We're APPROVED!!!!!!!

"Come close and listen, all you who honor God; 

I will tell you what God has done for me..."

Psalm 66:16 (CEB)

Today, we got the most wonderful phone call of our lives. We have been APPROVED to adopt our little girl from Thailand!!!!! After a year of closed doors and disappointment... a year of "no's" and "why don't you try a different country"... a year of tears and discouragement... we have a YES!

Khun Toy reviewed our Adoptive Family Profile and was (according to our adoption agent) "very impressed" with us! She agreed that we would make great parents for a Thai child, and even said she'd like to meet us next time we are in Thailand. She also looked at our website for The Sound of Hope and loved our work and our organization. (More evidence of God's hand in this process there - because our new website just went live in December! If we had applied last year, she wouldn't have been able to see it! He is in EVERY detail!)

We have laughed and cried and praised GOD over and over again since we heard the great news! We knew from the very beginning that God was leading us to adopt a little girl from Thailand, but we have had to fight every step of the way up until now. It would have been easy to doubt (and we have at times) and easy to give up. But God has renewed our strength step by step, confirmed His plan to us day by day, and surrounded us with WONDERFUL people to encourage us along the way!

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts to every person who has prayed with us (and fasted with us) over this decision! We are so humbled by your love and encouraged by your faith. We could NOT have done this without you! They say it "takes a village" to raise a child. I don't know about that - but it definitely took several "villages" worth of people praying to get this approval - which gets us one giant step closer to bringing our daughter home!

This all seems so surreal. As much peace as I have had, and faith that we have had that we would hear a YES, it is still extraordinary to know that God has done this for us!!! He has made the impossible, POSSIBLE and He gets ALL the GLORY! No more doubt or fear for us now... just lots of working and waiting! I pulled out some books we bought for Kate today, and a couple of little dresses a friend in Africa gave us for her that we've had packed away, and I have just looked at them and cried happy tears. God has made a way for our family - He has done a miracle for us! No longer will I have to say, "We're trying to adopt." We ARE adopting, and we couldn't be more thrilled! 

If you are reading this right now and struggling through your own "impossible" journey, then I hope God will use this to encourage you. We have been there and we know the heartache and doubt you're feeling - but you must TRUST and BELIEVE that God is working "all things together for your good" behind the scenes! I told Liz (our adoption agent) today that I am grateful now for all the closed doors. We are SO excited to be working with this specific adoption agency, this specific orphanage in Thailand, and adopting a child from the specific city where Rusty's cousin Sam lived. I can see now why this direction was BEST for our family - but God had to close so many doors to get us here. The song lyric "God blessed the broken road that led me straight to you" definitely applies. It has been a broken road but it was necessary to get us to this destination. Through all our heartache and disappointment the past year, He was working "all things together for our good"! (Romans 8:28) We just couldn't see it until TODAY! 

Please keep us in your prayers as we officially begin this process! Pray for wisdom as we choose an agency for our home study, for favor for all the documents we have to have approved, and for this process to move as quickly as possible. And of course, please pray for our precious little girl! There is a good chance she has already been born. Please pray for God to protect her, to keep her healthy and safe, and to let her be loved and cared for well until we can bring her home!

"Those who hope in Me, will not be disappointed." 

Isaiah 49:23

"I will sing about the Lord's faithful love forever; 

I will proclaim Your faithfulness to all generations with my mouth."

Psalm 89:1