Introducing Isaiah James Cromer!

For those who have not officially "met" this little guy, we'd like to formally introduce you to Isaiah James Cromer, born July 15, 2013, weighing 6 lbs 5 oz and measuring 19 3/4 inches long! So many of you have prayed with the Cromers during this quick journey--your prayers have been answered so sweetly and beautifully by the Lord during these weeks!

In case you have forgotten, you have THREE DAYS LEFT to participate in blessing the Cromers via our blog! All adoption donations received via our PayPal link to the right through the end of July will be used to purchase needed items for baby Isaiah! So far we have been able to provide the Cromers with a travel pack-n-play and have some left for some fun surprises at their baby shower (announcement coming soon!).

If you are local or prefer to shop online yourself, they are registered at Kohl's, Target, and Walmart.

Thanks again so much for your prayers! Please keep praying for Nathan and Kimberly as they adjust to life with a little one and soak up hours of newborn cuddles in the wee hours of the night :-). Our God is SO GOOD!!!!!!!

A Year's Time

This past week, I've been reflecting a lot on what the Lord has done in this past year. This year has been marked with the unexpected and unplanned as the Lord continually destroys our limited vision of what we THINK His plans are and blows us away with what He really has planned.

Last July was a significant month for our family. One year ago on July 14, we went to the first Embrace orphan care picnic. While there, we learned about a need for families to adopt minority newborns in the U.S. due to an increase in women choosing life for their little ones yet having to watch their babies enter straight into the foster care system. I vividly remember Jade Metz telling our family, Nathan and Kimberly Cromer, and several others about this need and feeling an unexpected immediate call to act. Daniel felt immediately compelled as well, and our adoption journey unfolded. That day I also distinctly remember walking to the snack shop at the park with Kimberly, talking about what we'd just heard and discussing why the Lord sometimes calls us to act and sometimes clearly asks us to "wait." At the time, she was being asked to wait.

The most interesting thing I'm learning about the Lord in this adoption journey is that sometimes His call to follow a certain leading does not look a thing like we expected, and His purpose for calling us to a certain thing is not always the end result but the process of learning about Him in the process. Just three months after we started our adoption journey, we discovered we were pregnant with Zoe. Thinking we knew the Lord's plan for our family (to adopt a little one within a year), we had not "planned" for Zoe to enter the picture! But as you know from reading my blog this year, the Lord has taken me through some serious conversations with Him regarding trust, His plans, His timing, and simply resting in Him and continuing to pursue Him, while letting Him work out the details of the call He's put on our hearts. So, this June, instead of completing "our" plan of a one-year adoption, we welcomed little Zoe Grace into the world. We chose her name based on its meaning of "eternal life given in God's favor," marking a significant milestone in our understanding of Who the Lord is and how beautifully He engages in our lives.

Zoe Grace was not the only beautifully created life in His plans for this year. Last week on July 15 (a year and one day after the picnic), Nathan and Kimberly met their newborn adopted son, Isaiah James. Today they are travelling back home with Isaiah as proud new parents, likely exhausted from newborn midnight partying but beaming from ear to ear each time they snuggle him close. My heart has been exploding with joy for these two ever since hearing the news of this adoption that only God could have arranged. Our friends have been praying for years that the Lord would open the door to having children become a part of their family, and they have so faithfully followed God's call to "wait" as well as His call to become foster parents, becoming parents to six children over the past year who have been blessed to enter their home. Their obedience to the Lord has been amazing, and we are praising the Lord again and again for blessing them with little Isaiah and answering their prayers!

This truly has been a year of the Lord weaving beautifully unplanned and unexpected adventures into our lives, and we praise God for all He has done and for Who He is! May His name continue to be lifted high.

Cromer Update

For those of you who've been praying for Kimberly and Nathan this weekend, here's a short update:

The birth mom had a long weekend of in-labor, not in labor, finished with the doctor sending her home instead of inducing (he didn't realize her due date was 7-28). So Cromers are staying down there waiting instead of driving home, since it's about a 20 hour drive. They have had extra time to spend with the birth mom they would not have had otherwise, so that has been an unexpected blessing for everyone. You can be praying specifically with them for the following requests:

1) That they can be an encouragement to the birth mom as she is getting discouraged in the waiting.
2) For a safe and speedy delivery, as birth mom is very ready to have the baby
3) For Christ's love, hope, peace, and patience to continue surrounding the entire situation
Thanks for all your prayers! They are much appreciated!

Important Update!!!

Well, let's just say MUCH has happened since I last blogged. First, I'll quickly mention for any who missed our news that our sweet little daughter was born this past Saturday, June 29, at 11:45 a.m.!!! We are so excited to welcome Zoe Grace into our family, and big brother Nathan could not be more pleased with "BABY SISTER!!!!!"

As if welcoming Zoe this week was not exciting enough, we just hours ago received news that the expectant mom for Nathan and Kimberly Cromer's adoption is IN LABOR NOW!!!!!! Please pray with them over the next few days as they travel 17 hours to the state their son will be born in, wait for paperwork to be processed, and continue building a relationship with the birth mom. Please pray for the Lord's peace to wrap around everyone during these days. Also, remember that all donations coming through our adoption donation Paypal link to the right on our blog will be used to bless the Cromers in the coming weeks!

Is that more excitement than you can handle??? Well, let's add a third bit. Yet another family from church, Trey and Bridgette Boswell, also received word this week that they will be travelling to adopt their daughter, Edna, in early August! You can read about their journey here on their blog. We know they would love to have you partner with them financially in raising the remaining $5,000 quickly before they travel in just a few short weeks.

PRAISE THE LORD for all the blessings He is pouring into the lives of His people and for these little lives He has beautifully created in His image! May His name be glorified!

Help bless the Cromers!

Hello everyone! As we wait for our little girl's arrival (any...day...now...), we want to share a way for you to bless our friends Nathan and Kimberly as they also prepare for their little guy's arrival in a few weeks. (If you missed their big announcement, simply read my last post--exciting times!!) The Cromers have started a baby registry at Walmart and plan to get one going at Kohl's soon as well. If you like to shop, you can visit their registry online here at Walmart , print it out to take with you to the store, or shop online through the registry as well.

Or, for those of you who aren't shoppers or live out of town but would love to join in the fun, we are offering a way for you to collaborate in blessing them together. From today through July 31, EVERY donation amount that comes in through our PayPal donation link on our blog will go directly to purchasing items they still need. Gifts from your donations will be given at a baby shower in the works for them shortly after they bring their little guy home!

ANY amount will be greatly appreciated and will be a huge blessing to them as they quickly prepare for a little one! If you wish to donate, simply click our PayPal link on the right (Donate to our Adoption) or go here. Or, if you do not have PayPal but wish to contribute, you can simply send funds our way and mark "Cromer adoption" in the memo line (Daniel and Mae Verheyden, 3612 S Selby Street, Marion, IN 46953).

We are SO, SO excited for what the Lord is doing in the lives of our friends and can't wait to meet their little one next month :-). Please continue to pray with them for details in paper work, travel, and completion of the adoption, as well as for the expectant mother who is bravely making this decision to provide an awesome future for her little boy. Pray that her heart will be overwhelmed with the love and peace of Christ as she spends the remaining few weeks preparing for this decision. May the Lord be praised and glorified!

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!!!!)

Urgent Prayer Need

Dear praying friends, I know you have watched the Lord do amazing things to heal, restore, forgive, and uplift His people. Today a little boy, Mattie, is in serious need of the Lord's physical touch on his body. He is the son of our adoption consultant, Tracie Loux, and is very close in age to Nathan.

A little of Mattie's background follows from Tracie's blog: "Matthias is now 2 1/2. We are blessed beyond belief with this treasure of a little boy. Mattie has Down syndrome and was hospitalized the first year of life. He is now home living with our family and loving life. Mattie has a tracheostomy, is on a ventillator part time, has a Gtube for feeding, and has had two heart surgeries.

Today his family shares the following update, following several recent hospitalizations for respiratory infections:

I have withheld the severity of Mattie’s most recent illness until we were able to talk with our older children face to face this morning. Last night was the worst night we have ever faced with Mattie. He became ill suddenly on Thursday night and went down hill with puzzling symptoms throughout the day Friday.

By Friday evening we were needing to increase vent settings at home and had him on the highest level of oxygen possible, his lungs started bleeding. We rushed him to the ER around 7PM. He was quickly transferred up to the PICU where even on the hospital ventilator, they weren’t able to get his oxygen saturation to go up.

As they continued to adjust settings, he crashed. And like a bad movie was taking place before our eyes, they resuscitated him and did chest compressions. This happened 4 times last night while they worked to put in central lines, arterial lines, giving life saving medications, and transfer him to an oscillating ventilator. He has bacterial pneumonia and is septic. He is as stable as is possible at the moment, yet critically ill.

Mattie needs a miracle. We need you to surround us. Pleas pray for us, our son, our other children, and for the medical team supporting our son.

We are clinging to the One who saves and delivers.

PLEASE PRAY for Mattie today! His life has already touched so many, and we pray that the Lord will again uplift his little body. You can read more about him at the family blog at http://tracieloux.wordpress.com/.