Beginning our journey towards adoption

After a long two years, several doctors appointments, and some serious prayer--Nate and I have decided to begin the adoption process. Our desire to be parents and raise them in a Godly home is so great that if we can't have our own children, then we want to give this to a child who may not have it.

Currently we are in phase one of the process: seeking out local agencies and signing up to attend informational meetings. It seems that most agencies require this before actually applying. So last week we first made contact with the Nebraska Children's Home and were told that the soonest informational meeting was January in Lincoln. After that we were a little disheartened. We were really hoping to get a spot at the September meeting in North Platte, but it was already full--the only thing we could do was add our names to a waiting list. So a few days later, after talking to my aunt and uncle (who adopted two children) who encouraged us to apply to as many agencies as possible, we found three more agencies to contact. We called Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska and were again told that the soonest we could schedule an informational meeting would be this coming spring but that they would send us a packet of information to leaf through. Feeling defeated and a bit hopeless, I prayed. Honestly, I didn't know what else to do...I've grown so tired of the waiting and knew that I couldn't handle it on my own.

At the beginning of this week I made contact with Lutheran Family Services again just to double check on what to do next. After a short conversation with a woman in the Lexington office, we had an informational meeting scheduled for September 14th in North Platte! And yesterday Nate texted me while I was at our Cross Country meet to let me know that we were invited to attend an informational meeting with the Nebraska Children's Home in North Platte on September 16th! God is good. This is truly an answer to our prayers, and I'm excited to see how else God provides for us during this process.

If you're a praying person--please pray that God would give us a sense of peace and comfort and patience as we begin a long period of waiting. Next week we are planning on contacting two agencies to learn more about them; I'm praying for positive experiences with these as well. Thanks for the support as we launch into this page of our lives!