"Red and Yellow, Black and White...

...they are precious in His sight - Jesus loves the little children of the world!"

Tonight, Joe and I went to an adoption meeting. It was so incredible, emotional, and inspiring I can hardly express it all here! The meeting was sponsored by Bethany Christian Services, an adoption agency we've become acquainted with through a family at our church.

I've been hesitant to talk about it much, only because there was some confusion about state-to-state issues for us, but it sounds like these will be able to be worked through. Yippy! Baby, here we come!

We heard information on both domestic (within the U.S.) and international (outside of the U.S., obviously) adoption. Aside from almost bursting into tears several times (I just can't believe we're actually going to be doing this!!), I felt both elated and terrified. (It's such a strange thought to think about possibly choosing your own child...) Joe and I are open to either kind of adoption....we just need to pick one and go with it.

Unfortunately, Joe and I suck at making decisions.

But our future family is at stake here -- so make a decision we will!! If you think of it, would you mind praying for us? Here are some specific prayer requests as we enter this new journey:

• Wisdom to know which form of adoption would be the best for us to pursue. There are so many pro's and con's to both types that it's a bit mind boggling! The decision is made even more difficult by the fact that we would love to do either and/or both kinds of adoption some day. So which one do we start with?
• Diligence on our part in filling out applications and forms and staying on top of things. I've felt terribly slothful lately, but I don't want to waste time as we enter this new phase, especially since we'll be doing a lot of waiting as it is.
• The birthmother and our future child. While we don't know whether our child is even conceived yet, we do want to pray that he/she is able to grow up healthy and is able to bond to us when we become their forever family. As well, we want to be in prayer for the birthmother (whether she is pregnant yet or not) that she would have the strength to do what's best for her child and that she might have someone to come alongside her to help her through this.

Thank you so much! I plan to update on our adoption status periodically, so you can be watching for more related posts!