in our house for over 3 years, and have focused all of our attention on the interior, and haven't done a thing with the exterior.  (Sorry neighbors!)  But we tackled replacing siding and painting our house, and we went from the worst looking house in the neighborhood, to one of the best.  We're so happy with how it turned out!  It was a dramatic color change, but we're very happy with it!

Here is the before picture:

And here is the finished product!

Now we need to do some much needed landscaping!  We'll see if we get to that this year...

Thanks again for everyone's support.  It means so much to us.

Update

This isn't the update I was hoping to give...  We heard from our social worker last night that the birth mother has changed her mind, and has backed out of the adoption plan.  We're disappointed.  It's an odd feeling, mourning something that was never ours; more like mourning the idea of something, and dreading having to go through this process again.  We've definitely hit a low valley on the roller coaster ride, but we will continue to trust that the Lord does indeed work everything together for good, even when it is hard to see how, we continue to trust that He will.

We appreciate your continued prayers for us, as well as this young woman who will be a new mother in less than 2 weeks.  Adoption is not easy.  It takes a lot of vulnerability.  It can bring so much joy, but there are times where there is a lot of pain.  But, God continues to be good, all of the time.

"...The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." Job 1:21

Announcement!

It is with much joy and excitement, we want to announce........

We're expecting a baby boy!!  AND, he will be here in less than 3 weeks (unless he decides to come early of course)!  We've been waiting to share the news, because with adoption, things can always change, and obviously still can, but we want everyone to be praying for everyone involved.  God has been working mightily and He has answered our prayer, as well as the prayer of this dear, young woman, who is blessing us with this little life.  God's timing is truly perfect.  We are extremely excited, and honestly, a little nervous too!  I can't wait to share the whole story with you all!

Please pray for this young woman (she is amazing by the way!), as the next few weeks will be very difficult for her.  That the Lord would give her comfort and strength. That she would have a safe delivery, (I know she is quite nervous about that part).  For the baby, that he would be strong and healthy. Please pray for us too.  We will have to be out-of-state for 1 week (or more) after the baby is born, living in a hotel room until paperwork can be processed between her state and ours.  Dan won't leave me in another state, alone in a hotel room with a new baby; so he has to take unpaid time off of work.  Pray for the Lord's continued provision.  Also, pray that the paperwork can be processed QUICKLY between the two states, so we can return home quickly.  Also, that the Lord would give us wisdom in raising a son.

Again, I want to thank everyone who has been praying for us, supporting us, encouraging us, and those who have donated to help ease the financial burden that comes with adoption.  (There are a lot of you!) We are truly blessed!!  We cannot wait to share the rest of this story and introduce you to this tiny, yet HUGE, answer to prayer. :)

Yellowstone Pictures

 I am finally getting around to posting our Yellowstone pictures... 

We stayed in Cody, Wyoming and traveled 1 hr to the park each day.  The park is HUGE, 2.2 million acres to be exact.  So we spent a lot of time driving through it each day, stopping here and there to check out cool things, and we covered a lot of ground on our short time there.  We saw a lot of animals the morning we went at dawn, but no bears, Dan was bummed about that.  It is an amazing place, and we would highly suggest a visit at some point in your life!  We were really glad that we were able to go for our 5 year anniversary.

THANK YOU!!

This is overdue because we've been on vacation... (I'll be posting about that soon!)  We wanted to thank everyone for your part in our Give1Save1 week!  We've raised $126.85 so far (and since the blog has no other families this week, we are being left up for another week!), which will be used to pay off a chunk on our adoption loan.  We were really amazed at the generosity of friends and strangers, and we are blessed, and thankful for those who have passed our link on to others, and would continue to the rest of this week!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  God is good.

Today, my husband and I celebrate 5 years of marriage!  It is crazy how fast time goes...  It seems like we just got married!  Marriage is so wonderful, and I am so thankful to have spent the last 5 years of my life with my best friend, and look forward to spending every day we are blessed with, with each other.  We went on a road trip to Yellowstone to celebrate, and aside for the ridiculously long drive, we had an awesome time!  (I will post some pictures soon!) Looking forward to this next year of marriage...

Our Week as a Featured Family

Hello everyone!  Dan and I are so excited, and feel truly blessed, to be a featured family on the Give1Save1 blog! Starting today, we will have a video about us, and our adoption journey, on their website as the weekly "Featured Family!"   

I love the idea behind this ministry!  The idea began with a girl named Beth. She was in the adoption process herself and knew how expensive it was and created a blog that could help families who were in the adoption process. She wanted to feature a family per week and allow others to donate to that family's adoption fund. Encouraging others to give $1, the adoptive family could quickly raise money to help bring their child home.  (So give $1 and Save1 orphan, or in our case, a baby that needs a home so that they never experience being an orphan!)

So every week they feature a family in the adoption process, both adopting internationally, and recently, domestically!  The featured family makes a video introducing themselves, and sets up a family fund that is used to help pay for adoption expenses.  Family, friends, and strangers are encouraged to donate $1 to the family fund, and spread the word to everyone they know!  Pretty cool, right?

We would appreciate any donation, and would greatly value continued prayer on our behalf, as well as for our child's birth mother!  That the Lord's hand would continue to be in this adoption process, and that He would get the glory!

Check  us out here, and share the link with anyone who may be interested in helping us out!