We've taken the past several weeks to explore our options regarding what adoption agency or attorney to use. I'm excited to announce the choice has been made! We have applied with an agency in Orlando called Life for Kids. They work to unite expectant mothers with adoptive families of their choosing.They are a small, Christian agency that was created out of the need that developed from their crisis pregnancy center. After everything we've been through, I have been so encouraged by their constant availability to answer our questions and offer support. That same devotion is given to the mothers coming to them in need of help, whether they choose to raise their baby or take the adoption route. They also provide post-abortion counseling. We now wait to see if our application is accepted. Please pray, if it is God's will, that they will look on us favorably and will enable us to continue in the process!
One of our home study requirements will be a reading list. I decided to go ahead and choose a book to get started with, and the only one available from our library is a book entitled Adoption is a Family Affair! by Patricia Irwin Johnston. It reads as a manual of sorts for relatives and friends of prospective adopters. In one chapter about the stage of preparation, it talks about the concept of being pregnant by adoption: "Though most of us think only of the primary definition of the word pregnant-'carrying a developing fetus within the uterus'-the word has other usages as well. According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the adjective pregnant also means 'creative, inventive; fraught with significance; abounding, overflowing; filled; charged.' No other word could better describe how I felt walking up to the post office this morning in the sprinkling rain, holding all of our paperwork, praying it would make it to the agency safely and that they would receive it all with favor! God has been speaking to me about this concept for the past week or so, even before I read that definition in my book. We are living in a state of expectancy! I am truly beginning to understand that popular adoption saying,"you may not have grown under my heart, but you grew in my heart."
One way we will be keeping busy during this time of expectancy is by creating art to be sold in my Etsy shop. Some of the newest pieces are influenced by our current stage of life, and I am so excited to share them with all of you. Of course, if you choose to purchase any of our pieces all proceeds will go to support our adoption fund.The reason I say "our" and not "my" pieces is because Matt has contributed with some of his work as well! Enjoy browsing our shop EverAfterEveryDay. If you see a style you like but would like a custom piece, please let me know!
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you so much for all of your continued prayers and encouraging words. In the difficult moments that have cropped up over the past few months, we have been so comforted in knowing we are not traveling this road alone.
Waiting in hope,
Kristin
