Hurry up and wait!

It's been a while since our last post! At this point, it's really a waiting game. We've officially been a "waiting family" for a little over a month now, and have allowed our profile to be viewed by most birthmoms who have come through our Bethany office so far. To be honest, we only said no once, and that was an extenuating circumstance. We're trying to be open to God's calling, and we aren't saying no unless we feel very strongly that we shouldn't submit our profile. We've got a lot of love to give, though. And we can't wait to hold our little baby in our arms!

I have to say, this part of the process requires a whole lot of patience! Every time we submit our profile I get butterflies! It's so exciting! If you would like to see the online version of our profile, you can see it here: https://waitingfamilies.bethany.org/michigan/bryan-and-julie. We also have a video that will be uploaded to that profile soon. 

While we are waiting to be chosen, we are working on putting together a spaghetti supper and silent auction fundraiser for March 26! That night, we will feed you all some great food and there will also be several awesome items to bid on, including hockey tickets, date nights, home furnishings, and handmade goods! I've been very busy making things for this auction, including jewelry, scarves, art, and other useful or pretty things. Several friends have expressed their interest in donating handmade items as well! For all of you lovely people interested in donating your goods or crafts to the dinner or auction, please email or message me! We would LOVE to include your items! We will also be providing a list of auction items here on our blog prior to the event, so if you would like to bid at the auction, you can make a game plan beforehand. ;) More information on that will follow, though. 

Please pray for patience for us! And pray that the dinner and auction is a success! It's already been loads of work, but hopefully it will be very worthwhile!

Lots of love to you all!

Bryan and Julie

Silent Auction Preview

We're approved!!!

Earlier this month, we submitted our homestudy to our caseworker for approval and, as of two days ago, we received an email back from her letting us know that we are officially approved to adopt!!! We are so excited!

So at this point, we are finishing up a family portfolio book that will allow us to show birthmoms and birth families what our family and life is like. These portfolios are non-specific, but tell a great deal about what we like to do and about what sort of things are important to us. They enable birthmoms to make an informed decision when choosing who will adopt their baby. We will soon start receiving profiles about birthmoms looking for adoptive families, and then we will be able to choose who to submit our profile to. (It's all very private until we feel comfortable sharing information about our family.)

Please keep us in your prayers as we move forward, that we may have patience and wisdom. Pray that the birthmoms make wise decisions and that we can be a help and a positive force in their lives also.

Just a sidenote, Bryan and I are in the process of planning a spaghetti dinner fundraiser. So stay tuned to hear about when you can eat our delicious italian food and support us if you would like to! Also, just to be open about what we are facing, we will soon be making a 5,000 dollar-ish payment, and then we will need to focus on coming up with more than 10,000 dollars for the adoption finalization. We have a long way to go, but God has blessed us immensely to even bring us this far. 

Lots of love to everyone! Thanks again for reading!!!!