Praise and Prayer Update

I know it's been a few weeks since we shared our first very brief announcement that we'll be adopting a baby boy in December, so tonight we wanted to share a few things with you so you can thank God with us and pray with us more specifically.

First, we want to thank all of you who have been praying with us throughout this journey! We've sensed your prayers, especially recently as we've been overwhelmed with peace about moving ahead with adopting this little guy despite some information requiring consideration. Your prayers are coveted in the days ahead as well, as we have many arrangements to figure out.

We have been praising God for all He's done in orchestrating His plan for us to adopt this little guy. As you know, Daniel lost his job in January, but with the blessing of his new job, we have been able to save more than we expected toward our adoption costs, and his job is a work-from-anywhere job. Both of these are becoming huge blessings as we're looking at higher costs than originally “planned” (though, of course, not a surprise to the Lord!) as well as the ability for Daniel to do some work while we're away for the adoption. When we started this journey in July 2012, we had no idea how amazing and perfectly timed God's financial provision would be—our funding was 100% complete just two weeks before we were matched!

Our prayer needs moving forward are these: first, we're requesting prayer specifically for our baby boy to be born 100% healthy! We are likely looking at a 2-6 week NICU stay with him after birth, but we would be overjoyed to find him in need of no extra care after birth, allowing an earlier travel date home.

Also, as we're anticipating spending about a month in Florida, we ask that you'd pray for us to find a travel companion(s) to help us with Nathan and Zoe's care. Originally we'd planned to leave them here in the care of friends or family, but we feel that a month away from Mom and Dad might be a bit much for a 1- and 3-year-old. We are hoping to find someone with flexibility to travel in either November or December as babies have their own sense of timing (our baby's due December 13). If you or someone you know would be interested in spending a month at the beach this winter (with two little ones in-tow), please let us know (compensation will be arranged :-)).

Finally, please pray with us for financial wisdom and patience moving forward. We will be gone for an unknown length of time at an unknown time, which is a bit difficult to arrange until last-minute—I love planning ahead. Thus the need for patience ;-). We have a financial plan in place to cover the expected extra travel costs, but as the area we'll be traveling to does not offer a Ronald McDonald House or similar extended-care family housing, please pray we'll be able to find reasonably priced housing accommodations while there.

We are so thankful for the Lord's provision that has allowed us to say “yes” to adopting this little guy! We are so excited to meet him in a few months, and we thank you again for your prayers :-)!