Packing Boxes

As we sit in our new home on this rainy Saturday morning we are amazed. We are humbled that God has continued to provide for and lead our family in such a powerful way. This move happened so quickly and has affected the adoption process so we wanted to take a few minutes and tell you about it. We have been renting in Florida since we moved here 2 years ago. We found a wonderful condo to rent and God really blessed our time there. We met wonderful life long friends there and Fenley loved being the token Sun King Yacht Club grandchild and loved all the visitors there. We knew that our landlord might want to sell the unit at some point and were praying we would be able to stay as long as possible. In late July the unit sold. We had already started the adoption process and had kicked off the fundraising. We knew that this move might put a halt to our home study process and that was a major concern but we had to continue to trust God. He knew that we would move in this process way earlier than we did so we had to trust He had this whole plan figured out.

Fenley's new room at house.
Love using old stuff
making look new!

We looked to find a new place to rent...and looked and looked...and nothing felt peaceful. No space or place felt like it could be home. Our hearts and minds were feeling restless. With Becca's family coming in town for vacation the first week of September we knew we wanted to be settled to prevent them from helping us move....again. We kept looking in Destin (the community in which we had been living) and couldn't find what we felt like God wanted for us. We knew that more than likely this next place would be the place we bring our son home to. We knew that this would be the place we finish this home study process. And we know that whether we rent or own, live a year or live 10 years, have 700 square feet or 1500, we want to have a place become a home.





 



"Meanwhile the joyful anticipation deepens..."

Romans 8:21

--We love the thought of grateful expectation. Thanking Him in advance.--

 

"You'll take delight in God, the mighty one, and look to Him joyfully, boldly! You'll pray to Him and He'll listen; He will help you do what you're promised."

Job 22: 26-28

 

"One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up!" Luke 18:1 --praying with intensity and consistency like the persistent widow--

 

These verses hang on our blue door along with pictures of friends and family. We love theses verses and cling to them. And we love this blue door and it makes every move with us!

We felt like God was calling us across the bridge (the East Pass/Destin-Marler Bridge is a huge landmark for us Emerald Coast people) and knew that there was a stirring to be close to Nathan's school. God made it clear and obvious. He does that when we pray for discernment. So here we are, just one mile from Fort Walton Beach High School - just a bike ride away and more than close enough to support the Vikings at way more events. We look forward to having some football boys over to enjoy a home cooked meal every once in a while. And we are still able to remain involved in our Destin community. God is good. We found a perfect place to live and the first day in here we prayed for the Holy Spirit to be fully present within these walls. Praying and singing this beautiful song in each and every room gave us great confidence and peace from the Lord that we are indeed where we need to be because this is where God has put us. We are so excited to see what God has here. After 2 weeks of looking and 1 week of deciding we had 7 days to pack and move! We have moved a lot but never that fast. Only God can make that happen!

We will miss our drop tile ceiling tents
at the condo! Family fun!

 

Now that we've caught you up to speed with the move we want to update you on the adoption process. We have our final step of our home study scheduled -- an in-home visit that we will have on September 12. After that we will continue to wait to be matched with a birth mom. Please continue to pray for her, whomever she is. We know that with the move we weren't able to be as active as we wanted with our fundraising and updates. We are still working on tee shirts as well as some events. We're excited about doing a raffle soon with a Yeti cooler and GoPro. Some dear friends of ours have donated these items to be used to raise money.  Many of you know the stress of moving and getting settled into a new place and community and we ask for your grace as we navigate all of these big exciting changes.

With that being said, we realize that with only 36 hours left officially in our You-Caring Team D campaign (we set up to run Aug. 1-31) we know we might not reach the amount we are needing. We are going to see what God has in store but it is possible we will be extending the deadline as we also add some other opportunities. God has it all!

The ways you can help are SHARE and PRAYER. Share our story. And pray. Pray for us, the birth mom, our future son, and God to be glorified through it all.

 

Clear Eyes. Full Hearts. Can't Lose.

 

The last few weeks have been a little crazy. Honestly, life has been tough. What else should we expect, right? We have had a few surprises, both good and bad. Before school cranks up on Monday we have been doing our best to pack our days with last minute summer activities. The hustle of football season is upon us as well. Go Vikings!

News of having to be out of our condo by mid-September has been quite the distraction! Meanwhile, we try to stay focused while trying to raise $25,000, but more importantly finish our home study so we can be fully ready to be matched with a birth mom. Confession – we have struggled most days to find the joy of the Lord in the midst of all the “to-do” list items that seem to be multiplying. BUT… we also declare that our hearts and minds remain focused as we draw closer to adding another member to our team. On days where we lose our focus and start to think on the here and now and the to-do’s, we find ourselves texting one another saying “redirect our focus. None of these things we are worrying about really matter….we have to think on bigger things…On Life! On our SON! On the amazing community surrounding us in this journey!” After we remind one another of where our hope is found, all is well. It is wonderful to have a spouse that can speak life and truth to you. We both try to do this. We might not do it perfectly but we have found that when one is weak, the other is strong. We are thankful God designed us that way. It also reminds us that when we are weak, Jesus Himself is right there with us as an ever present help. “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” Psalm 46:1  And what would Team D be without these fun adventures?! So bring on the move during the first week of the football season because we feel that God had this planned all along! (We will share more about this move. We are renting a house in Ft. Walton and excited about some ministry opportunities we feel God calling us to. His sweet conviction whispers “choose comfort or courage” - you can’t have both! Story of this coming soon.)

Fenley with our family profile book.

We are very close to completing the home study process. We knew we better get on the errand portion before football got underway (yes we live in a place where football season is supreme and kind of like Friday Night Lights—side note: If you have not binge-watched this show on Netflix you are missing out!—time intensive? Yes, but oh so fun! That is where the title for this blog came from, but if you are a true FNL fan you already know that.).  Fingerprinting and background checks are done. Dr. appointments and physicals are completed. Recommendation letters are almost done and we are just waiting on the actual home visit. We had to reschedule this due to the move but should have this completed by mid-September. At that point we should be good to go! After that, we will be waiting to be matched with a birth mother. We have sent in our family profile book. This is the book that they will show a birth mother. This book has stuff all about our family. It was fun to make and we are excited we have a copy for ourselves to remember this journey for years to come! The process as we know it so far will be something like this: get email with birth mother information, if we accept to possibly be matched we say we are willing, then if birth mother chooses us, we have a match. At that point we are on our way to have a son! Of course there are little things along the way. The agency we are working with is amazing and Nathan’s cousin has adopted through them. It is a smaller agency and they only have 12 families on their list at all times so we could be chosen quickly! Or it could be a while. We honestly have no idea but what we do know is that we can’t wait! I guess we better get working on his name, but we are having a hard time agreeing. Fenley likes pretty standard names. Of course with her name being Fenley, you can tell what kind of names we like. Ultimately, we know God knows him by name and He even knows the hairs that will be on his head! Isn’t that crazy how great and BIG and loving our God is!

As we think about how good God is we are reminded of those who might not know His love. Many times people feel alone. We are praying for our birth mother that she does not feel alone. Our wonderful preacher at church reminds us of this truth every Sunday: “God loves you and you are not alone.” This is such a simple truth yet life changing.  Please join us in praying for our birth mother wherever she may be. At the beginning of our family profile book we included a letter to our birth mother and we wanted to share it with you. 

Dear Birth Mom,

Thank you. Thank you for choosing life. You are a hero. We know that this path has not been easy and probably will have hard times ahead but because of your sacrifice LIFE is being given. We hope that through these pages you have had a chance to know Team D. We are a team and that is what makes family. Everyone working together and enjoying life. We aren't perfect but we know how to love each other and love life. God is the most important aspect of our life and all that we do is centered around Him. We can't promise a perfect life for your son, but we can promise that he will be loved, cared for, and have fun knowing that God loves him and so does his family which includes the one who gave birth to him. You will forever be an important part in his story. Thank you again. We want you to know that we are praying for you now. We are praying and waiting.                              

Blessings, love, hugs and laughter, TEAM D

The Team D adventure of bringing a baby boy into our lives is in full swing! We are still doing our donation page at You Caring Team Daniel Adventure and working on a few other things as well. We have been making paracord bracelets with arrow charms on them. We have lots of different colors. If you are interested in one (or ten! haha) we are taking donations on them. You can tell us colors you want and send us your address and we will get those to you. Yes, the bracelets are a way to raise money but more than anything they are a way to raise awareness for adoption in general and a great prayer reminder. We have many friends here in Destin (especially kids) that are loving the Team D paracord arrow charm bracelets! 

 

There are definitely days where we wonder if this can happen. Will we ever get matched with our birth mother? Will we have the money to really make this happen? Will we possibly have an adoption fall through at the very end? The answers to these questions change in our minds daily but at the very core of who we are we are called to TRUST. We are called to not let FEAR reign in our minds, our hearts, or our actions. We must BELIEVE that the ONE who called us to this has already equipped us. He will equip us with the perfect family situation. He will equip us with the money in HIS time. He will equip us with the strength to endure whatever adoption story we have. Because remember? He doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the CALLED. Lord, we are thankful for your call! And we are thankful to each of you. So many of you have been texting, calling, and donating (we are already at a little over $4,000). For that we can’t say thank you enough. We are grateful it takes a village and pumped that you are in our village!

But more than anything we thank you for your prayers. And in all of our prayers we are thanking Him for you.

^" I thank my God every time I remember you. ⁴ In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy ⁵ because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, ⁶ being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Phil. 1:3-6