June 17, 2012

Hold up. I’m what?

To start this post I need to take you back about 2 ½ months. Our adoption agency called about a new country program in Africa. We would be good candidates for the program because of our family size and years of marriage. Our agency told us a little about the country, that there where children available, and that there were not any children on the horizon in Uganda.
Mark and I briefly discussed and prayed about the call, but decided that we wanted to stay in Uganda. We were OK with waiting. 

Fast forward about 2 weeks. We received an email from our agency that left us feeling defeated. For reasons (which we completely agree with) our agency needed to be more selective in the children who they were willing to accept into their Ugandan program. This decision would cause the number of children available for adoption to drastically decrease. AND in addition to this (here is the big one), they were uncertain about the stability of the program.

We had a hard time with this. We already switched countries from Ethiopia to Uganda. We did not want to switch again. But we also did not want to stay in a program that we felt would ultimately be a dead end.
For weeks, we prayed about a decision. We spoke numerous times with our adoption agency about the specifics of the new program and what it would mean for our adoption. 

I am not one to “hear” God, but I really wanted a clear answer on this one. I needed to know that whatever decision we made was completely His. 

Over these weeks, I began to lean towards switching programs. I could not shake the idea that Uganda was going to be a long road with no end in sight. I was beginning to feel a strong desire for our third child. So, I made my decision, I wanted to switch. 

BUT Mark was not ready yet. He felt that we would ultimately switch, but was sort of dragging his feet. So, I waited (and waited, and waited) on him to make a final decision. 

The time finally came where Mark had made his choice. The night before he was going to tell me he was ready to switch countries, we found out I was pregnant. Wait, stop the bus. What? Yep, I am pregnant!

I know, we were shocked too (and super excited!). I chart my cycle and (this may be TMI) I can feel when I ovulate. I have NO idea how I am pregnant. Well, that’s a lie; I do understand how it happens. But based on when I ovulated and when we, well you know, it just seems impossible.  

God gave me my answer. It was not what I thought it would be, but it is an answer. He wants us to wait. 

What does this mean for our adoption? We are going to stay in the Uganda program and reevaluate what it looks like in about 6 months. Only God knows what this program holds and for now, we are going to wait (some more). 

Baby Elliott is due on January 11th, 2013, which puts me at about 10 weeks pregnant! Praising the Lord for this precious child!

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4 comments:

Amber said...

Congrats! I'm so excited for your family and hope you're feeling well.

NosyRosie said...

YAY! So excited and your babies are so cute I can't wait!

Aaron said...

So happy for you all! Congratulations!

The Rohman Family said...

Woo hoo! Congratulations!