Our Biggest MUST-READ Post of the Year!!!!!

Dear friends and family,

Today I am BEYOND EXCITED to share something amazing with you. As we have struggled with the timing (...waiting...) in our adoption journey, the Lord has unveiled an AWESOME story line in the last 9 days that He's been weaving right along.

Many of you know some of our best friends in the world, Nathan and Kimberly Cromer. These two have been trusting the Lord to reveal His plans for their family and have been faithfully following Him in caring for foster children this past year. Daniel and I have watched their trust in the Lord grow even deeper and have been in awe of their immense love for the children they've cared for. Through both exciting moments and challenging ones filled with spiritual warfare, Nathan and Kimberly have loved the children coming through their home with the unconditional love of Christ, providing a safe and caring environment and praying relentlessly for the six foster children they've had in their home this past year.

As their most recent group of children was placed back with their mother and father not long ago, the Cromers were again waiting on the Lord to bring just the right children into their home at the right time. They were trusting Him to reveal the next step, when the following events unfolded.

Last Wednesday night, we were approached by a friend in our monthly adoption and foster care support group, informing us of an urgent need for a home-study-ready adoptive family for a baby boy due at the end of July. I have to admit, the first thought in my head was, “Lord, really? Don't You know this is bad timing?” as we could not even entertain the thought since our home study will become invalid as soon as Zoe is born (any day now). For a few moments my heart broke for this expectant mother and her pre-born child, wondering if our friend would be able to locate a family soon enough. But then she asked, “What about the Cromers? Would they be interested?” Daniel and I both definitely agreed that they'd be interested. We prayed desperately that night at home that the Lord would protect this expectant mom and her child and bring just the right family along for him.

Just twelve hours later, I received a simple text from Kimberly, “filling out the paper work now.” I'm not sure my heart has ever felt such joy as hearing those few words, knowing that (of course) the Lord's timing was not BAD, but instead ABSOLUTELY, INCREDIBLY AMAZING to be writing this beautiful story into the Cromers' lives. Just 24 hours after our friend first informed them of the situation, Nathan and Kimberly were matched to be the adoptive family for this little boy!!!!! They will travel through several states to bring him home at the end of July—and, not a coincidence, right during the weeks Nathan had already had planned with his boss to be out on vacation.

In the letter they sent out this week, the Cromers shared this verse: “My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts are higher than your thoughts,” (Isaiah 55:9). How incredible these words are! So many times (over, and over, and OVER again), I have doubted what the Lord is up to in our family's adoption journey—especially why He asked us to start the journey so soon, already knowing He planned to bless us with pregnancy shortly after, which would cause significant delays in our adoption process and cause us to essentially start at square one again after Zoe's birth. But His ways ARE higher than ours. He reminded me this week that had we not begun our adoption journey, I wouldn't have been able to help Kimberly throw a family profile together using ours as a template in 2 hours (designing ours took weeks...and weeks...). From the profile, the expectant mother was able to “meet” the Cromers in more depth than just from photos alone. We also would not have been there to have to say no but affirm that the Cromers would definitely want to hear about the situation. This may seem small, but the Lord used this to remind me again that He does INDEED have timing under control. His ways are higher and BETTER than mine.

As you rejoice with us in this amazing news, be watching our blog for how you can be involved in the Cromers' journey in the coming weeks. They will be starting from scratch for baby items (they do have a car seat and pack-n-play), so that will be one need we'll address on our blog soon. They have shared the following prayer requests in the letter they sent out this week, and we'd love you to pray along with them:

We know and believe that “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” James 5:16. We need prayer for wisdom as we become forever parents. We need prayer for strength through this time of quickly preparing for a newborn. We need prayer for the processes and paperwork that need to be completed to finalize this adoption. We need prayer for travel as we drive across several states to bring him home. We need prayer for our time with the birth mom, allowing Christ to shower his love and hope to the birth mom through us.

Today I will simply close this post with the beginning words from their letter:

We want to praise the Lord for His unconditional love, His eternal Gospel, and His great and precious promises! Amen!

(AND AMEN!!!!)