Julie Update!

Julie sent me this post at 1 pm, and I'm honored to post it for her. :) Here it is!:

Hello friends! Megan was so sweet to offer to let me do a guest post on her blog to ask for prayers and to share some of my story of what has been happening in my life over this past 5 weeks since I left the blogging and facebook community. My reasons for deleting my facebook and blog were because I had an emotional breakdown and couldn't handle it anymore. After only a few short days, I felt I knew why God allowed to reach the dark depths of my emotions at that time. He was calling me away from being online and calling me towards HIM! I know that some people have the ability to keep up on their spiritual life and keep up with all their online friends, but for me, I was trying to serve 2 masters, and God was getting put second in my life. Who needs God when you have so many other friends to "talk" to online? I thought that my friends (you ladies) could provide me with all the answers in this confusing journey that I am on right now. Although you ladies have been an amazing gift from God to offer prayer and encouragement, I wanted MORE from you. I wanted some one to fix my life for me. Some one to make everything better in an instant. That is way too much to ask of any human and I had to step away from the blogs and facebook in order to SEE that for myself! God is the only ONE who can fix my life. He is the only ONE who has all the answers! He is the ONE who offers true joy and peace!

I am full of joy to say that He has done amazing things for me during this past month. He has healed my heart from the loss of Wyatt. He has breathed new life into our marriage. He has given me a new focus on Isabella and we have had SO much fun this past month, just being a Mama and daughter spending time making memories. I also had more time to read. I just read the book "Choosing to See" by Mary Beth Chapman. It is a must read for everyone, but especially those who have a hard time giving God control over the growth of their family. It offers great insight about God being in control of the details of our life and that He truly wants what is best for us! I laughed and cried during the book and highly recommend that you read it too!

Now, on to some updates. As most of you know, Andrew and I met with an expectant mother on August 3rd. She is due in January 2012 and was very interested in us. After 4 long weeks of waiting to hear from our social worker with an answer about this potential situation, we found out about 10 days ago that she is pursuing an adoption plan with another family, with the confusing detail that she has NOT eliminated us completely. If I didn't have my trust in God at that moment, I probably would have broken down. Seriously, how can you leave us hanging on to little hope? Well, I had peace and joy from the moment I read the email. I knew in my heart that it was all in His hands. I need not worry. God is in control of our family. 

The social worker at that same local agency called me at 9:30PM this past Thursday night. I didn't answer my phone. I was emailing a friend and didn't recognize the number. It was a local number so it most likely was a wrong number. Then, 2 seconds later, Andrew answered his phone and I was super curious who was calling him so late at night? I stood by him trying to figure out who it was. I don't like being left of of control. When he hung up about 10 minutes later, he told me that we were meeting with an expectant couple on Saturday about a baby due in 4-6 weeks. That is all I knew. I immediately felt peace that this was the work of God. That if this is our baby, He will work out the details and I didn't need to know them. That does not mean that I didn't WANT to know the details. 

Well, Saturday came and we were headed to the agency to meet the couple and my phone rang. It was the social worker saying that the couple was over an hour late and had not shown up yet. I thought that this was over before it even started. I was caught between choosing to trust God with the details to giving up all hope that this was our baby. We decided to hang out at the Children's Museum for awhile and then head to the agency in hopes that they actually showed up. Well, it was a fun day as a family seeing the trains and dinosaurs and then we made our way to the agency. The doors were locked (it was Saturday) so we waited outside. I called the office number but it went straight to voice mail because they were closed. It listed an emergency pager number and I thought IT IS AN EMERGENCY, so I called it. Well, after waiting about 10 minutes our social worker came and let us in. We went up and had the most amazing meeting with the brave couple. Not a moment of awkwardness. After the meeting the social worker walked us out, while the couple was still there filling out paperwork. She told us that the agency policy is that they have to meet 4 couples but since the baby was due so soon, they would only make them meet one more couple so we should know in a week or so if they chose us. We left and headed home. Within 5 minutes of leaving there, we got a phone call from our social worker. She said "they don't want to meet any other couples....hands down, they want you to adopt their baby" I was so excited and said yes right away! We talked about details and arranged for me to come back to the agency to fill out more paperwork on Monday (today) and drop off the $3000 at risk money for birth mother expenses. So, in just 2 hours, I will be doing just that! I am so excited to be on this journey and trusting God to work out the details. I have a few details to share with you, as you are probably dying to know. The baby is biracial (just like our Isabella). The adoption will be semi-open/closed. They don't want any visits, only letters and pictures. The expectant mother went in for an abortion! Yes, was actually there at the clinic to end this baby's life. She told us this and said that she "had a change of heart right before hand and left there thinking that she needed to bless another family with this baby". How amazing is that!!! Praise God for working a miracle!!! She did not and does not want to find out the sex of the baby. She is going to have a scheduled c-section at 36 weeks because she just wants to be done with this pregnancy. She wants us to name the baby. We are so excited! Our new baby will be born in the next 10 days. 

When we found out about Isabella, we asked all our family and friends to pray a novena to St Therese with us in petition for the health, safety, comfort, peace and joy for all involved in this adoption journey. We would LOVE for you to join us again as we pray the same novena. We are starting tonight, but you can start anytime, as God works outside of time anyway! Here is the link to the same novena! http://www.ewtn.com/therese/novena.htm

As I am still taking a break from blogging, I won't be checking the comments on this post. If you would like to offer prayers or support, please email me at andrewandjuliesadoptionstory@gmail.com