I think this cartoon is great! A friend of ours who adopted overseas showed me this cartoon on someone else's blog, and I just had to use it.So often, people seem to think that adoption is to be considered only as a last resort to infertility. Yes, if we had been able to conceive right away, we probably would not be pursuing adoption right now. However, it is definitely not a last resort for us. There are probably several more tests and procedures we could have done in relation to our infertility, but we have chosen not to be those people who spend endless years and amounts of money trying to figure out our infertility. So far, Mark and I have no answers as to why we can't conceive other than that it's not God's will at this time. That is all the answer I need right now. No, it's not easy...and many days I wish that someone would tell me the reason for our infertility, but right now I am ok with not knowing. It gives me hope for the future...and I believe that if God wants us to conceive, it will happen in His time. However, that does not mean that I don't still struggle with it and that I don't still get teary-eyed at the thought that I may never experience a child growing inside me. But I can't imagine going through this struggle without knowing God and having faith in Him! I recently finished reading a book called "Adopted for Life" by Dr. Russell Moore. It is absolutely amazing! Even if you have never considered adoption, I would definitely recommend it! It is also a great read for those who have close family members and friends who have adopted or are going through the process. It will give you a fresh outlook on adoption, and also does a great job relating it to our adoption in Christ. It brought many tears to my eyes as I was reading. It's a quick and easy read, so please read it if you have the slightest interest!
For those of you who keep up with my blog, I wanted to give a quick update. Mark recently finished his first year of seminary last week! I am so proud of him, and he is definitely ready for a little break. Currently, we are praying about God's will for our lives. We are not sure whether to keep pursuing school right now, and we are praying about job situations and children. If you haven't yet heard, we have decided to pursue adoption! It is exciting, yet a little scary, and there are many unknowns. I am trying to find peace in knowing that God already has a child for us and we just need to trust Him. We would really appreciate your prayers through this continued journey. Yesterday, we drove to Indianapolis and had an orientation meeting with Baptist Children's Home. They do mostly infant adoptions, which is what we are interested in. It was a great meeting. We got a lot of good information and a formal application to fill out if we decide to move forward with it. The first major step in the process after filling out the application is to have a homestudy. We cannot get that done until we first decide what we are going to do with our lives. We need to know that we are going to stay somewhere for at least a year before we decide to have a homestudy done. It can be very expensive, and if we move out of state we will have to have another one done and will have to pay for it all over. As you can see...we have many important decisions coming up! However, we really want to spend a lot of time in prayer and make sure that we don't make any hasty decisions, and that whatever we decide is God's will. We will be looking into a few other adoption agencies before we make a decision about which one to go with. We also have the option of international adoption as well.Our lease is ending in just a couple of weeks...May 31st, and we really don't know whether to renew it for another year. We can either do a year long lease or a semester lease. A semester lease is more expensive, but it might be worth it since there is so much up in the air right now. I do like our apartment and the fact that there are many beautiful places to walk near our apartment, but since we are unsure about Mark's schooling, and we currently live on campus...it makes the decision a difficult one.My parents are coming to visit us in mid-June, and they are also bringing my oldest niece and nephew, Joci and Tyson. They will be camping in the area for a week and enjoying the many wonderful things there are to do in Louisville and the surrounding areas. I am so excited to see them! We also have some friends from Oklahoma coming to visit the first weekend in June, and Mark's uncle from Oklahoma will be here for a day in mid-June. We never have visitors from out of state...but now they are all coming at once! June will be a busy month, and it's also our 3 year anniversary! We are looking forward to a great summer!
