God is our good shepherd

Here is the news you've been waiting for! This may not be what we were hoping to hear, but God's will is perfect and we are resting in Him.

We heard back from the boys' social worker, and the result, in short, is that we have been un-chosen as these kids' match. We were not able to meet the requirements of the agency in their time frame, so at this point they need to move on to consider other families.

Our reaction is perfect peace. A few years ago, we heard Derek Loux say that God is our good shepherd. We say yes to Him, and He opens and closes the doors to let us know if this is the direction He wants us to go. If we are not the family for these boys, then we trust that God has another family who will be a safe place for them to grow and learn about Him.

We are still excited about our adoption, for which we have been preparing the past few months. The good news is that our home study is now complete, and we are ready to adopt! We will take a few days to process and wrap up this situation, and then we will begin applying for other situations. We will also begin the process of applying for grants available through ABBA Fund, Show Hope, etc.

For those who have donated, we will be contacting you by email in the next day or two. We will be offering three options: 1) We will gladly return your money to you should you so desire; 2) We will make sure that your donation is sent along to help the family chosen for the three boys to adopt them; or 3) You may choose to apply the funds to our next adoption, which we are hoping will happen in the next few months. Whatever you choose, we bless and honor you for your loving sacrifice over the past two days.

Thank you for joining us on this exciting and unpredictable journey of adoption! We will be posting again soon about our new direction.

Where we are at ...

First of all, thank you, thank you, thank you for all the donations so far. They are greatly appreciated.

Some people may be a little confused about where we are at and what is going on.

We are moving ahead to try and get these boys. Just not as quickly as some would like us to. With adoption there are many questions, and not a lot of answers. We are waiting to hear back from the placement agency on these questions.

If the fact that this placement isn't a done deal makes people uncomfortable giving we TOTALLY and COMPLETELY understand. As Paul mentioned last night, there are two tracks that are needing to happen simultaneously: information and fundraising. The fundraising is like Gideon's Fleece for us. And it's coming in, just not as quickly as we had hoped. We see this as God's confirmation to proceed a bit more slowly.

All that said: We are NOT giving up. We aren't backing down. We are doing this for HIS sake. These boys are HIS children. We want them to be our children too. The question is: Will He let us? We only want to do His will. No more. No less.

We will let you know further as soon as possible. Thank you again for your generosity!

(Note: If the placement with us falls through, then we will be contacting each donor individually and privately to determine what you would like us to do with your donation.)

Generosity

So the total money we now have toward our adoption is $6670. We started out by putting in $5000 ourselves, money that we had set aside for adoption, savings, and other projects. Our seed offering. The rest has been given to us by 64 people - sixty-four very generous family and friends who either love us, love children, or both. I cannot thank you enough. (And I look forward to an upcoming home school project with my children of writing lots and lots of thank-you notes!)

One of the biggest things I am realizing is how many people love adoption. How many people's hearts are stirred to care for three little boys they have never met. Three little boys who some may soon welcome into their family and friend community. Three little boys who others may never meet in this world. But it makes no difference. Because we are all brothers and sisters. We are all the body of Christ, and we care for one another. That's the way it should be. And I am honored to be a part of it. You have blessed and encouraged me beyond words. Not only that you would give so generously, but that we really are not alone in our heart to care for orphans. Isn't that so prideful? But it can start to feel that way sometimes. And then something like this happens and you realize how mistaken you were. Many, many, many people love the Lord and love His children. Thank you for showing that to me today.

We are wanting to make sure that we follow the Lord very carefully in this. We will be talking with the social workers more tomorrow to get more information. We want to be sure that we really are the best family for these boys and they for us. This is not a commitment that we take lightly, so we are diligently seeking out godly counsel and wisdom. We hope to make a trip soon to meet them (hopefully with all our children!). We will definitely keep you updated.

Please keep praying!!!!! We are seeking God's face with all our hearts.

For a more in-depth analysis of our status in this situation, please read my husband's blog post.

Update on 3 Little Boys

My mind is reeling with all that's happened today. We talked with the boys' social worker and our own social worker. We are the first choice for these boys! We are thrilled and excited and nervous all at once. But beneath it all we know that we want God's will more than anything. We will be working on every front to make sure that we can bring them into our home (if it is God's will). We are contacting everyone we know to get the information and resources we need.

Here's a picture of my kids yesterday, fascinated by a lizard found on our back porch. Just to keep it real. :)

Thank you so much for the many donations we have received already! We are already up to $5710, and more donations keep coming in. I am in awe of how quickly God can move things when it's His time. Thank you, and please keep praying for us.

Here We Go!

So ... where do I begin? ... Yesterday we heard through Christian Adoption Consultants about three little boys, ages 5, 4, and 3, who need a home immediately. They were looking for families in Arizona or Virginia, but were open to considering families from others states. We looked at each other, each thinking, should we be open to this situation? It's not exactly (or even remotely) what we've been preparing for.

Background: We've been praying and preparing to welcome a baby boy or girl into our family this year. Before we started our home study, we prayed about what direction God would have us to go this time in our adoption. We felt led to domestic adoption again, so that's what we've been anticipating. We've even had a due date time frame in mind, based on a feeling I had last fall that our baby was being conceived around then. We went through CAC last time and felt peace about going that route again. We knew that they occasionally find placements for older children and sibling sets, but that is rare, so we naturally assumed that our next child would be a baby.

So when we heard about these boys, my first reaction was that they aren't for us. We are in California, and we are expecting to adopt a baby. However, I have also committed in my heart never to say no to anything God might call me to. I also know that my impressions are not always correct, so while I pay attention to them, I hold them lightly. They take on a lot more credibility when that chapter in the story is done and I can see more clearly how God has led us.

Since our home study is all but complete, since this is an urgent situation, and since we had peace about it, after praying we agreed to let the social worker know that we are open to the situation. After all, there are some hurdles to cross before this can become reality. First of all, we have to be picked. Second, there is the small matter of $30,000 needed. We don't have nearly that much money. (Yet.) But we know that if this is God's will for us and for the boys, the money is no problem for Him.

The boys are adorable. I don't know much at this point, but I do know that their birth father, who has been raising them, appears to love them very much and is unable to care for them. I believe he is trying desperately to do what is best for them. And I don't want to be responsible for allowing them to fall through the cracks because I didn't speak up.

In fact, this verse was on my heart yesterday:

"Speak up for the people who have no voice, for the rights of all the down-and-outers. Speak out for justice! Stand up for the poor and destitute!" (Proverbs 31:8-9, MSG).

I don't think I have many illusions about this. I've hear and read about attachment and children from hard places. I know that this could be a very rough road. But I also know that I serve a God who cares about orphans much more than I do. And I am confident that where He calls, He equips. There could be some very hard days ahead, but He will be faithful.

This morning we emailed the boys' social worker to let her know that we are open to this situation. This afternoon she asked us if we would be available to travel THIS WEEK. We can and will, if that is what God wants. We simply want to have wisdom and discernment to know what His will is.

We had a family conference with our kids, emphasizing that if we do adopt these boys, things will not be the same around here. There will be even more sharing, serving, being patient, loving, forgiving, etc. They voted unanimously that we go ahead and see if God wants them to be in our family.

So I am asking you two things. First and most importantly, PLEASE PRAY. Pray that God's will be done on behalf of these boys and for our family. Pray that we will have discernment. Pray that God will make it very clear what our role is to be in these three boys' lives.

Second, if you feel led to donate toward our adoption, you may do so through the button at the right. If you would prefer to mail a check, please email me directly at mswagerty [at] gmail [dot] com. Due to the urgent nature of this situation, we will need the $30K in just a few days in order to rescue these children. If you desire to partner with us, we will be very grateful. One of the ways we will know whether this is God's will is if He provides the finances to do it in the necessary time frame.

Thank you for reading this and for praying for us. We look forward to posting further updates as we know more!

If you would like to read my husband's post about this adoption, please click here: http://saltracer.blogspot.com/2011/06/three-little-boys.html.