Contentment

I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.  Philippians 4:12-13

In my last post I wrote that I am learning how strong I am inside. I am learning what I am capable of… and what I am not.

I am not capable of weathering this season of my life without God.

After our miscarriage, I fell apart. I can honestly say that it was the first time in my entire life that I questioned God. I mean, really questioned him. I could not pray. I could not listen to praise music. I could not step foot in our church. I was so angry with him. I lacked faith.

The failed adoption found me in quite a different position. After questioning God, I had learned to lean on him again. And in this new season of pain and hurt, I leaned on God. I felt like all I had left was my faith. And the hope that I have in God’s future plans for me is all that continues to pull me through each day.

In the week leading up to the baby girl’s birth, that awful week when the birth mom cut off all contact with the adoption agency and we were wondering if she would still place, I cried out loud in my worry and anxiousness that I was not strong enough to lose another baby- I did not have the strength to lose two.

The fact is, I’m not. I do not have the strength to keep the pace through this season on my own. But God… has the strength to carry me through. And somehow, in the midst of this crazy awful sad time, I’m finding the strength within me to put one foot in front of the other every single day.

I am learning that this event, this season… it will not be what defines me. Rather, I am discovering what I want this season to be defined as. It’s a work in progress and I haven’t quite arrived at the definition… but I know that when I look back at this season, I want to know that I came out of it loving my husband even better than I did before. I want us to be strong in our faith and in our relationship with each other. I know that I want to walk in faith.

Walking in faith is hard. Trusting God is hard. My struggle to do so often leads to discontentment.  The exact opposite of what I so desparately seek.  I’m working hard to find contentment in the season that I’m in right now.

In reality, everything is ok.  I have a family with Josh. We are a family. In addition, I have my parents and my siblings and I have my friends. I have a job that I enjoy.  There is nothing wrong in our lives. There is nothing to cause discontentment…  and I am working to find contentment in that.  To find contentment in the midst of this season of wait.

I haven’t found that contentment yet.  But… I am finding myself in more frequent and longer periods of peace.  In my head, I know that when I am faced with the moments where I don’t feel strong, everything is still ok.  Because God is orchestrating others to pray for me and for us in those moments.

This morning, as I took time for my personal devotion, the author made a reference to what David wrote in Psalm 52 as he faced adversity.

But I am like an olive tree in God’s house. I trust the mercy of God forever and ever.  Psalm 52:8

The author went on to explain… An olive tree is strong. When cared for… it can live thousands of years and be fruitful. And it’s a symbol of joy, peace and happiness. What’s interesting, is that an olive tree is completely dependent on its caretaker. It is not strong on its own.  In order to thrive, it must depend on its caretaker to provide the right nutrients, water and climate.

God is the ultimate caretaker. I am not strong on my own. And yet, I have an ongoing and never ending struggle with trusting God completely. I will never perfect the art of trusting wholly and completely… because I’m only human. But it’s my desire to work towards it. It’s how I want to look back at this season. It’s how I want to enter the next season that stretches me.

God has placed this desire to expand our family through adoption on our hearts.  We know that is real.  And God will see this through to completion.  In His time. As part of His perfect plan.

It definitely doesn’t look like what I pictured or what I had planned for us.  And I will find contentment in that.  We will be ready for the next season when it comes.

 

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Strength

As I started 2018, it was my goal to become stronger. I resolved to work hard at my training in order to run a strong race. I resolved to include strength and resistance training into my running schedule.  I wanted to look and feel physically strong.

I never ran a strong race in 2017. We’ve cancelled both races we registered to run this year.  I trained for both of them, but never made it to the starting line.  It seems like this is the year that I am training for so much more than the next race.

This season of life that I am in- it’s a training season. I’m training to get stronger, just in a different way than I originally planned.  I am learning how strong I am inside.  I am learning what I am capable of… and what I am not.

It’s not lost on me that… in this season of life… my running journey serves as a great metaphor for where I find myself.

Just as I began most of my marathon training when I was an inexperienced runner, I began this training season optimistic and with lofty time goals. I heard everyone tell me the adoption process takes an average of two year start to finish and thought “no way, not us.”

I’ve experienced set backs that have taken me off the training plan I set out to follow.  It hasn’t been a perfect execution. I’ve sat and nurtured wounds for so long, I wondered if I would ever be able to get back on the track.

And… as I gain experience, I’m coming to find that the less flexible you are to weather the unexpected, the less prepared you will be for race day.

I’m lacing my shoes up again and taking the leap back into this training season.  I may have missed the race I had planned to run, but I will keep training until the race God intends me to run arrives.

During each of the twelve marathons I have finished, it has never been my legs or my lungs that have given up on me first. It has always been a battle with my mind. It has come down to true grit.  Some races I fought through and finished strong… others I finished feeling defeated.

This is the race I intend to complete. This is where my true grit kicks in. Just perhaps… this is what I have been training for all along. It’s time to let go, trust the training, know that the legs know what to do… and just run with pure heart.

The sweetest… and the saddest… the best is yet to come

It is with a very heavy heart that I write this post.

Sweet baby girl was born this week- she is absolutely perfect and so beautiful. We were blessed to spend a very precious 24 hours with her before the adoption was rescinded.

The past week has been a whirlwind of emotions. It started a week and a half ago when all communication between the agency and the birth mom stopped. It was a heart wrenching six days while we waited for her to make contact with the agency again and confirm that she was still committed to the adoption.

Finally, we got the news we had so desperately been praying for- birth mom had reconnected with the agency and she was at a hospital in her home state with contractions. Most importantly, she was still very committed to the adoption. We were excited, nervous and anxious to hear the news and waited to hear the outcome of her hospital visit. It was still hoped that she would be able to travel to the state that the agency is located so that our case workers could help us both through the process and be a calming presence during it.

Six hours later we learned that she had given birth to a healthy baby girl, in her home state, and she wanted us to come! We started frantically packing and making arrangements with my family to care for our dogs. It was decided that, due to hospital visiting hours, it would be best for us to stay the night at our home and drive to the hospital early the next morning.  Needless to say, neither Josh nor I slept that night.

We packed up the car and headed out early the next morning. I can’t speak for Josh, but my stomach was a nervous mess and I had so many thoughts going through my mind about meeting the birth parents and meeting our daughter. The several hour drive seemed like it was only ten minutes. After we arrived, we prayed in the hospital parking lot before we entered.

Because the birth was in the birth mom’s home state and not in the state that the agency is located as was planned- the whole adoption process became rather ‘messy’ for lack of a better word. Our agency had to set up a local legal team to help us and the birth parents navigate the process. The time period that we needed to wait before birth parents could terminate their rights was twice as long. And most importantly, none of us had our case workers- the ones we have a relationship with, the ones who counseled the birth parents for the past three months, the ones who knew why they had made this incredibly hard decision in the first place. Instead, we were surrounded with nurses who did not understand this was an adoption case and who had little to no experience with this type of situation. We were visited by the hospital social worker, who had no personal connection to any of us, and who was not present the second day. Halfway through the process, a new hospital social worker visited and explained she was filling in for the woman we met the day before. It seemed to become even messier- for many other reasons that I won’t go into.

Even with all of this, Josh and I pressed on. The birth parents were so welcoming to us. We were so comfortable around them. We let our guards down early. As nervous as I was to walk into the hospital room and meet the birth parents and our daughter, all those nerves disappeared within the first 15 minutes after meeting them. They seemed happy- maybe even relieved- to see us. We immediately were encouraged to pick up our daughter and begin to love on her. We spent the entire first day in the hospital room with birth mom and baby. She slept on and off while we cared for baby girl. We loved on the birth parents as well as baby girl all day long. By evening, the hospital had figured out what to do with us and offered us to stay in a separate room. The birth parents encouraged us to take baby girl with us. Of course, we were overjoyed to spend some alone time with her. That night, any walls that were still up guarding our hearts crumbled. To care for her and have the freedom to love on her and just soak her all in- it’s indescribable. She was our baby girl. The attachment we felt came naturally.

The next morning, we were both woken by our cell phones ringing. Attorneys for both birth parents and us wanted to meet to get the process moving toward termination of rights, which could happen in 10 hours. In the next few hours, we met with our attorney and the birth parents met with theirs as well as another social worker- this one from a local adoption agency that our agency had been in contact with. Before we knew what was happening, the nurse was telling us they were discharging birth mom. She had signed a power of attorney to allow us to leave the hospital with baby girl and care for her until the time passed and rights could be terminated. I went down to our car to get our car seat and an outfit for baby girl to leave the hospital in. After I returned and we were getting ready to take baby girl down the hall to say goodbye to her birth parents, our attorney called to alert us that he had some major concerns. We called our agency and they told us to go and be honest with the birth parents and feel them out. What happened next feels like a surreal dream. As the events unfolded in the birth mom’s hospital room, I felt like I was not present, but staring down at the room, watching it unfold like a nasty nightmare. Neither Josh nor I showed any emotion in that room. As the hospital social worker walked us down the hall towards our room, I began to lose it and started to walk/run until I could collapse in sobs in the room. Just like that, it was over. They had called their attorney and rescinded. She was not our baby girl.

We are deeply hurt. We are feeling all the emotions. This is a huge loss- in a way- this is a death that we will need to mourn.

It’s very hard to understand why and how this fits into the big picture. To lay it all out here- this is the second baby we are mourning in the past 3 months as we miscarried our first child in May. I have so many questions. Perhaps, I will never the answers. And I can say that I am finally at a place where that feels ok.

This journey is far from over. We will continue on it to complete our family. And while walking blindly in faith is so very, very hard– ultimately, it is the only thing that brings hope for the future.

Counting Days

It’s hard to believe we are down to three weeks before our daughter is due! When we were matched, three months seemed so far away and in a blink of an eye… we are counting down the days to her arrival!

Are we excited? That’s the number one question we are getting asked… and yes, of course we are overly excited to welcome her home!

It’s been a long journey and the wait has felt like it has been forever long. And there has been a lot of ‘life’ along the journey but those mountains and valleys are what make this so special. It’s our story- it’s not perfect- but it’s ours. It’s the story that we will tell our daughter and she will know how very much she has been loved and prayed for from the very beginning.

We are starting to get ourselves ready to travel to meet our birth mom and dad and welcome our baby girl into the world. I say our baby girl collectively- because she is all of our baby girl- all four of us. We are all in this and I couldn’t be more grateful for the gift that they are giving us and the life they are choosing for this baby. I already have so much love for this couple, so much respect… in three short months, I have grown to care for them so much. God willing, this will be just the beginning of a long relationship that is centered on this baby girl.

I ask for your continued prayers as we head down this final stretch. While we are excited, we are cautiously so. Please pray not just for us, but for our birth family in the days leading up to our daughter’s birth. For the health and safety of all involved. And for strength in the days ahead.

The Sweetest Gift

As you are all aware, this past weekend, we celebrated Mother’s Day.  For the first time ever, Josh and I were able to celebrate, together and with family, as we get ready to welcome our baby home.  All because we received the sweetest gift, the most unselfish gift ever this weekend.

We got the call around 7pm Friday night that we had been chosen by a birth mother!

It was the most blessed news we have ever received.  Luckily, we were at dinner with my in-laws and were able to share the news immediately with them.  After dinner, we headed for my parents house to share the awesome news with them.  It was quite hard to sleep Friday night after all that excitement!

Our match is with a beautiful baby girl who is due in August.  Honestly, sometimes I feel like I dreamt that call- it seems so unreal! After all the longing and praying, God has let us know that He hears us and our time of wait is coming to a close.

Please join us now in prayer of praise! 

The Solid Rock I Stand

I received this beautiful email from my brother last week.  It is amazing to me how much support we have from friends and family as we walk towards our finish line in this adoption journey.

I am truly blessed to have family and friends who continue to push me down this path, lift me up when I fall and carry me forward.

This is Mount Fuji filmed from a plane.  Lets be clear – this is you from the Devils perspective.  There are clouds and storms all around you.  But you have your feet firmly planted on Christ and the Word and will not be moved.  Though there are clouds all around you, storms blowing.  Like this mountain cannot see past its foundation due to the clouds – you cannot see the future.  But you don’t need to, you just need to be the mountain that you are.  The strong fortress that God designed you to be.  All around this mountain there are storms for as far as the eye can see.  But that does not change that the mighty mountain that is you is still there, firmly planted for all to see.  Immovable by the storms, untouched by what is happening around it.  Let the enemy throw his storms, his wind, rain, hail, snow, lightning – in other words let him throw his temper tantrum.  God raised you to be a mighty warrior for him and there is nothing the enemy can do about it.  You are Matthew 7:24 – 25 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.”

Mercy Me – Bring the Rain:

Bring me joy, bring me peace

Bring the chance to be free

Bring me anything that brings You glory

And I know there’ll be days

When this life brings me pain

But if that’s what it takes to praise You

Jesus, bring the rain

A new chapter

I think we can break adoption down into try-mesters- much like a pregnancy.

The 1st try-mester is the application process.  The 2nd is the home study process. The 3rd is the wait for the match. My bestie summed it up best this week “it’s like we are in our 3rd trimester of pregnancy without a due date.”  My translation= it’s close to hell.

We have entered a new chapter in our adoption journey.  We have reached ‘active’ status with our new consulting firm. What does this mean? We are now in the position where we learn about expectant mothers and their precious babies and our profile is shown to them, on a case by case basis.  We have already received and presented to a number of birth moms.

It’s exciting!

And with it, brings an entirely new element to this journey, that we have not encountered before and are navigating for the very first time.

For instance, we have seen a number of cases presented to us that fall outside of our pre-determined budget. I’m emotional and of course I want to say ‘Yes!’ to everything.  Thank goodness, God paired me with a realist and Josh can help me see clearly what is out of our reach.  But, that doesn’t make it any easier. I never envisioned turning down any potential match.  And I never dreamed it would come down to money.

We have also said ‘Yes!’ to a number of cases and anxiously await the birth mothers’ decision.  We are now navigating how we deal with the ‘no’ we receive back.  Some are easier than others, if I’m completely real here.  Some seem so perfect on paper- meant to be. And yet… we hear ‘no’.

The rationale side of me knows that when you are presented with multiple cases and are saying ‘yes’ to multiple cases, you are not going to hear a ‘yes’ back every single time.  Yet- this is new territory. And we, as a couple, must figure out how we are going to process the ‘no’ and keep on moving forward.

This weekend, I would say, we got our footing back under us.

I started this blog as a way to document my running journey. So, it seems only fitting to bring this back to where this all started. We were registered to run a half marathon on Saturday. As we got ready for the race Friday night, it occurred to me- we keep pressing on. We keep moving forward. One step at a time. Much like running. Propelling towards the finish line. No race is ever perfect. No training period is ever perfect. Yet, when you reach the finish- somehow– almost magically– you forget the pain you endured.

As my feet hit the pavement on Saturday, it was therapeutic. We set out with the goal to treat this race as an easy long run- slow and steady- practice getting fueling right for our upcoming marathon and to run relaxed. I let myself run free. Josh cautioned several times that I needed to slow down, but I felt good and I ran what my body told me it needed to do. My feet carried me through. Minimal thinking. I ran with heart.

Our hearts will continue to carry us through this new and very exciting chapter. I live on prayer and faith. It’s the only thing that is getting me through these waves of emotions- excitement of potential matches and rejection of ‘no’. While I am still searching for the ‘why’, it is already written.

Those of you that know me, won’t be surprised that I often skip ahead to the end of a story to see how it ends. I’m impatient like that. However, this journey- it’s more like a marathon. You must be patient. You must wait out the good and the bad. You must keep pressing on to the finish.