APPROVED!

It's kind of fun to be able to finally do this post...one year late! Haha! :)

I couldn't post this last year because we had not told everyone about our adoption yet! One year ago today, on May 6, 2010, we were officially approved with AGCI to adopt a baby girl from Ethiopia! YAY!!! We were rejoicing at our house on that day!

Then we knew we could finally share our BIG NEWS with the world! :) We had decided not to tell anyone when we started praying about adoption. Even then, we said that we would not tell anyone (even our family) until our adoption application was in the mail!

We did end up telling our mentor couple at our church in late April 2010, and they were very supportive and encouraging of our adoption plans! And I ended up telling my parents on the night before we mailed off our application. We had a 2 1/2 hour phone call where I cried the entire time! I had both of my parents get on the phone, and it was such a sweet conversation! It was such a JOY to finally be able to tell them of our plans to bring our baby girl home!

On May 5, 2010, we told Jody's parents about our adoption plans, and it was an equally sweet conversation! We told a few close friends that week too. But our BIG ANNOUNCEMENT was to come on May 7, 2010! Check back tomorrow to see how we told everyone one year ago!

Oh, and I just have to share theses verses that God showed me yesterday morning. I was reading James 1 in the New American Standard version. The first verse was one I was very familiar with...

"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance." James 1:2-3

I love that passage because it's so encouraging and such a great reminder to CHOOSE JOY even in the midst of the hard times. But yesterday morning, this next verse just really spoke to me...

"And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." James 1:4

God has been teaching me SO MUCH about this lately in regard to our wait time until we get Caroline Faith home. I truly feel like this is a special time in our lives where He wants to teach us and grow our faith like never before. I want to come out of this wait time with a heart that is changed...a heart that is more like His.

God has a perfect result if we will faithfully endure the journey that He has set before us. He will complete this journey in His perfect timing...and we will lack nothing.