If you think my hands are full...

I've heard from many people recently as they see me out and about with Caden and Noah that I "must have my hands full." And, it's true. My boys are a handful! But, I recently saw a woman with a shirt on that said, "If you think my hands are full, you should see my heart." It got me thinking, "Is my heart full"? So, as I sat and thought about it, I have come to a conclusion. My heart is wonderfully joyful that we have two healthy, loving, wonderful boys. They are the best job I've ever had, stretch me in ways I couldn't imagine, and I love them more than I would have told you was possible before we had children. They are such blessings. But, is my heart full, as in, cannot love another?
As I prayed about that, the answer the Lord gave me is a resounding no. My heart is full to overflowing, and I know that having a third child so quickly will be chaotic (or a third and fourth, should we get twins), but I guess the way I think of it is that my heart is a tall glass or pool, almost filled with love for our boys and my little family. Now, picture a kid joyfully taking a flying leap into that glass, doing a picture perfect cannonball right in the middle, landing safely in the love of his or her new mommy! Sure, there's going to be change, ripples throughout and puddles under the cup, but it's all love that spills out, joy that we'll share knowing God has blessed us with another child or more children. So, for now, we're waiting! Please continue to be in prayer for us and our boys, for the birth mother and what she's going through. We love and appreciate you all supporting us through this journey!

Lastly, our adoption agency has a Facebook page and I borrowed this picture from it. I just love it. We hope you all are well, and that God is holding you in His perfect peace, just as He is holding us!

Justin, Rachel, Noah and Caden

We're on the web!

We're up on the web! Our profile is up on the Christian Homes website, and we just couldn't be more excited. Justin and I were talking again with Noah tonight about having a little brother or sister, and it's so sweet to hear him talk about having another baby in the house. As if to give my heart an 'exclamation point', I went to Target after bedtime and saw a big brother, who was maybe sixteen, giving his little sister, who was maybe ten, a shoulder ride. They were so exicted to reach things on the top shelves, and she didn't mind punching all the signs up there, either! It was adorable and did my heart good to see a teenage big brother so unashamedly loving his sister. I may or may not have sort of followed them for an aisle or two, happy tears streaming down my face.
Justin and I stayed up late one night this week and, as it often does, our adoption became a topic of conversation. We talked a little bit about how our life will change. It was a great conversation, but I think the thing God sort of solidified in my heart was how much our lives will be blessed and changed by this precious baby (or babies) God will bring into our home.
God is so good to allow us to get to this point so quickly. We're praying a lot that the next phase is swift, but I'm selfishly praying that my heart will also be ready as He prepares me to be a mother, a third time around, to a baby that someone else knows so well, and who knows a birthmother as his or her sustainer of life. I'm praying for the relationship I'll have with our birthmother, knowing she's braver than I ever could have been. I'm praying for our boys, for Justin and for wisdom in the days to come. We covet your prayers, as always, but maybe now you can see just what to pray for. Thank you so much for caring enough about our journey to take some time out of your day to read about my thoughts. We have the best family and friends in the world, and we love hearing from you guys as you support us and pray for us!

Approved!

Great news!
We're officially approved for adoption through our agency! This is wonderful news, and we're so excited to begin the next phase of our adoption journey!

What this means:
We're done interviewing and have submitted all of our paperwork. The agency has done all of their paperwork, so we're done with that phase of this adotion.

What happens now:
There are multiple possibilities now, but these are the most two likely scenarios:

1) The agency will call us any time now, letting us know that a birthmother who has yet to have her baby would like to meet us for a potential "match". Depending on the circumstance, we would most likely meet her and make sure we all agree on how much contact to have, etc. after the adoption. If all that lines up, we'd just wait for her to have the baby and then we'd bring our third child home!

2) The agency calls us and says that a mom that has already given birth to a baby would like to meet us to make sure we can agree on post-adoption terms (contact, pictures, etc.). If we do agree, we can get our new baby from foster care ASAP!

So, either way, we've officially entered the waiting stage. We were certainly waiting before, but it was on paperwork processing. Now, we're waiting for a BABY! So excited!

At this point, we'd appreciate your prayers for the birth mother, for us and for the baby. That he or she would be healthy and would already feel the love that our family can't wait to bestow on him or her!
We'd love for you all to pray for us to be wise in what we agree to, looking at how the decisions we're making will impact the life of this precious baby for his or her entire life. Please pray that we would be wise about talking to our kids about this, and sensitive to their needs in this exciting time.
I would say pray for a quick match, but I think that God has that already in His hands, so His will be done. Amen and Amen! In short, pray hard, pray often and WE LOVE YOU GUYS!

Home Study Wednesday, January 18!

Our home visit is tomorrow afternoon at 2! Prayers appreciated and coveted, both for us, our wonderful case worker, our two boys and whatever other children God has for us! Thank you so much for walking with us through this journey!

Interview Scheduled!

Hey everyone!
It's about time for an adoption update! Our interview is scheduled for January 10 at 1:30 pm. This is an interview with Justin and I at the agency's office. After this interview, we'll have an in-home visit. After that, I think we'll be eligible to adopt!
We are so excited about this journey. Justin and I took some time away this weekend and this was a topic of discussion. We'd love to have your prayers on the following things:
1) The interview and the in-home visit. Pray that they would see how much we love each other and how much love we have for more children!
2) Pray that God would have His hand on our birth mother and baby! Safety, growth, health and wisdom!
3) Overall, please pray that God gets the glory! He wrote this on our hearts long before we thought of it or began to obey, so please pray that His name will be glorified!

Thanks so much!
Rachel

Guess what?!?!?

I always said I wanted a big family with a yard full of kids. Well, guess what?!?! We're gonna have more kids, but not the way you're thinking. When Justin and I were engaged, we both felt individually that we wanted to adopt at least one kid one day. We knew that we wanted to see our family grow in this way, and now we're taking the plunge. As of last week, we have submitted 98% of our paperwork to our wonderful adoption agency, Christian Homes and Family Services. We went to an orientation and got our zip disk full of paperwork, have worked and worked on it, and feel like now is the time that we're supposed to welcome another child into our family. We're so so so excited about this!
Let me tell you about our adoption agency. It's a phenomenal Christian organization where they know our names (and lots of other information about us after getting our paperwork) when we walk in the door, they have prayed for us since day one and have some of the best people we've ever met. It's been a joy to work with them.
When we were at our orientation, I realized how big their ministry is. They not only do the adoption side, they have foster-adopt families and babies to care for, they provide homes for women who are planning to give their child up for adoption and feel like God led them to do so. It's such a blessing to be working with them.
our journey will be a long one. We're just starting, and it could take as long as two years, though we're praying it won't take quite that long. Pretty soon, I think you'll be able to look us up on the Christian Homes website, http://www.christianhomes.com/. We'll keep you all updated on our progress here.
In the meantime, if you know of anyone who is thinking about adoption, both for adopting a baby or for if you know a woman who is struggling with what to do with a surprise pregnancy, you can refer her to Christian Homes. They really are an amazing group of people and we're honored to walk through this with them.
We covet your prayers as we walk through this amazing journey. Please pray for us, for the boys and for our birth mom and baby! Health for all, love, and especially for the birth mom as she makes an incredible decision to give her baby to us to love for its entire life. We can't imagine how difficult that would be, so please pray for her emotional, physcial and spiritual health.
Thanks you guys! We love you all!