The story of Micah

Well, God sure has taken us on a wild ride since my last blog post :-). I've tried to post Facebook updates here and there, but I think it's time for a blog post on what exactly has happened in the past three days.

Tuesday morning, November 18, we got a text at about 9:15 a.m. saying something like, “Guys, we don't know anything yet, but birthmom has an appointment right now and blood pressure is high. We'll know more in a few minutes.” Somehow Daniel missed the text, because the one he saw about 7 minutes later said, “Get your bags together—it's BABY DAY!!!” We got a phone call a minute later from our agency letting us know we needed to head south immediately—our son was on his way!

For the next 45 seconds I panicked :-). Then, we quickly began calling friends and family who needed to know what was happening, and within about 2 minutes of posting on Facebook, we had someone to help us clean and load, someone to watch our kids for a couple hours, and a trailer for our van coming within the hour (thank you SO much, Kimberly, Andrea, Pastor Michele, and Jay and Kelley!!).

Packing actually went fairly quickly as I'd been practice packing for nearly 4 weeks already—we had everything packed except for our last-minute items. My house, on the other hand...well, we are only coming back to a semi-clean house thanks to friends :-). We quickly felt the presence of the body of Christ as we were able to hit the road to Florida just 2.5 hours later—record time for starting a road trip with two little ones!

The next 21 hours were a complete blur of exhaustion, but somehow, we managed to drop off Nathan and Zoe at my sister's in Georgia around 3 a.m. Wednesday morning, after getting a text and photos of our son's birth at 5:20 p.m. Tuesday night. We arrived in Florida at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday and met our agency social worker, birthmom, and son for the first time at 10. We were so completely exhausted at that point, and the whole thing was so surreal. I don't know if either of us said anything intelligible to anyone, but we were able to hold Micah for the rest of the day. Our birthmom had decided not to keep him with her in her room, so when we arrived, he was waiting for us in the hospital nursery—we were the first to embrace him and hold him for hours on end—such a special time for us knowing that the Lord had absolutely appointed this time and this boy to be our son and for us to be his Mommy and Daddy.

That afternoon, we went to “check in” to the RV where we'll be staying as long as we're in this area. The family that is hosting us, orphan care missionaries Steve and Sandra Hogue, are some of the most gracious, generous people I've ever met! Sandra had fixed up the RV with everything we needed and also invited us for dinner our first night. When I got sick Wednesday afternoon (apparently a mean combo of exhaustion and stress!), she also brought me a get-well care package :-). She made us supper last night as well and had it ready in to-go containers at her door as soon as we had our evening break. We are super blessed by their generosity and really hoping Micah does not have to be transferred to a different hospital as we're really enjoying our accommodations here :-).

Speaking of Micah's health, we simply ask for your continued prayer for his health. He will be in the hospital at least four more days as originally planned, but there is potential need for him to be transferred to a bigger city hospital with a higher level NICU in the coming week. We are basically in a “wait and see” stage right now, with some hours looking great and others looking more likely for transfer. Please pray with us especially through the next several days. He definitely seems to enjoy snuggling with Mommy and Daddy and has enjoyed every moment of cuddling :-).

Yesterday we got an early surprise that it would be the big day when adoption consent was signed by Micah's birthmom, and we enjoyed a lengthy visit with her just prior to discharge. She is an awesome mamma to three sweet girls, and we feel so blessed to have been able to meet her. I will always treasure our time together.

At about 1:40 p.m. yesterday, November 20, Micah James became our son on paper! He will not have our last name until the adoption is finalized after post placement visits (sort of like the ending home study of an adoption), but he is free to be our son! We chose to name him Micah because it means, “Who is like our God?” so the moment we heard this news was such an exciting time for us—it was like the Lord shouted down to us, “See? I had a plan. I've had Micah James purposed to be your son for over two years now. Here he is—My son Micah--now show him My love!”

I'm sure this post has been a bit disjointed due to our lingering brain fog from the 21-hour drive, but I hope you can hear through these word the amazing story God has been unfolding in our adoption journey. We have watched God redeeming brokenness through adoption, and we can't wait to see what His purposes are for Micah in the years to come! May the Lord be glorified in Micah's story, and may you each continue to seek the King of all Kings, the Lord of Lords, who has a beautiful redeeming purpose for each life and a sweet path of truth and grace for each of you! :-)

When I am weak, He is GOD!

Most of our blog posts recently have pretty much been facts and tangible prayer needs and praise updates. Tonight I want to share a more personal, less tangible way you can be praying specifically for our family.

From the beginning of our adoption journey, we have experienced a much greater awareness of spiritual warfare than ever before. The Lord clearly called us to adopt in July 2012; shortly after, the ceiling collapsed on our rental house, the shed at the rental property blew over the fence to the neighbor's property, and the pipes froze at the rental and had to be replaced. We know now that the Lord planned for the sale price of that house to fund a large portion of the adoption, so it's very easy to see why Satan was targeting that home. Even just a month prior to its sale, the central air unit was stolen, causing us additional unplanned financial loss for “no reason.” One of our first hurdles in trusting the Lord in adopting was in trusting His financial provision, and we have seen His exceeding, abundant provision playing out in ways that we definitely didn't imagine.

My greatest personal spiritual battle took place when we found out we were expecting Zoe in October 2012, the month that our home study should have been finished. Welcome, morning sickness. Her pregnancy took me through a valley of depression due to physical exhaustion (pregnancy hormones and a 20-month-old) during which Satan attacked my emotions and my thoughts, causing me to doubt God's call to adoption and doubt whether I was even cut out to be a mother at all when I could hardly make it to the end of the day without my son (not yet 2) watching way too much TV (screen time before age 2=mamma fail, I believed). But THE LORD is so much more powerful than Satan! Through a couple months of desperately seeking Him through His Word and through the encouragement of other believers, He brought me to a place where I realized what it meant to rest in Him and wait on Him. He taught me to trust who He IS, not just what He does. At that point in our adoption journey, I desperately wanted to be fundraising like crazy, seeing our home study finished, and working on our family profile, but instead I was crashed on the couch. The Lord really freed me with this truth we discussed in mom's group at church: my children don't need to see a super mamma—they need to see a mamma who needs a super God. Yes, I was crashed on the couch. I was NOT a super mamma. But God was--and IS--a super God, and He taught this exhausted mamma how to rest in His presence and let Him be her strength.

This brings me to our current, deepest family prayer need—spiritual victory, yet again, for me as mamma to my kids. The past few weeks I have wrestled with great anxiety and discouragement. Satan has been attacking my thoughts regarding myself as a mom and as an individual, and I have been believing His lies despite knowing the truth about who God says I am and the truth of who God is. I've been struggling with losing the physical presence of a dear friend moving across the globe, struggling with having family spread all over the country, struggling with unplannable details of our adoption travel, struggling with consistent discipline with my children, and struggling with patience with my toddler. I have been feeling like a hopeless failure as a mom; weak, yet too proud to admit my weakness. I have forgotten that my kids don't need a super mamma but need to see a mamma who needs a super God.

And yet, I serve a super God. In fact, while we're not sharing his name publicly until after his birth, our son's first name is going to mean “Who is like our God?” as a reminder of the journey the Lord has taken us on spiritually through his adoption. I may be a struggling mamma, even failing in the world's eyes, but my God is so strong. He is strong enough to replace my untrue thoughts with His Truth. He is strong enough to take this weak mamma and strengthen her for even daily toddler battles :-)

As our family comes to mind in the next few weeks leading up to our adoption, please pray that I will know deep in my heart that in my weakness, He is strong—He is God. Amen!!!

November update

Well since it's been over a month since I've posted a blog update, I suppose I'd better write something (what use is a blog if there aren't ever any posts?) :-). This past week we got to take a “practice” road trip in preparation for our adoption travels as we drove to Louisiana to visit Daniel's family for a week. We packed all of our adoption travel items as well, “just in case,” as we've approached 34 weeks already. We didn't need them this time, but it was useful to know how travel would go with some of the ideas we had since we'll be traveling with the kids now. We learned 1) Zoe absolutely LOVES her Kidco travel tent, which was a HUGE relief to us knowing she'll sleep well wherever we put her as long as she's in her tent. 2) Taby Trays are absolutely amazing—Zoe ate an entire McDonald's breakfast sandwich without getting more than a few pieces on the van floor. Nathan used his tray the entire time for playing, coloring, and eating. 3) A travel potty is an essential van floor decoration for the next several years. 1,854 miles later, we're glad to be home but excited that the kids seem to be a bit better at handling road trips than just a few months ago!

On the adoption front, we got exciting news that we now have a scheduled c-section date of December 9! We are hoping to travel to my sister's a few days in advance to get the kids settled in with grandparents while Daniel and I travel the rest of the way alone for the first week, but the plan is for the kids to join us for the second week and following. We will have a minimum 5-day stay in the hospital with our little guy for observation, which will likely be followed by a 4-6 week NICU stay. Please keep us in prayer as we juggle spending time bonding with him, caring for Nathan and Zoe (thankfully with Grandma's help), and getting a few hours of work in for Daniel here and there (his work-from-anywhere job is just a HUGE blessing in this!!!)

Please continue to pray for:

1) Our son's health—join Nathan in praying for “our baby brother to be born all the way healthy!”

2) Safe travels—we'll be driving many miles, in order to have transportation available for the entire time we'll be away, as well as our supplies for our RV camping :-)

3) Financial provision—we are fully funded for actual adoption expenses, so we're trusting the Lord to continue blessing for extended stay travel expenses and any unplanned expenses. He has blessed “more than we could ask or imagine!” and we are so thankful!

4) Our expectant mom and family—we love her dearly and pray for her daily—please pray for a blessed time together with her at our son's birth.