Family Spuds – Moorhead family updates

Thanks so much for all of your prayers and words of encouragement.  They have definitely been felt during the past couple of weeks.

We found out this afternoon that the case workers involved in the staffing for the sibling pair have decided to place them with another family.  Although we are disappointed, we know without a doubt that this is God’s perfect will and have experienced the peace that only knowing God’s sovereignty can bring.

Thanks again for supporting us along our journey,

Jon and Stacie

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We recently found out about a sibling pair that is in foster care and available for adoption immediately.

I received confirmation this morning from our adoption specialist that the CPS case worker is definitely considering us as one of the parents to potentially be the “forever family” for this pair. The one year old boy and his three year old sister would be a great addition to our family. Pray that God would place these children in a loving family and that He would give us favor in being considered for this adoption. Also pray that this would not drag out for very long but that they would have the CPS staffing (where they choose their top adoptive family) soon.

Thank you,

Jon & Stacie

March marks our one year anniversary being certified to adopt.

Hmmm. One full year since we were certified. It’s a milestone on this journey I suppose.  One that we’ve been thinking on often in the last few weeks.

If you’ve never been down the adoption path you might not know the effort it requires to become certified. It’s quite possibly the most paperwork-intense process you’ve ever seen. I’ve been in the Army so that’s saying a lot. There’s an emotional toll as you go through answering tough questions about your past, your present, and your plans for parenting. You have to get references and fingerprints and background checks. A specialist comes to your house to visit and ask questions…twice. And before any of that starts you have to pick out an agency to work with…and how do you know what agency to choose or even that you need an agency until you start doing some research to find out what it all takes? To say the least, it’s a long drawn out process that takes it’s toll.

So you can image that when that paper comes in and you know that you’ve passed muster it’s a great feeling. Ahhh! There’s no longer any barrier. They’ve approved us as being “worthy” to adopt a child as our own. They’ve examined our strengths and weakness and found us to be good enough to be a parent as far as the State is concerned. There’s nothing to stop us now.

Yet that is but the beginning it seems.

Here we are one year later and what’s wrong with this picture? <dramatic pause> We still haven’t adopted a child, that’s what’s wrong. The whole point of getting certified is so that a child can be adopted. Without the child, the certification itself seems pointless.

Here we are one year later, still praying that God would bring us a child (or two) to adopt. Still waiting for a match. You’d think that we’d get tired of waiting and wonder if this really is our true calling…and you’d be right. We do wonder these things; we do get tired and discouraged from time to time. Yet, we hold on to the hope that “God aint done with us yet.”

We’re praying more specifically these days that God would bring us a healthy baby boy by the beginning of May…and even so, that His will be done rather than ours.  If we must wait longer, we will. If not a boy so be it. If the child’s body is not whole we’ll still love him or her just as much.

One year later we still have faith (although I wish I could say we don’t grumble about the wait, lol).

JPM

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We learned today that this situation will not work out for us.

The birth parents have decided to look elsewhere for a family to adopt the baby. Stacie and I are disappointed…but handling it well. It’s certainly a clear answer to our prayers. God is so faithful. I’ve been feeling like in this situation God may be encouraging the couple to parent their own child. In any case we’ll continue to pray that the child has a loving home.

We would appreciate your continued prayers for us.

• We have an orientation meeting for the With Child ministry on January 17^th to see if that is a good fit for us.
• ABCS is beginning a series of classes on January 29^th to become certified for CPS adoptions and we need to decide if that is a path we should pursue.
• Encouragement to endure: it feels like we’ve already been down a long road and yet it feels like we’re starting over in many ways.

Blessings in 2009,

JPM

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UPDATE: We heard our first update today and there’s a mixture of news to share.

The adoption agency spoke with the birth parents today. They’re telling us that the couple is upset because the adopting parents they were initially matched with have moved on. Apparently they connected really well with the adopting couple and are having a hard time coming to grips with the situation they now face. It sounds like it’s very hard for them to understand what happened. They discussed some options but may not fully grasp how difficult it is to find and get matched with someone who is certified to adopt.

They’ve looked at our profile and the adoption agency has been putting in a good word for us. Still, the birth parents are very unsure. They haven’t given a definitive ‘no’ at this point, but they want a family similar to the other couple they were matched with. Maybe God will use us as a witness to them. It’s hard to say what they may choose to do given that the baby is due within weeks.

We appreciate your continued prayers. Thanks for all the words of encouragement. We don’t expect any more updates until at least after Christmas.

JPM

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