Three in Tennessee testing

Well, Matt and I continue to be amazed by God's hand in our lives. God's hand is showing up all over the place during our adoption process.

I think Matt may have mentioned this earlier, but we met a couple at church who just recently adopted a baby girl - they are actually finalizing everything this coming Monday. We are just getting to know this couple, but feel like we've known them forever. We talked quite a bit at church yesterday and found out that we were all planning on attending the same small group this week. The first small group was tonight and not only were they there, but there was a neighbor friend of the hostess who attended, too. He heard us talking about adopting and he told us that he was adopted. He really touched our hearts by what he said. He encouraged us to tell our children that we "chose" them and how special and meaningful that is to hear. I think everyone in the room was sniffling at least a little bit.

For any of you blogging "waiting moms and dads" out there I'm sure you can understand how joyous it is to have other people who can relate to you. Infertility can be so isolating. We are the only people we know who have been married for almost 10 years and have no children. In fact, we're pretty much the only people we know who are married at all and don't have kids. :) While that is probably a little bit of an exaggeration it is also a little bit true. There was a time (not that long ago) when hearing baby announcements brought on some type of panic. Like, I knew I had to keep it together or risk a severe meltdown! And who wants a meltdown when they are telling you the best news of their lives??!! HA! Going to baby showers or even hearing about them was almost too much to take. It was much easier to not go than to have to make my way through the "party" and then come home and not absolutely lose it. I don't know why, but I don't feel like that anymore. I'm not at all sad like I was. I hope the feeling lasts. I think the hopelessness we felt each and every month has been replaced by anticipation and a renewed hope knowing that we WILL be parents.

I truly feel like God has placed these new people in our lives on purpose. It is very much on purpose that we met this adoptive family at church. It was also on purpose that we met our small group leaders' neighbor who had been adopted. These situations are SO encouraging to us and we can feel God working right now.

Besides our excitement about meeting these great people at or through church, we have our home visit this week! Finally!! Our couples interview is Wednesday and the home visit is Friday.

Matt is working on putting up the railing in our stairway. We are pretty sure the previous owners took it down when they painted and then didn't put it back up. Besides needing it a few times when I've been half asleep trying to go down the stairs, we really don't notice that it's not there. However, that has been on the "to do" list and now is a priority. Matt painted the railing yesterday and will put it up sometime before The Office premiere on Thursday night. I kind of made him PROMISE that he would not be scrambling to do stuff while we're watching The Office to see what happened (or didn't happen) with Jim and Pam.:) It will not (I repeat, NOT) be a repeat of when the Friends finale aired and Matt did not heed my warning about not coming home from worship practice right in the middle of the show. That was before we had DVR, though!! Okay, I'm digressing...obsession with TV shows aside, after the railing is installed and we do some extra dog brushing we are good to go and will be counting down the time until 9:00am on Friday.

I guess I'm going out of order a little bit, but we also have a waiting families support group meeting at Bethany tomorrow night. We always love those and usually cry more than when we watch Extreme Makeover:Home Edition. I think we've said that before, but it's totally true!

I guess that's it for now. I cannot believe that we are just a short time away from being approved and on the waiting list with Bethany! EEEEEEKKKK!