Last Monday morning we received an email about a potential adoption and it was different from any of the others we had seen before – this birth mom wanted to be matched ASAP and had an appointment with the agency that day at noon. I was not checking my email that morning – Wes had a doctor’s appointment and we had driven to the pharmacy to pick up his prescription when our consultant called me and said “Did you get my email?!?”.  I rushed home, settled the kids with a snack and read it. It sounded perfect. I called Hayes and he agreed that even though we didn’t have a lot of time to think over and pray about it like the last one, we should go for it and see what God does. I emailed our consultant back with a big “YES”.

That night we prayed for that mom and asked God to be clear with her decision.  At the beginning of this process, our agency asked us what kind of situations we were open to. Was race or gender a factor? How about exposure to drugs and/or alcohol. We were very broad in our choices, trusting God to lead us to where we were needed most, knowing He would provide a way. There HAVE been however, two silent items on our “wishlist” that we have prayed for. First, we asked God that if it were to be a boy, that he wouldn’t be too short. It sounds silly, but being a part of a “tall family” (although I am not tall, Hayes is ridiculously tall and our children so far are following suit on every chart at the doctor’s office) we wanted him to be at least taller than me (5′ 4”). And secondly, we asked God for the due date to be after Hayes’ busy accounting season. This will grant us mercy with his schedule, flexiblilty with our travel plans, and ample time to help us and our kiddos transition into a family of five. I really really REALLY didn’t want to take care of three kids under the age of four without his help.

I got a phone call from our adoption consultant two days later and she informed me that our profile was presented to the expectant mother and she loved us! Hayes was in New Jersey for work, so I wasn’t able to tell him in person, but we laughed in surprise and cried and prayed on the phone in awe of God’s faithfulness.

We were privileged enough to speak with our new best friend (the expectant mom) tonight and the conversation could not have gone better. She is funny and kind, loving and brave, honest and smart. We couldn’t have asked for a better first impression of her. And…it’s a BOY. A BOY!!! She laughed and said he’s “a strong kicker”. Her desire is that he be raised in a loving home and “be happy, and ya’ll look like you have FUN in life and I want that for him” (think Southern accent). And guess what else? She’s tall! And her father is really really ridiculously tall too! Thank you God! His due date? It’s April 14, 2015  – right at the end of Hayes’ busy accounting season. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!!!

This is not a done deal – we know that she has every opportunity to change her mind from here until the due date. We asked her about her feelings about the birth and that next step and she said she has been mentally preparing herself for it from the beginning. From the minute she found out she was pregnant and decided not to terminate it (thank you God!) she knew that it wasn’t going to be hers. She teased me throughout the entire call correcting my words when I would say “your baby” she would say, “no, no, no, YOUR baby!!”. TEARS. We will see. I pray that she sees the love of Jesus in our lives, and if nothing else comes of it, we pray that for her. And in the meantime, our hearts are out there. We are in love with this child and can’t WAIT to meet him. She sent us this sonogram a few moments after we hung up with another photo of her blowing us a kiss. We are BFF’s already.