New News in the Pursuit!

Wednesday October 5^th  was the best day of our lives so far. On that day Cory sent me a text immediately and told me to call him asap. I called him immediately and he told me there was something he had to tell me but he couldn’t until I came home. “Is it about Jonah?” I asked. Somehow I just knew. He wouldn’t tell me but I rushed home at 3:45. He told me Anya our Adoption agent had called and had sent us the referral. It was in Cory’s email. He hadn’t even opened it or looked at it because he wanted us to see it together. He told me that she had told him that our referral was for a baby boy who was 11 months old. He had blond hair and six teeth. Living in Hull, we knew that our internet would take forever to open the pictures, videos, and medical records so we went back to the school and sat with the door shut in my room. I will never forget how anxious I was driving to the school and how long it took the first email to open. We sat side by side and Cory held my hand. And then there he was. The most beautiful thing I have ever put my eyes on. There were 5 pictures, two short video clips and a medical record. I had never thought about how I would feel the moment I saw Jonah the first time. It was an indescribable feeling. Tears streamed down our cheeks as we studied everything about him and laughed about the little personality he portrayed in those pictures. “He’s funny!” Cory said, after we watched the video clips. It was so exciting to call our parents and tell them that we had pictures of their grandchild. I was blessed by the reaction of our family to the news.

Anya had told Cory that she could not believe how fast everything is going with the adoption for us. She said that people are usually not nearly this far along in the process yet. Cory and I know that God is blessing us. Our cup is overflowing.

Tomorrow we have an appointment with an international adoption specialist doctor at Texas Children’s Hospital. Cory will take everything the agency gave us to them and let them look at it and give us any advice they have. Then we will call the adoption agency and give the official acceptance of the referral. From there we will soon get travel dates and more information.

Blessed beyond measure by an amazing God is what we are. It’s hard not to look back on the last year and be amazed. A little over a year ago with Cory’s support I promised God to follow him wherever he led, even if it didn’t make sense at the time. With Cory’s support I left my well paid job, went on a mission trip across the world, and now we are adopting the baby that God has set apart for us. God definantly “ruined our lives” by a lot of people’s definition, but we there is no where else we would rather be. I feel this sense of urgency to express to everyone that we are only here because of the God that we serve.

I can not tell you thank you enough for praying for us. We know that everything has gone so smoothly because so many prayers are being offered on our behalf. At homecoming Friday night so many people stopped me and asked about Jonah and told me they had been praying. It is so moving how our church, our family and our friends have cared so much.

Please pray for Cory tomorrow as he makes the trip to the doctor. I am not going because I need to save as many days as I can to travel to Russia. Please pray that everything continues to go smoothly and that we will soon have baby Jonah home. Please pray that through this whole process that God is glorified and that we are all brought together as a community even more. And of course pray for Jonah. I am looking at his little face as I type this and I know that the God who is bringing us together is taking care of him tonight.