The details

There is a young woman in another state who is 22wks pregnant.. She happens to be very Catholic and very pro-life and is seeking a Catholic couple...preferably out of state...to adopt her child. She is carrying a girl and she is due sometime in August. She is, apparently, highly committed to her adoption plans and has expressed an interest in a semi-open adoption...occasional pictures and perhaps word from time to time about how the child is growing and fairing. Because of the circumstances, this would be a private, non-agency-assisted adoption.

We have been in contact with both her parish priest and the counselor who is assisting her and have sent them a series of pictures and a brief bio about us to share with her. I understand she has received these and is referring to us already as "the adopting family". Apparently she and her family were making a Divine Mercy Novena to find the right family at the same time Mr. Mike and I were making ours that God would lead us to knowing how and when to pursue another child.

Only God could orchestrate something like this.

It all is just more than I can process. I never in my life expected something like this. Though I have earnestly prayed, I never dared to hope such an opportunity would come our way. And now...one week from today...DH and I will be sitting in the same room with the woman who is likely carrying our daughter.

OMG...did I just say daughter?

We've been scrambling to assemble a homestudy and are well on our way now. The past week, we have gotten all the easy stuff done...notarized letters for CPS, marriage, birth and adoption certificates and will be able to just copy and paste our old autobiographies from the boys' adoptions. On Thursday DH had his physical exam and we all got fingerprinted (even the boys--though that was just for kicks and giggles since the gentleman FP'ing us was so nice and had no other people waiting in line.) This next week, I have my physical exam as well as the boys' exams and we will then just be waiting on the reference letters and the fingerprints to clear. Once all that happens (homestudy agency estimates sometime in June) we will be ready for the home-visit. Our goal is to be officially paper-ready (or as DH says "paper-trained") with homestudy complete by early July. Cutting it a bit close, but God's timing is always perfect....right?!

We are trying to keep the boys from knowing anything about this for now...I'd prefer to protect their little hearts until we get to meet her and get a feel for ourselves next week about just how committed she and her family are. My 7 year old has been praying for a baby brother or sister for so long now. Not long ago, he asked me why God isn't listening to his prayers.

BROKE. MY. HEART.

We've since decided to temper our family prayers with the kids to emphasize God's will for our family. Much as it warms my heart to hear their little prayers for "more babies" I have to be cautious. I don't want them to lose heart in their beautiful, innocent and perfectly pure prayers to God. I can't wait to tell them/show them how God has indeed heard their prayers!

I'm growing increasingly optimistic about it all but am still cautious. If this falls through, I pray it falls through sooner than later. To be honest, they will need to scrape me up off the floor if that happens, but I'm choosing to trust. Trusting that if my heart is broken again, His grace will once again be sufficient.