Bryan and I have quite the news to share with you all.
As most of you know, we have desired to have children for almost four and half years now, but we've struggled with infertility for that length of time. Through those years, we would pray for God to bless us with a child, but with every passing month, we would always be disappointed. We went through several failed infertility treatments and our faith was tested through it all, but these difficult times eventually helped us grow closer to our Father.
Just last year, the Lord led us to adoption, and it was the answer to all our prayers! Our eyes were open to the great need in our world for adoption and we quickly became consumed with our calling to adopt. We were finally filled with hope, and we were thrilled to finally be expecting our child from Korea, but mostly felt so blessed that the Lord brought us down this path of infertility in order to complete His plan He had for us to adopt.
After our dossier was sent to Korea, Bry and I decided to prevent the possibility of becoming pregnant, because we knew if we got pregnant we would have to put our adoption on hold and we didn't want anything to interfere with our desire and call to adopt! After 5 months waiting for our referral from Korea, the Lord revealed to us a different plan… Bryan and I recently discovered that we are, in fact, pregnant! After 4 years of actively trying to get pregnant, it took only 5 months of not trying to get pregnant for it to work!! We were blown away by this news!
To be honest, it has been very difficult to wrap our heads around. We felt so strongly that God wanted our first child, at least, to be adopted. Everything had gone so smoothly as we hit no roadblocks, and God provided the amazing amount of money we needed to accept our referral (which could have been weeks away). Through this whole process, we were constantly assured that this was meant to be, so we have definitely struggled for several weeks with our feelings about all of this. We had to call our agency, as we signed an agreement that if we were to ever become pregnant; we were to let them know immediately. Korea requires waiting adoptive parents to put their adoption on hold if they become pregnant, and in the next few weeks, that is what our status will be. We are to assess where we are and get put back on the waiting list once our child is born. Bry and I are convinced that we are STILL called to adopt, even if we are pregnant. We may lose our grant (still haven't found out yet), and know that we will have to pay a little more now to have our homestudy updated (among other things), but we know that God has been faithful thus far and He will continue to be! Even though our adoption will be delayed now, Bry and I cannot forget the miracle He has giving us through this pregnancy! We are so excited to know that God held off pregnancy for us, so that this specific child could be born at this specific time and circumstances, and that He used this past year to inspire us to expand our family through adoption too. There was a time that having a family was something we just believed wasn't possible for us, and now we are expecting two children in the next few years!! Praise God!
Bryan and I cannot thank you all enough for your unwavering support and prayers throughout this journey. It has meant everything to us! We hope that you will continue to stay updated with the progress of our upcoming pregnancy and adoption.
**Bryan and I also wanted to address our donations. We know that many of you have generously donated to support this adoption, and we wanted you to know that all of that money is still accounted for in a savings account. The money has not been spent and will only be used for our adoption, but we would understand and are willing to return it to you if need be; so please don’t hesitate to let us know.
Some Fun Stuff…
This is a link to our video we took when we came home to tell my parents the news this past weekend. I had wrapped a framed picture of our ultrasound and handed it to my mom as an early mother’s day gift. My family had been expecting that we would receive our referral soon, so even though they didn’t say anything, that is what they thought it was. They were definitely surprised!!!
By the way, we are now 9 weeks along and due October 30!
I didn't even know these things did that!
6 Weeks Ultrasound!
