Where I left off...

It is truly amazing what God can do in an incredibly short amount of time.  The last post I wrote was July 22nd, 2011.  Today, our big girl is almost five and our BABY girl is nearly four months.  As is with most new babies, the first couple of months were a bit of an adjustment and it was tough for a while.  But, I can honestly say, at this point, Maya Grace is a very happy, easy-going baby and we couldn't be more thankful.  But, I'm skipping ahead...  This is how we met Maya...

Last summer, I began to feel a bit hopeless in our pursuit of adoption.  Maybe we'd misunderstood God's calling?  Maybe this just wasn't the right time?  Around late June/early July, we attended the first adoption group at our church and were introduced to a few amazing families who'd adopted domestically, internationally, and through foster care.  On July 25th, 2011, Matt and I met with an adoption attorney in Seattle in order to chat about independent adoption.  This term was a bit foreign to us and we wanted to make sure adoption could happen this way safely.  At the end of a very encouraging conversation, we'd decided to open a "call file" with the attorney's office and to pursue an independent home study with a social worker we'd been given the name of through new friends at church.  We then met with the social worker in Bellingham, WA and felt she was a great fit for us.  She'd been helping adoptive families for nearly 30 years and her knowledge and resources were so encouraging.  God had opened yet another window just as I was not trusting and was about to allow my fear and insecurity get in the way of His plan. 

We completed our second home study by the end of August - nearly a year after we began waiting with the big box agency.  In mid-September, JoAnn, our social worker, sent us the name of an attorney in Florida.  She had been on his email list for quite some time and, while never had a family adopt directly through him, she knew he had a good reputation.  The attorney, Mark, was listed as a reference in pregnancy emergency clinics and through the state of Florida for women considering placing their baby for adoption. JoAnn encouraged us to email Mark to receive potential situations we may consider applying for.  I emailed Mark in early October.  On Monday, a week later, he emailed back telling me he would be happy to add us to his distribution list, but in the meantime, to please take a look and consider the situation he had right then.  The birth mother was very anxious to choose an adoptive family, as she had already chosen one once, but the family had decided to adopt through their agency in New York instead.  That evening, Matt and I read through the information regarding the birth parents and baby.  Everything was exactly as we'd hoped a situation could be for us, so we decided to apply.  We submitted a 25 question questionnaire and four images of us and our home.  Hours upon hours of redoing our profile albums and this was all she received.  On Wednesday morning, Mark called while Ainsley and I were in perhaps the loudest place possible - the play feature at the mall.  He insisted Matt and I both be on the call in order to give us more detail regarding the birth parents and to ask us to fly to Jacksonville as soon as possible to meet them. 

Matt immediately left work and booked flights for us to Dallas the next day, Thursday, in order for Ainsley to stay with his parents.  He and I were then going to fly to Jacksonville on Friday in order to meet the birth mom on Saturday.  Wednesday night, I got food poisoning.  Between nerves of meeting this young woman, food poisoning, and my fear of flying, at 5 A.M. Thursday, it was very obvious, we were not flying to Dallas.  We did the next best thing and called my dear friend and asked if Ainsley could stay with them while we flew to Florida.  We flew to Jacksonville on Friday and arrived late that evening. 

In order to distract ourselves, we allowed ourselves to have a little fun on Friday evening and chatted about names and how we'd decorate the nursery.  We knew the baby was a girl and were thrilled to pull out the baby name book again and look back at names we'd thought of when we were pregnant.  We decided we'd decorate the nursery in an owl theme.  We woke early Saturday morning in order to drive to Mark's office in downtown Jacksonville.  While waiting to leave, I stepped out on the balcony of our hotel room in order to pray.  As I finished my prayer, I heard a funny noise - it was an owl.  Matt came out at that point and heard it as well.  The peace God gave me in that very moment was simply amazing.  All my nervousness was gone - completely gone.