Coming soon: BABY BOY

Several people have asked me how our meeting with the adoption agency in Texas went. Short answer: Great. We like the ladies we've met there and we like how they seem to handle adoptions.

But I need to back up ...

A couple weeks before we went to Texas, we met with our local attorney, just to update him about our hopes to adopt using the agency we were going to visit. The following Monday (which would have been five days before we left for Texas, for those of you keep track ...) our attorney told us about a woman in Calloway County (that's where we live ...) who was looking for adoptive parents for her baby that is due this winter.

Um, OK ...

So we thought about it for a couple of days and decided to tell our attorney we wanted to learn more about her. He suggested we just talk to her. So we did. First, I talked to her on that Wednesday, then we met with her that Friday (meaning the day before we left for Texas ...). We really liked her attitude toward adoption and were interested in learning more about the birth father.

Meanwhile, we had an orientation scheduled with the agency in Fort Worth on the last day of our vacation. We decided to go ahead with that meeting because we weren't quite at the point to commit whole-heartedly to the local couple. We still needed to talk to the birth father.

So, yes, the meeting was good, but we were also interested in the local adoption opportunity. Greg finally connected with the birth father yesterday, and we've decided to proceed with this ... meaning ...

WE'RE GOING TO ADOPT A BABY BOY WHO IS DUE IN LATE NOVEMBER/EARLY DECEMBER!

Yes, I'm excited.

A few things worth noting:

This time frame is similar to Cate's adoption story, which is summed up like this: We talked to the birth mom, then had a few weeks for people to sort things out, then started going to appointments with the birth mom, then Cate was born 15 weeks later. Similarly, we talked with this birth mom, needed the couple weeks before moving forward and should have a baby in four months. More specifically, we're meeting with the birth mom and our attorney on Monday to talk about some details of the process and then we hope to go to a doctor's appointment with her before we leave for New Zealand on Aug. 14.

This is definitely my preference for an adoption process. Private, independent adoptions like usually financially and logistically simpler and more relational, as far as getting to know the birth mom. Being led a birth mom like this was my hope, but I am realistic enough to know that this isn't the norm. Once again God has shown me his faithfulness to hear the desires of our hearts.