The Call!

I really wanted to post yesterday because I could have used a phrase from what was one of my favorite rap songs in high school - "Today was a good day" by Ice Cube. This was a very good week really. It started off with the Texas A&M Men's Golf team winning the NCAA National Title (WHOOP!), then Wednesday was our 9th Anniversary and we enjoyed a trip to relax on the lake. I'll only mention this once but Thursday The Lakers won game 1 of the NBA Finals. So I'm pretty excited and pumped as Friday starts. I'm out making sales calls on schools on there last day of school for the year, another reason to be pumped because my summer is starting and I won't be driving nearly as much while school is out. Well, I get a call about 11:00am from a number I don't know. My immediate thought is that it is one of my schools and they need something right away before they leave for the summer.

But it wasn't a school, it was Generations calling. Cathy was calling to let me know that we have been chosen by a birthmother. Needless to say that I got lost in a neighborhood while on the phone with her until I finally pulled over at the school I was originally heading to. So what do we know? Well, let me go back to the beginning. About 3 weeks ago we got an email about this birthmother asking if we wanted our profile shown to her. She didn't exactly fit our pre-set criteria so they asked if it was okay and we said yes. Then last week we got an update that she never came in to look at profiles because she does not have transportation. So we figured that this wasn't going to happen and we needed to prepare our hearts for waiting a little longer. Then out of the blue the call came.

So what can we tell you about her? She is 25 and recently divorced. She had 2 children thru her marriage that are healthy so that is a good sign. She is not wanting to meet us right now, the agency said she is very shy but is committed to the adoption plan. She is Hispanic and the birthfather, who is not in the picture at all, is also Hispanic. Her family does not know that she is pregnant and planning adoption. This is a HUGE RISK FACTOR. The Hispanic culture has a very strong family bond, which is really great, but it also means that very few Hispanic birthmothers get the support needed to follow thru with their adoption plan. So we are proceeding with guarded hearts. We are excited yes, but very nervous. Oh, and I guess I should mention that she is due on JULY 2ND! That's right less than a month from today and less than 7 months from the date we started filling out paperwork for the adoption.

Obviously we need your prayers but we also ask that you pray for our birthmother. Yes I said "Our Birthmother". I can say that now, especially after the agency sent us the invoice for the matching fee (did we say somewhere in our blog before that adoption is not cheap). She needs a lot of encouragement from God and her friends who are her support system right now. I pray that God gives her the courage and strength she needs to make it through this difficult time in her life and the peace to know that she is making the right decisions with her adoption plan.

Last little story. Wednesday night I was working on Microsoft Money and looking at our budget. Back about 2 months ago I decided to include the payments that we would be making to Generations in our budget and just picked some "random" dates for those payments. So Wednesday I was looking at the dates and told myself "we haven't heard anything yet so I am going to move the matching fee payment date back one week from June 5th". Yes, 2 months ago at random I put down June 5th as the date for making the matching fee payment. So after I got off the phone with Generations and then Jenny, I sat in my car and asked God forgiveness for not believing in Him on Wednesday night. He obviously had a plan all along and I tried to take over by changing the date. And to go one step further, the original date that I put in the budget for the final payment to Generations which comes when we take the baby home was July 1st. That's pretty close the the due date for our birthmother isn't it. GOD IS AMAZING AND I'M SHOUTING IT FROM THE MOUNTAINTOPS (or at least the new age mountaintops called the internet)!

I know this is a long post but HELLO, this is big news. We thank you all for your prayers and just ask for support over these next few weeks. It is going to be very nerve-racking knowing that there is a strong chance she may decide to parent the child on her own. We are going to write her a letter this weekend to hopefully reassure her of who we are and that God is in control and will take care of her. As I said, it is with guarded hearts that we tell everyone because this could be very exciting but it also could be very difficult.

Jesus is the Reason no matter what the Season!
Jerry