Birthmother Stories and How to Pray

Our adoption agency, Bethany Christian Services, has a monthly meeting for their families who are in the adoption process. We went to last month's meeting and met the new executive director. We gained some new insight as to the changed taking place within the agency. It was a big encouragement!

This month's meeting was tonight. We were fortunate to hear from a birth mother. Her adoption story began several years ago. She spoke of the emotions and temptations she faced during the time she carried her baby. She knew she was going to choose adoption, but she still had times when another way seemed easier. She said she felt shame, guilt, and lonely at times. She said the hardest part was leaving the hospital empty. I've heard people say that the birth day is like the excitement of a wedding and the mourning of a funeral all at once.

After hearing her story, we are more energized than ever. Our decision to adopt is our family's response to orphans, abortion, and the gospel. To remind ourselves of this, we gave ourselves a theme of "Finding Our Hidden Treasure." We want to give a child a loving, Christ-centered home. We also want to show the birth mother that she is also treasured by God. Tonight's meeting taught us a lot; perhaps the biggest thing it showed us was how to continue to pray for the birth mother who will choose our family.

Share your love of everything!

Share your love of everything through photos! Thanks to Rachel Sloan Photography, you will support our adoption when you book a portrait session in the month of February. Half of all proceeds will be donated to our adoption fund.

Your session must be paid in full by the end of February, but you can schedule your session for anytime in 2013. 

Rachel specializes in maternity, newborn, children, and families.
Learn more about Rachel's God-given talent HERE.

Contact Rachel here:
rachelsloanphotographydesign@gmail.com
615.668.3357
www.rachelsloanphotographyblog.wordpress.com

The Great Unknown

God has stretched us throughout this adoption process, but He has also blessed us more than we could have imagined. I wanted to give just one example of both.

At times, we still find ourselves tempted to think about how happy we are already. Adding another child (potentially with special needs) would change things a lot. This is God's calling on our lives, so in the midst of these doubts and selfish thoughts, we press on: doing what's right because we know its right, until it feels right.

Since we began this process of adoption, we've been blessed in so many ways. This is just one of them: We have developed several deep friendships since this adoption process began. I shudder to think of not having these friendships. Had we just remained comfortable, we wouldn't have such blessings.

I want to encourage those who are called by God to do something out of your ordinary: there are unknown blessings ahead. Its natural to fear the unknown. I just pray we all don't allow it to keep us from those unknown blessings. Please pray that for our family as we continue this journey of adoption.

Flomar and Adoption

Nearly five years ago, we "adopted" a cute little beagle to be a part of our family. Our girls LOVED dogs, and we were finally able to have one. We knew what her name was going to be since before we got her, its just that I wasn't sure I wanted to call out "Flomar!" in front of the neighbors.

The name is strange, but it reminds us of a movie we once rented. Martian Child is a movie very few people have heard of (at least the people we talk to). I think out of all the years we've had Flomar, we've found two people who have seen the movie. Although it wasn't a huge blockbuster, you should at least see the trailer. You may find yourself going to amazon and buying the DVD for less than $6.00 (use our link below and a portion of the purchase will go towards our adoption fund).

Why am I telling you about our Beagle and some barely-heard-of movie? It reminds us we were made for more than ourselves. Watch the trailer to see what I mean.