Surprise "your adopting!"

Some people say that you can't have a surprise adoption -

but ya know what?

You can! 

And once the shock wears off -

it's just as exciting,

may be even more exciting then 

if you had planned for this. 

Our journey to Gus began long before we
even knew about Gus,

God had told us "no" to Z in Ethiopia,

we were sad, very sad,

and we searched for what God wanted next for us -

another adoption?

find an adoption group to help with?

work with families who have adopted?

or just 

BE STILL.

One thing our family does is
keep our refrigerator full of photos of waiting children.

(I can't show you our refrig as some of the faces

cannot go out on the internet)

A few months ago, 

we got word that the last "waiting" kiddo on our 

refrigerator had a family!

We decided Gus would be our next kiddo 

to pray and advocate for.

He was on the Waiting Child list with our agency, 

Lifeline Children Services,

and was listed with the SN of Pygmyism.

This was intriguing -

and not being able to find any info on Google about

Pygmyism.

We asked some friends about it but no one really knew.

We asked for his file, so we could ask a 

Dr. to review it for us.

Not like we could advocate for a child whom we don't know

what his SN is. 

The report for the Dr was very favorable.

So we began to pray for his family and

began advocating.

I also contacted my friend Stephanie,

as she has a daughter with a similar diagnosis.

Stephanie was just about to email Lifeline to ask if she could 

also advocate for little Gus. 

I asked Stephanie to wait a few days,

as we were really praying what God's will was for us and Gus.

We then found out that Gus needed to be "spoken for"

in 2 weeks or his file would go back to China 

and he would sit on the shared list. 

Since we were still unsure,

I asked Stephanie to also advocate for him,

if we weren't his parents -

we needed to find his parents 

QUICKLY!

A few days later,

I emailed Stephanie again to tell her that we were working with Lifeline 

to be Gus's family! 

One of the discussions we had with Lifeline was,

$.

Can I tell you I hate $! 

But, Lifeline agreed to pray with us and believe that 

God will faithfully provide for us to 

bring our son home! 

They were willing to work with us,

and work with  our  God's timeline.

Can I tell you how exciting it was 

when we sent in our first paperwork, 

to tell our coordinator that the 1st fee would be included in the paperwork! 

She was shocked 

and together we praised God for HIS provisions! 

HE provided our first payment 

two weeks early! 

Isn't that just soooo God! 

So, here we are -

working on the next level of paperwork! 

(With our third agency fee due in a few months)

Excited to see God at work to bring our sweet boy home! 

Home where he belongs -

in the arms of his mommy and daddy and

brother and sister and brother and sister and brother and sister and brother! 

ohhh those chubby cheeks just get me every time!