An Unexpected Blessing...

Hello! I hope that everyone is off to a good start in 2009! :) This post is going to be a long one, so grab a cup of coffee and hopefully you'll stay awake!! ;-) I have hesitated on posting the last few weeks because it's been eventful and I wasn't sure what to share with everyone until now. I'll start by saying that the majority of you who read this may think we've officially flipped our lids. But here it goes... 3 weeks ago we received a phone call from a friend of ours who works at a Crisis Pregnancy Care Center a couple of hours away. She had met a "birth mother" who was wanting to place her unborn baby up for adoption. She unexpectedly contacted me one Thursday afternoon and shared with me this very special young woman's story. This young woman and I ended up connecting and talking on the phone later that evening. I'll be honest and tell you it began as an awkward conversation for about 2 minutes and then, before I even realized it had started out awkward; we were talking as though we were friends. Understandably my guard was up because things flowed so naturally. I can remember thinking that the things coming out of her mouth could not be "for real"...She was not only an amazing woman but so quickly put me at ease. We agreed after talking for 3 days that we wanted to meet each other. I thought it might be a difficult meeting because I had already begun to fall in love with her heart. I'll share very little about her story out of respect for her but I will tell you that she has lived everyone's worst nightmares. She has such a loving heart even though she carries huge burdens and that just amazed me!! So Brandon and I agreed to drive down to meet her. To save time, I'll leave the details of our day out but we were fortunate enough to spend the day with her and one of her girls. It was WONDERFUL! At the end of that day, Brandon and felt overwhelmingly what I began to sense a few days prior...That regardless of if this situation ended in an adoption; we were being called to it, her, them, everything about this. We naturally were very weary and protective because our adoption journey has taken more turns than a winding road...from Vietnam (closed) to Russia (withdrawing) to Korea and now this! Our initial reaction even up until yesterday was to go down this path and keep this new info "hush-hush" from our Korean agency. Our logic was to "see what happens" before sharing with them this potential new change. But in the back of my mind, I kept feeling uneasy about that. We needed to at least let them know that this is a "possibility". Of course, doing that could jeopardize Korea...Obviously not something we want to do. The bottom line is; the Lord is calling us to step out in FAITH and what kind of faith would we be exhibiting if we kept one foot in the door and one out? It would be easy to withhold what's happened but at what expense? Almost daily (over the last week) when I'm out and about, I keep being reminded of James 2:14-17 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself if not accompanied by action is dead. This passage applies to SO many different aspects of what we are facing right now. Tomorrow morning I will call our (Korean) adoption agency and share this new information. I'm not sure how or IF this information will affect our Korea process? We ask for prayers surrounding that phone call and every aspect of our interaction with these special blessings that have recently entered our lives. Most importantly please pray for this birth mother and her girls. We still have so many questions surrounding what our role is in their lives? Please pray that the Lord will direct our path and that we will do nothing that is outside of HIS WILL.

As you can imagine from what I've shared there are many unknowns and uncertainties with this yet we both feel very strongly that we are right where we are supposed to be regardless of the outcome. We recently found out that her baby is due on June 21st and ironically within that month (give or take) is when we anticipate(d) our referral from Korea. We'll just have to continue to give it up to God and see what happens. Tomorrows call will definitely give us some indication of where we stand from the Korea side.

You are probably thinking right about now, the same thoughts and concerns our family had...This could end painfully or we could have yet, another let down or disappointment. And I MEAN IT when I say, yes, that is CERTAINLY a possibility but we will move forward and answer this call knowing that in all things God works for the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28)

We'll keep you posted!!! Big hugs and lotsa-lotsa love!! xooxox
Robin and Brandon

It's a New Year! 2009

Hello and HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Brandon and I (and of course little Peyton) returned from a very nice trip down to Orlando for Christmas and New Years. It was tough to leave family but we were so thankful to have had the time to visit. I wanted to thank everyone for your prayers! We have a HUGE praise and get to start off the new year with some good news!!! No, I did not hand carry our paperwork to Korea...Though it crossed both of our minds :) We found out early this morning that our paperwork was mailed to Korea on December 30th!!!! I can't even begin to describe the sigh of relief that Brandon and I had when we got the news. Just about everything else after..."Your paperwork was mailed to Korea on Dec. 30th" was blah-blah-blah :) B and I both said to each other that we felt like a huge brick was removed from our shoulders. It was very comforting to know it was finally on it's way. So, now the wait "officially" begins for our adoption from Korea. We are operating under the assumption that we won't get word for 6 months based on what our agency shared with me today. ANYTHING can happen as you've seen but we're going to set our minds to not anticipate a match/referral prior to June. I was telling Brandon that June seems so far away with it being 20-something degrees here!! :) But 6 months should seem like a walk in the park for us since we're becoming pros at the waiting (who am I kidding ;-) Please continue to pray for us, our family and most importantly this lil peanut that we long for in our lives. We pray that he, she or them are well cared for, loved, safe, comforted and all of the rest of the things that a dad and mom naturally want for their lil ones. I've downloaded a new song that will play first when you open up our blog now for a while. It's a thank you to all of our friends and family who have reached out and extended so much love in the way of calls, prayers, emails, posts, etc. You all are such a tremendous source of encouragement to us! More than you'll ever know!!!

BIG BIG HUGS and MANY BLESSINGS to you all in the coming year!!!
XOXOXO
Brandon and Robin