Reflections on an amazing day....

Ok today was amazing! Before I tell you what happened let me preface a little bit. Last night I was reflecting on all the events that have occurred in the last year. Last April 2009 we had filled out all of our paperwork and were waiting for our orientation and home study to be complete before we were officially "waiting for baby". As some of you remember our orientation was moved up because of the need of more adoptive parents. April 23rd 2009 was our orientation with Generations Adoptions. One year ago we were preparing for an adoption fundraiser and garage sale. One year ago we were praying for our baby and birthmom. AND Friday of this year 2010 APRIL 23rd we will be finalizing our adoption with Abigail Elizabeth Snider. We will stand in front of a judge and swear to be the best parents for her and hold her in our hearts forever! WOW! There are so many of these amazing dates and some would say coincidences on our journey to Abigail. But you know what? They aren't coincidences.......they are God's PLAN!! It takes my breath away everytime I think about it. Don't worry I will put our story in book format and one of these days i will get it complete and all of you will get a copy. :)

so........Today........wait...let me preface a little more...
According to our semi-open adoption agreement we are suppose to send monthly pictures and letters to our birthmom and have a 6 month visit with all of us and the social worker. Well, we hadn't really heard from our birthmom in a couple weeks and didn't think it was going to happen. We really wanted to see her and show her Abigail. We have been praying for her every day and hoping that she was doing ok. I prayed selfishly that I would be able to tell her in person how much we appreciate her and her brave decision. I wanted to take a picture of her for Abigail's baby book and I wanted to give her a hug! All those things I wanted, right? Well, Monday afternoon our social worker called and said the birthmom wanted to set up a visit this week. We were super excited and nervous all at the same time.
We met with her this morning and it was amazing! It was a complete answer to our prayers. She was so happy to see Abigail and she wanted to hold her right away. She asked permission and was very polite and gracious! She said she was so happy and that Abigail was beautiful. She let us take a picture of her and Abigail and another one with all of us. And........she let me give her a hug! It was so wonderful. God was so present and is so present in this whole story. The look on the birthmom's face was one of contentment and sincere happiness for our family. She asked if our family was happy to meet Abigail and if we had a party when we came home. I told her that we have had several parties and 5 baby showers. She smiled really big. I pray that she is content and even happy with her decision and that (again..selfishly) she thinks I am doing a good job being a Mommy to her little girl.
so........without writing a million more sentences......I just want to say outloud how grateful i am for all the blessings we have and of course all of the wonderful family and friends that are praying for our situation. Please continue to pray for our birthmom. She is about to graduate high school and has a lot of life decisions ahead of her. Pray that she sees God in us and that we can be a good christian influence on her even if from afar. Let her know that God is present in her life and let her feel Him near her and her future.

love you all so much! thanks for walking this journey with us.
p.s...i wrote all this down in letter format to Abigail so that someday she will be able to read about her meeting with her birthmom.

~Jenny