only through Him

On Wednesday, I posted asking for prayers that Marcus and I would find the right adoption agency for our family. 

Let me back up a bit...

Last weekend (October 2nd), I watched a documentary on Netflix called The Drop Box about a man in South Korea who rescues abandoned babies (I highly recommend this film!). There was a line in the movie that I loved but I couldn't remember it word for word. So I turned to Google and searched the part of the quote that I remembered, and came across the full quote on a Facebook page. After further investigating, I found out that this Facebook page (completely unrelated to The Drop Box) was for an organization that helps couples with airfare for international adoptions - how cool! I looked around the page for a bit and came across two families who had recently adopted two children each from Uganda (what we want - two children from Uganda!) so I turned back to my friend Google to creep on these families and found blogs for both of them. I fell in love with the blog of one of the families and spent over an hour reading her posts. She sounded a lot like me, from the way she wrote to the way her mind worked, to her personality and desires. She had posted in one of her blogs about their adoption story that if anyone was interested in the agency she used to complete her adoption, they could contact her personally. Her most recent blog post was 4 months ago, so I didn't know if I'd have any luck contacting her on there. So, I turned back to Google yet again (can you say creeper?) and tried to find another way to contact this awesome gal. I found her Facebook page and thought, why not message her? Facebook informed me that my message would go to her "other" folder and she wouldn't be alerted of the message because we had no mutual Facebook friends. I had no idea why I was compelled to even message this girl just to ask which adoption agency she used because I could go to my trusty friend Google and find about 1,000 adoption agencies in a matter of seconds! But, I messaged her anyway, expecting nothing to come of it. 

Well what do you know... the very next day, she messaged me back! She gave me the info of the agency she used and even said she works part-time there as a case manager now! I checked out the website and told her I'd talk to my husband and let her know if I had any questions. So, we looked at the website a little bit, but we knew we had lots of agency options and we had a super busy week. 

Fast forward to Wednesday, October 7, when I asked you to pray that we'd find an agency. About a dozen different agencies were swimming around in our minds because we had been researching our butts off to make sure we knew all our options. 

And that same day, this girl messaged me again saying that she'd love to answer any questions I had about their agency, website, or Ugandan adoption in general, because she had been through it. She also said she could give me the phone number for the agency's director. So, I figured that since she was offering, I would ask her some general questions I had. She quickly responded via email and CC'd her director in to the email. 

These ladies were so helpful answering Marcus' and my general questions about choosing an agency and adopting from Uganda. All day, I prayed that if this was the agency God wanted us to use, that Marcus would be 100% on board with this agency and have no doubts or reservations, and that if this was not the agency for us, that God would make that clear by Marcus' reaction. I really liked the agency and the info I had learned from these ladies, but I had to get Marcus' opinion. That evening after the kids were in bed, I read him the emails and showed him the website and asked what he thought, and he was super excited and thought that this agency was a perfect match for us and said we should move forward with the next step! Remember, this is all still October 7, the same day I blogged asking (and asked my church mama friends) for prayer regarding picking the right agency. Only through Him. God works fast! 

The next morning, we let the agency know that we wanted to take the next step and apply, and we sent our application in online that afternoon (which was free - lots of agencies charge a non-refundable fee for this; a huge blessing!) and have been in contact with them since. Since this agency is out-of-state, we have to find a separate "coordinating agency" to perform our home study and post-adoption reports. This second agency will be the people who give us the green light and approve us for who we can adopt - age, siblings, two unrelated children, etc. - so choosing them is important! Some agencies out there won't approve you for simultaneous adoptions of unrelated children no matter who you are, so we have to be careful and particular with the home study agency we choose. 

This is where we need prayer again! We will be signing a service agreement with the first agency (our international/placement agency) that we already have applied for early next week. Once that is done and that fee is paid, we will choose our coordinating home study agency to start that 3-ish month process of our home study, interviews, meetings, approval, etc. Please pray that we find the perfect second agency for us! God was so quick to answer our first prayer of finding a placement agency and we know He will answer this prayer, too. We would appreciate continued prayers for a smooth, quick (ha!) adoption process for everyone involved, including the fundraising, the orphanage in Africa and our future children. God is already moving in amazing ways that can only be explained through His mighty hand in our situation. These things have happened quickly and seamlessly already only through Him. 

We can not thank our family, friends, and blog followers enough for your prayers during our journey! 

For His glory, not mine; His will, not mine.