We’ve been a little quiet over here so I thought I would touch base about where we are in the process right now and where our hearts are. Today marks four months since our homestudy was approved. Yes, FOUR! We can hardly believe it ourselves and we are thankful this waiting period has gone by quickly so far. I was afraid it was going to be slow and agonizing but the Lord has kept our hearts at peace while we wait, and our lives have been busy so that has helped!
There are so many steps that have gotten us to this point. Love, prayers, financial gifts, paperwork, online education, fingerprints, background checks, homestudy visits, and lots and lots of conversation. Through it all, and most importantly, God has been at the center. Even when we’ve focused on our to do lists, He has remained right here with us. We wouldn’t be where we are without His consistent tug on our hearts and reminders through scripture that He loves us and has a plan for us. Yesterday during a conversation with a dear friend, I shared my fears and hopes for this process along with my constant prayer, that The Lord be glorified in this. We pray that we do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above ourselves not looking to our own interests but to the interests of the others (Philippians 2: 3-4). Our child’s first mom is always on my heart and we are so grateful to be working with an adoption agency that cares so deeply for the women that choose to place their children for adoption. They look to the interests of them first, just as it should be. We know that our child’s first mama will be well taken care of as we see God’s story unfold. Our hope and prayer is that we trust The Lord to cultivate the right relationship between the three of us when it’s time.
Awaiting our greatest adventure yet…
I first spotted this blanket in a local shop in town when I was shopping with my mom several years ago. I made the comment that I wished we had a baby because I would purchase it right then and there. Some time after we announced our adoption to our family, my mom brought over some things for us. I unwrapped a package and was so surprised to find this blanket inside! My mom had gone back to the store the day after we had been there to buy this blanket for me and has been holding onto it ever since! It’s the little things that always mean so much.
This crib was the first thing we purchased when we started our adoption process. When we were in Raleigh for the weekend announcing to our family the big news of our adoption, we planned to go to Pottery Barn to look at all the baby things. That weekend they happened to be having a sale and when we found a crib we loved, we couldn’t resist bringing it home along with the toddler bed conversion!
Thankfully it all fit in the back of our car after taking it out of the packaging. 🙂
This Otterburn Mill pram rug came all the way from England from my step-sister. ♡
We love that the changing table doubles as a dresser and the changing top is
removable for when baby is not so baby anymore. 🙂
Family and friends have been filling all the drawers.♡
This is a prayer I said every night when I was young, when my parents tucked me in to bed. My mom cross stitched it in 1978 when she was pregnant with my sister. Thankful it’s still in the family.
Ready to fill this diaper bag with all the baby things.
There has been lots to do around here, so that is why you haven’t seen an update in a while! The paperwork, photo book and course took some time to get through in the midst of getting things together for my father-in-law’s estate, but we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel! We are happy to say we are done with our paperwork and online course! Everything has been turned in to our adoption agency and we’ve already had our first homestudy visit this past week. We will have our second visit in a couple of weeks, then the social worker will complete the homestudy write-up to go with our photo book we’ve given to the agency.
We spent days and hours figuring out which photos to use for our book. How do you truly capture what it would be like to be a part of our family in 25 pages? We’re thankful for the homestudy visits because those ten pages that will go along with our book will help the birthmother get a sense of us, our family life, hobbies, holidays and traditions without actually meeting us. It is through the words of the social worker and our photos that the birthmother will choose us. We pray that the words will come to life and that she will know the authenticity of our hearts during the time she takes to learn about us. It is something all together different to be vulnerable in this way; to open ourselves up to someone who could reject us. We know that God is orchestrating the pieces and that at the end of this we will be able to look back on the beautiful story that He is writing.
(front cover of our photo book)
The support we have received from family and friends (and even some we don’t know) has been an incredible blessing to us. You have showered us with love and prayer, purchased t-shirts and written checks to support us. Thank you, thank you, thank you!! The t-shirts have been wildly popular and people are still purchasing..there is another batch currently open that will close around 9pm tonight if you would like to grab one! They will ship out July 2nd: www.bonfire.com/bringbabythompsonhome
If you have purchased a t-shirt, we’d love to see you, your friends + family wearing them. Would you send us an email with your photos? hello@saltwoodnc.com Don’t forget to post with the hashtag #bringbabythompsonhome so we can see just how big this community is! We can’t wait to show our child how loved they are when they’re old enough to understand.
Be on the lookout soon for our next post including nursery photos!
Until then…
Much love,
Jen
We know we have been a little quiet over here the last few weeks. My father-in-law’s health declined rapidly starting four weeks ago so Casey and I put a hold on our adoption paperwork, as his dad was our priority. He went home to be with The Lord last Tuesday, April 3rd. We miss him terribly but we are so thankful he is not in pain anymore. When we told my father-in-law a few months back that we were adopting, he was so very excited. He said with a huge smile, “That is going to be one very loved child.” It breaks our hearts they will never get to meet but we are so thankful we have photos and stories to share as our child(ren) get older. They will know that their Grampy loved them so much even though he didn’t get a chance to meet them. We are grateful for the love and prayers we have received from friends and family over the last few weeks. Such an overflowing of drop-ins, meals, phone calls and texts. Our community is so big and so kind and you all mean so much to us. More than you know.
In thinking about our community, we have also felt love in another way…We have some really exciting news to share about our adoption process…
Continue Reading…
…we don’t know if or when we will, but right now, God has called us to adopt! He has filled our days with conversation and prayer over this for MONTHS. He has filled our hearts with peace and comfort to know this is the path He has chosen for us and we couldn’t be more excited about starting the domestic adoption process!