The Story Behind Getting MATCHED with BABY SIS!!!

WOW!  What a whirlwind these past few weeks have been!  In a GOOD ~ GREAT ~ way!!!

As you know from my last post, we became paper pregnant for BABY SIS June 16th!  And as many of you already know from Facebook……(it's taken me a while to post it here, sooo sorry)…….

WE ARE MATCHED WITH OUR BABY GIRL!!!!

We were officially paper pregnant JUNE 16th and we were matched on JULY 8th!  Baby Sis is expected to be born in Florida the end of October!

When I first learned of the domestic adoption process, I wondered aloud to God many a times, "How in the world will we know when to present our Family Profile?……We don't want to choose our daughter, we want YOU to, God!"  To which He quietly assured me that He had this, and would walk us through the process, leading us directly to our baby girl in the end.

Within DAYS of becoming paper pregnant, we were being presented with a couple of possible situations.  Totally unexpected and a bit overwhelming to us at first. 

Well, God prevailed and profoundly clarified for us with each scenario how each one was not meant for us..….

…..Until, that is, THIS sweet scenario crossed my email inbox!!!……Honestly, I even felt a twitter of excitement just reading the email heading (unlike the other situations that had crossed our path previously)!  :D

Let me back up a bit.  In domestic adoption, we make a Family Profile, which gets presented (upon your request) to the birth mother and/or father, to help the her/them get a feel for who we are as individuals as well as a family.  This book includes things we had written directly to the birth parents, as well as things we shared about us as a family.  We had WONDERFUL help with this project from our incredible adoption consultant, Susan, who is with Christian Adoption Consultants!  She kept looking for the right layout, and tweaked it here and there, until she helped create the one that "fit" us perfectly!  THANK YOU, SUSAN!

Anyway, we felt strongly lead to have our profile presented to this birth mother.  It is INCREDIBLE how God so clearly lead us to THIS particular situation!  Because, we believe, THIS is the baby angel who He has chosen for us!

The lawyer presented all of the family profiles on JULY 3rd, and over the holiday (and my birthday!) weekend, we fervently prayed that God's Will be done.  We prayed for the birth mom to find a peace about the right family for her unborn baby girl.  We hoped that it would be OUR FAMILY of course, but more importantly, we prayed she would be lead to chose THE RIGHT family for this precious angel baby…..whether that was us or not….

We also prayed that the birth mother and father would feel God's love and protection while making such a courageous, brave and loving decision as adoption.  We asked God to cover them in a peace that surpassed their understanding.  We asked Him to guide them to the family He had already chosen for this precious little princess.

And HE DID!

I was hiking Tuesday morning, JULY 8th (my nephew and our doggies' birthday!) when I got the call.   I was feeling a bit flustered with how this domestic adoption process works, and how COMMON it is to receive a number of "not chosen" phone calls before you are officially matched.  I wondered how many "No" calls we would receive before receiving the "Yes!" that would lead us to our baby girl. 

As much as I was trying to give all of this up to our Heavenly Father, I could not shake the deep desire for birth mother to choose US.  I knew we only wanted the baby girl GOD had planned for us from the beginning, but I was struggling with convincing myself I was okay with whatever decision was about to be made.

I couldn't shake the intense feeling that this baby girl was OUR precious daughter.  Yet, I had to lift this whole scenario, with an open palm, up to God.  Trusting that His will and plan is always for our GOOD.  Period.  Always.

The call came in the middle of my hike, and as I saw the number across my cell screen, my heart leaped with excitement as well as hesitation……was I ready to hear the answer?  What if she didn't choose us?

With much excited anticipation, I answered the call, to hear the sweet words, "She chose YOU!"……."I knew she would love you and your family!  She chose you!"

There I stood.  At a perfect resting stop overlooking our city, squealing……with other hikers hiking passed me wondering, I am sure, what news was so good to make me jump for Joy!  I even accidentally cut the lawyer off and had to call her back explaining that in my giddy excitement, I accidentally pressed a button that cut off our conversation.  ;)  The lawyer covered me with her kindness and grace and continued to share how things proceed after a match {I feel I only heard half of what she said in all my overjoyed giddiness!}.

I immediately called Jeff to share the news!  {I knew I couldn't wait until I hiked down the foothills!}  We vowed to keep it quiet from the boys until we could share the joy TOGETHER as a family, and Jeff would be leaving for work immediately upon my return home, and sweet peanut was still asleep.

Finally at noon, we were able to have our family pow-wow where we shared with the boys that we had been matched with BABY SIS!!!!  The smile on Sami's face was radiant and huge!  His eyes just danced as he asked more details about her.  Sweet Kaleab asked, "We get my baby TODAY!?!?"  His little 3 year old mind still grapples with when "my baby" will come home; but his excitement shines in every little comment that comes from his mouth, showing us how often he thinks about her and dreams of playing with her!  Melt.my.heart.

We spent the next two days sharing with family and close friends our amazing news.  Finally, we decided we could not possibly wait any longer to share with everyone we wanted to share personally, as we were itching to spread the wonderful works of God!  {patience is not a virtue I maintain with such news as this!}  

The day following our match (JULY 9th), we had a phone conversation with birth mom, facilitated by the lawyer.  Having previously met our boys' birth mothers, I was surprised at my nervousness over this phone call.  I think the lack of face-to-face contact for our initial meet-and-greet was cause for my nerves.  Jeff, on the other hand, was calm, cool and collected.  Thank goodness!  The call felt a bit awkward, as is to be expected, but it confirmed for both us and her, that this match was a great decision.

Our next step now is to fly down to Florida to meet with birth mother and father.  We are looking into flights now.  {Having already planned a vacation to Colorado July 11- July 21, we have yet to make those arrangements, but now that we are back that is definitely next on our list!}

And get this!  Birth mom is fine with having an ultrasound done while we are there with her!!!!  Shaking my head at the details of how wonderful God is, orchestrating every detail for us!  Never dreamed that we would be able to experience a {positive/exciting} ultrasound of our baby!  

You are too-too good, Lord!  You know the deep and secret places in my mama heart {some of which are places I am not consciously aware}.  Thank You for loving to lavish me with Your amazing love and surprises!

We have already experienced His incredible creation of our family with our precious boys, but seeing His handprints all over our path to Baby Sis just renews our awe and gratefulness!

In complete and utter amazement, we praise God for His glorious works!