How it all began.....

First let me say, I am a very private person by nature. Through the urging of Brennan (can you say she is excited?) we are now putting our lives out there for everyone to see. God has moved in amazing ways in our lives the past few years and it is now time to let others know exactly how far we have come. This all began about three years ago. I had always felt a pulling towards adoption. I applaud anyone who can take in any child, any circumstance and wholly love it as their own. That process has always amazed me. Michael was wanting to have another child and even had Brennan on board picking out names. We tried for a little while, but that was not meant to be. During this time, I began my bargaining with God. You know, if you do this then I'll do that. I am ashamed to admit that is exactly how this entire adoption process was started and even more ashamed that I thought I could bargain with Him. My first bargain was about my work. My mother and I had owned a children's clothing store for nine years. We were both burned out, but didn't know the other felt that way. After praying, one day the subject came up and we both had the same thoughts. Of course, I still needed income (because I knew I had an adoption to pay for). One of our wholesale rep's looked at some of our art work one day and said she thought she could sell it for us. That was all it took. Within a month we decided to close the store in January 2007 and never looked back. Thank you God! My next obstacle was Michael. His response to my questions were always the same. "Michael, (with my sweet voice) can we adopt a baby?", and his response was a "no". I could feel God telling me to be patient. I have always thought I was a very patient person, but He has reminded me that I was totally kidding myself with that one. I decided to give Michael time, a year to be exact. All along the way, I dropped little hints. December of 2007 Michael and I were eating lunch one day, I asked my same question "what do you think about adoption?". His response was if we weren't pregnant by August he thought we could try that route. After I picked my chin up off the floor, I smiled for the entire day. I called a couple of people and my secret prayers began. Time quickly passed and in June Michael was leaving to go on his annual mission trip and casually mentioned maybe we could give the adoption thing a try. I let him know that I wasn't in it for the maybe's; I only wanted the green light to go ahead. At this point, I will honestly wholeheartedly admit....I was freaked out!!! I had prayed for this for years and now that I thought it could be a possibility, I was scared! What have I possibly done? I told him to go on his mission trip and we could discuss it when he came back. I really thought he would forget, end of story. Well, he comes back and a few weeks later the idea comes up again. Again, I make it known we are only discussing it fully if it is a GO. I didn't want to get my hopes up and then be disappointed. Michael told me we could start investigating the process. So, by August I had found a social worker to do our home study and an agency we would use. Through a few hurdles, our home study was complete in December and on January 16th we officially went into the pool for adoption. Amazingly weeks later in February we got a phone call saying we were chosen. This situation was perfect! We are continuing to pray if this is God's will that this precious little girl will be ours. So now we wait...