First Time Parents and Oddball Requests

         

        

        As public as we've been with our story, I have realized there are a few changes that will be taking place as we grow closer to the day we bring Baby Krauss home.  I need to give you all more detail as to how this “waiting period” is going to go. Matt and I have decided that if any potential situations arise, he will be the only one notified. This means until we are presented to a potential birth mother and she chooses us (meaning we are matched) I won’t know anything. So if you see me in person and ask for updates, I’m going to give you a clueless look and shrug. We decided to do this because the reality of knowing we are being presented to someone and them not choosing us, possibly many, many times, was too much for this heart to bear. My hero of a husband came up with this solution, and it’s made for a pretty great last month. (Don’t even think about pestering him for information. If he’s not sharing with me, his lips are sealed!)

        The only thing that has taken away the comfort of this situation is when people ask me for updates. Here is an illustration to explain my point: you know you’ve just gotten in a car to take a potentially very long car ride. You’ve accepted this fact, and have made up your mind to try and enjoy the scenery while you drive this undesignated amount of time. After about ten minutes, one of your kids in the back pipes up, “Are we there yet?” You, of course, inform them that you haven’t arrived yet, and this proceeds to happen every 10 minutes or so. At this point, you, the driver, have totally missed all the pretty scenery and have grown frustrated and impatient about your drive.

         This is how I feel when people ask daily for updates. This new arrangement with Matt in charge has made the waiting period much less stressful for me but when I am asked “are you there yet,” it brings to the forefront some of that stress. The reality of the situation is, even when we are chosen by a birth family, we still might not tell everyone. This could be for several different reasons. It could all happen so fast there are no steps in between waiting and having our baby in our arms. It could be that the situation seems unsteady and we’re nervous it won’t work out. Up until this point, our story has been ours to tell. The rest of this process involves our baby’s story, and also their birth parents’ stories. Those are not ours to tell. When our baby arrives, it will be safe to assume the birth family did not feel equipped to raise a child, and that’s why they were placed with us. All other details will remain private.

         We know the reason anyone asks us for an update every time they talk to us is because they care and want to show they are interested in what’s going on with us. My request is that you would express this caring by letting us know you are praying for us. We deeply appreciate all of the prayers that have been lifted up for us so far, and we can’t wait to tell our baby how much they were loved before they even arrived.

          I know in the past I have criticized the seemingly strange requests first time parents have made, and now that I’m almost standing in those shoes, I ask your forgiveness. I’m sure we will have other oddball requests as we venture further down the path, and I ask that you would try to see things through our eyes and understand we’re just doing what we think is best for our unique little family.

Always grateful,

Kristin

Waiting for the Call

What a whirlwind we have been through since I last wrote! Our lives have been taken over by all sorts of appointments-medical, legal, home visit, etc. Visiting family in Kentucky was a much needed break. How different it feels to now be in the position of waiting. We spent many months waiting to see if I would get pregnant without any help, several more months with the aid of treatment, more months coming to the decision to adopt and a few more looking for an agency! As long as we’ve waited to be parents, and as impatient as I can get in the moment, I still know God has the perfect time for our baby to arrive. I also want to let all of our readers know that we are still open to finding our baby outside of our agency, so if you happen to hear of someone thinking of placing their child for adoption, please contact me and I will give you our profile so that they can consider us.

While visiting my home church in Mount Sterling, I felt God showing me a parallel between earthly adoption and the adoption we all are part of when we become sons and daughters in Christ. Some children come to their family so easily, or even by surprise, like many of us are practically born into the church, being dedicated from infancy for the work of God. I was one of those people. I never wandered far from the beliefs of my parents, and have led a stable Christian life. I recognize this to be completely by the grace of God, and not to my own credit whatsoever. This is also not to say I've led a perfect life, I just haven’t wandered very far. I tell you this for the purpose of illustrating this parallel.

For others, not only do they begin life without a foundation in Christ, they might take years, maybe even most of their lives, to truly know God. Do you think God values them any less? What if God became impatient and said, “I’m tired of waiting on this person to open the door to their hearts! I’ll just focus on my kids that have walked the straight and narrow, and just give up pursuing the others.” How many of us would be lost for good? God’s grace always pursues us, never giving up the search.

When I came to this realization, I felt confident that God would help us to wait as long as we have to in order to find our baby. It’s so exciting knowing we could find them tomorrow, two weeks, two months, or two years from now. (I’m still hoping it isn't two years!)

If you have been praying for a loved one for a long time to find Christ, and at times you doubt it will ever happen or that God hears your prayers, remember it could happen when you least expect it. Just like we wait for that call telling us we are finally parents, you could find out God has done an amazing work and the person that was once a lost child has finally come home.

Waiting in hope,

      Kristin