The Match Story - Part 2

I can not tell you how many times someone had said that they had the perfect birth mom for us.

So I took the agencies statement with a grain of salt.

Our agency rep, lets call her "B", then began to tell us a little about this sweet birth mother who we will call "K".

 

Every situation I heard about seemed like a good situation because I wanted a baby so badly!

While this situations sounded really good, there were a few things that we had not planned on.

First of all, "K" wants an open adoption.  We had decided early on in the process that we would say Yes to an open adoption as long as we knew it was what God had for us.

She is also not due until "sometime around May".

We were honestly hoping for a sooner due date(or even a firm due date) because lets face it, no one LIKES to wait.

 

"B" told us that they would show our profile to her the next day along with one other families.

If you are not familiar with domestic adoption, an agency only showing two profiles is pretty rare.

It means we had a 50% chance of being picked.

 

There is a rule that we can only show to one birth mom at a time.  Otherwise, we could end up with two birth moms that pick us and we would have to tell one no.  That is just not fair at all to these mothers who are slaving over the decision of who they want to parents their child.

 

Since we were not supposed to show to the first mom we agreed to show to(Lets call her "C") until the end of the week, we decided we had time to show to both mothers.

So we told "B" to go ahead and show our profile.

We spent the next day praying and waiting for an answer.

That night "B" called us and informed us that they had not had a chance to bring "K" the profiles.

They planned to do it the next day.

 

Now we had a decision to make.

It was Wednesday night and they were planning to show to "K" on Thursday. 

We had said that we would show to "C" at the end of the week which could technically be Thursday.

So I seriously spent the entire evening trying to decide what to do.

I had no idea which mom was carrying our child!

 

In the end, Gavin and I decided that since we had committed to showing to "C" first, we would call "B" and let her know that we could no longer show to "K".  So I sent an e-mail and went to sleep trying to feel peaceful.

 

**The story continues tomorrow!



Match Story - Part 1

As you all know, we found out about a certain birth mom a couple weeks ago and had planned on showing to her.  We found out about her on a Thursday and were told that our profile would get shown to her mid-week the next week.  Well at the beginning of that week, we got news that they were going to push the showing back to the end of the week because they wanted to get more profiles to show her.  So we waited. 

 

Rewind a few weeks and I had talked to an agency here in Arizona who I really liked but their registration fee was 2k.  That is not a crazy amount of money for a registration fee but we are networking with multiple agencies so we can not pay that much to one agency.  So we did not register with that agency and kept waiting.  Well last week I got word that the agency was waiving its registration fee for the new year.  I called them but only let the phone ring once before realizing that their announcement said the deal was only valid through January 2013.  So I hung up and kept waiting.  I went to take a nap but was woken up by the phone ringing.  It was the Arizona agency calling be back.  I had not even left a message and still they were still calling me back.  I answered and said I had made a mistake and read the dates on their website wrong.  She then told me that they had made a mistake and wrote the dates wrong! 

 

So I asked what they needed for us to register.  When you register with an agency, it just means that you are placed in a pool of adoptive parents for birth mom to pick from and the agency has all of the necessary documents to match you.  I jotted down a couple of things to send and then she asked us what our preferences were.  We literally had no preferences...we just wanted a child!  She told me she had the PERFECT birth mom for us!

 

**More to come tomorrow!

Pehl Family of 6!!!

After a few very unpredictable and crazy days,

We are officially matched with a sweet momma due in about 3-4 months.

We are feeling excited and encouraged as we enter into this news season of waiting.

We are also hoping its a special time to get to know the biological mother of our child.

In the next few days, I will tell the whole story about how the Lord brought our two families together.

I just wanted to let you all know so that you can be praising God with us!

Backtrack

So here is the deal....

There have been a lot of people who have been a very important part of bringing our kiddos home.

These are the people who gave gifts before we started the puzzle piece fundraiser.

We think its only fair that you special people get your own puzzle pieces.

So in the next few days I will be posting pictures of your very own puzzle pieces!

 

If I forget one of you, please let me know.

We have been at this for a couple of years and while I do have a list of people who donated from lifesong, I have not written down all the names of everyone who has given(trust me I am kicking myself for that).

You are all very special for us and I want to include you all in this special puzzle!

 

If you have not had a chance to buy a puzzle piece  yet, the link is below!

https://www.adopttogether.org/pehl

We are showing our profile for the first time!

We have had our profile made for about a month now.

It is beyond beautiful thanks to our amazing adoption consultants, Dawn and Jason Wright.

The Lords timing is perfect and we have not had the chance to share our profile with any potential birth mother matches yet.

 

Well...on January 8th, a birth mom will finally get to see our profile.

This particular mama happens to be in AZ which would make our journey to our baby a piece of cake!
We are going to code name all of the situations we pursue so that it won't get too confusing.
We may be picked by the first mom we show our profile to or we may have to show our profile to 15 moms before we are picked.
This situation will be nick-named "Brownie"

We have been told that in about two weeks we will know if we have been matched or not.

 

Pray, Pray, Pray!



We still need the Lord to provide 5-10k depending on which situation we get matched with.

If you feel led, you can give a tax deductable donation below.

https://www.adopttogether.org/pehl

The Lord IS Providing

We are once again in awe of how the Lord provides!

He is making a way for this domestic adoption to happen and its all in His perfect timing!

To say He is perfect, amazing, and awesome is an understatement.

 

While we still need Gods people to make this thing happen, we will be able to start showing our profile to birth moms. 

In fact....we have a sweet little mom in mind who we might be showing to next week.

I will keep you guys updated!

 

Meanwhile, we have 246 puzzle pieces left.

If you have not had the chance to make a tax deductible gift toward this adoption yet, the link is below.

We appreciate your prayerful support as we try to decide which birth moms to show our profile to.

https://www.adopttogether.org/pehl

Finding His Will.

I have spent a lot of time in the past two years trying to decide what God's will is for my life.

Should we adopt?

Should we move?

Should we travel?

Should we adopt again?

It can get seriously exhausting trying to figure out if God is saying yes or no.

 

When we started thinking about adopting domestically alongside our Congolese adoption, I started doing some serious bible studying.

I wanted God to give me a really clear yes or no.

Here is what I discovered.....

 

Gods will for my life is not difficult or confusing.

I was spending a lot of time making it more complicated than it needed to be.

God commands us to do certain things in the bible....

 

In Matthew 4:19 he says," Come, Follow me and I will make you fishers of men."

He wants us to follow Him and spread the gospel.

We can all pretty much agree that this is God's will for ALL of our lives.

 

James 1:27 says,"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this;  to visit orphans and widows in their affliction."

When I read this passage for the 50th times, I realized that no where in the bible does it say that a person can possibly take care of too many orphans.

There is not one passage that warns against adopting too many kids.

 

So how can I be so sure that we are doing the right thing by entering into a second adoption before getting Isryelle and Boaz home?

The Lords heart is to care for the orphans.

My heart is to care for the orphans.

These facts are all I need to have peace that we are headed in the right direction!