A pouring out of Blessings.....

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you were blessed through time with your family/friends during the Thanksgiving holiday. We were able to spend time with my family in San Antonio and also with Jon's family in Arlington. I feel so blessed to have such an amazing family! They have been extremely supportive in our adoption journey and are now just as excited as we are about our baby that God will be bringing into our home!

Here is an update on where we are....

After a plea with our Father above, God answered our much needed prayer! We received 3 additional donations to our matching grant fund. Although, we still have not met our grant total, we are grateful for the wonderful family and friends that have invested into our baby's life! We still need quite a bit more and pray that God will provide above and beyond what is needed...perhaps to bring more than one of His children into our home! If someone wants to donate, please see the first post in this blog with the information, and remember it needs to be postmarked by Dec. 15th.

As for Jon's job update...once again, God provided, as He has promised when following His will. The day after posting the blog, the client Jon specifically prayed about, called him instead of Jon calling him back. Wow! God moved and once again showed us that He is in control and we are NOT!

In addition, we finally got an official date for Nicholas's surgery. December 20th. Please pray as we prepare ourselves and Nicholas for this surgery. I will fill you in with more details soon!

We are blessed, so very, very blessed!

Plea from the heart.

Ever have one of those days, where you have so much to do that you get overwhelmed by all of it and then can't seem to get started on any of it? I'm having one of those days.... Since, I can't get started on any of the things on my "to do" list I will get it off my mind and clear it so that maybe I can get started on it. I thought I was going to have a productive day until I received the e-mail from our matching grant company with an update on donations...It really discouraged me. We have had one donor in the last two weeks! In reality, it's a tough time of the year to ask for donations, because of the holidays, people's financial situations, and I'm sure people are just so busy that this is the last thing on their mind. Well, it's huge for us! It means bringing a child into a loving home, who would not have one otherwise. This is the main thing on our mind, because without help we will be unable to do this...My heart is sad today. I know that God is our provider, but sometimes when you don't see the provision, your doubts begin to set in.

"Please, Father, give me peace, knowing that You are in complete control and WILL provide for your children. Father, I know this is your will for us and you will provide. I ask, Lord that you will soften our friends and family's hearts to help bring a child into our home to love and guide in your direction. God, we need a miracle of provision."

I am also sad and discouraged, because finances have tightened up in our family. The economy has not been friendly to Jon's job (Investment Consultant) where he is on comission. This has put some stress and burden on Jon's heart and his ability to provide. Then you add the cost of adoption and things are very stressful in Jon's eyes....

"Father, I lift up my wonderful husband to you. He works harder than anyone I know to provide for our family. He continues to insist on me working part-time, even with the argument of me going full time, b/c he believes that this is the job You place him in to let me stay home. Lord, please give Jon peace, help him trust You in every appointment, give him perserverance to look at every avenue with each client, and to know that You will provide according to Your will."

We will be sending out another application for another grant, but only 8 are approved a month! Please pray God's will over this application!

Our hearts long for our baby that is awaiting on the provisions, so he/she can come home to be with us. We ask that you pray for us through this time as we continue to wait upon the Lord for his provision in bringing our baby home.

We hope that God blesses you this wonderful Thanksgiving season. We DO have so much to be thankful for, espcially for our little boy, Nick, who has brought so much love and fun into our lives since God brought him into our lives.

Happy Thanksgiving!

God is providing!

So, surgery is over and I am home recovering with Nicholas. Hmm..how do you recover while taking care of a energetic 9 year old? I guess we will put in a movie until Jon gets home from training.

We got an update on our grant funding today of how much money has been donated in less than a week of sending out the letters. They had $100 donated so far! Jon and I continue to pray that donations are made to fulfill the full amount of the grant...up to $2500, matched to $5000. I just hope friends and family find it in their hearts to bring a child into a "forever" home through donations. We truly believe God is in control of it all and He will provide in all aspects of this adoption.

Short blog, today. I am still pretty tired from the surgery, but feeling better!

God's different callings to adopt!

God is so good! I made it out of surgery without any complications! It took the doctor about 2 hours, but he was able to remove all that he was visibly able to see! Praise the Lord. Thank you for all of your prayers!

I also have to mention that today, Nov. 12th, is the 3 year anniversary of my mom going to be with her Lord and Savior! I miss her so much and my little guy Nick misses her too! He is this biological feeling when it as been a year since her death. We don't even have to remind him, he just senses it! Amazing and so sweet! Nick, Jon, and I will be heading out this weekend to place flowers on her stone and for Nick to continue through his healing of this! (I mean she was his first adoptive mom)

Now, to move forward through the continued healing process and listen to God's will from the outcome of this surgery.


Ok..back to adoption!! So I got in touch with a good friend I knew from church through facebook and discovered that he and his wife have adopted a little boy and are now waiting on the biological sibling to be born in December! Their story is a lot different than ours, but it goes to show us that God calls us into adoption through different avenues.

Here's a brief description of their adoption story:

"Long story short, my wife and I had not talked about adoption at all. I received a phone call from a family friend on Sept 13, 2009 that this boy was born and CPS was not going to let the parents keep the baby, did we want to adopt. That was on a Sunday, by Friday we were signing papers. Then a few months ago found out that they were having another one and wanted us to adopt this one as well. He is due December 23. " -- Matthew

We are extremely excited about moving forward in our preparation! Now that we are waiting on funding, once I am recovered enough, we will start turning our guest room into a nursery. I think that when the room is transformed, it will become more of a reality.

I will keep posted and if anyone has their own adoption story, please feel free to share!!

One surgery away from complete healing!

So on Thursday I will be having what will hopefully be my last surgery for my endometriosis. Back in June, I had a pretty extensive surgery to remove all of the endometriosis from my body, including off my ovaries, uterus, and other areas. The recovery was extremely painful and long, including a visit to the ER five days after the surgery. After about a month and half, my doctor started me on a regiment of medication to shut down my system, because he found a fibrosis that he wanted to decrease. Well, the medication worked, and underneath the fibrosis, he found one endometrioma in the wall of my tissue. The only way to remove it and to keep it from going deeper and getting bigger is surgically remove it. I was a little anxious at first of the thought of another surgery, but felt this would be God's ultimate way of completely healing me of this disease that took over my body. With any surgery, I am nervous, but I pray that God is in control and the procedure will go exactly as planned and God will guide the doctor's hand, so that further complications will NOT occur.

Why all of this if we are adopting? Well, if you know anything of endometriosis...it's painful, uncomfortable, and continues to grow without treatment. It can grow on your bowels, which can cause major complications and then it cannot be removed. It can also travel to other organs, if not treated. Why now? Before, I never truly had symptoms. Last spring I began having horrible symptoms of it and felt God was leading us in this direction of complete healing of the disease. After many visits to different doctors, we found Dr. Putman in Dallas, who specializes in endometriosis! He has been great! His theory is to take it one step at a time and this has been perfect for us. Yes, he is also a fertility doctor, but we have not been approaching this with that as our purpose. Of course, the doctor would like to have us try again, because pregnancy will make the endometriosis dormant for 9 months and would hopefully help it stop growing for good. We just ask for God's wisdome with that and lay it at His feet!

We are still so involved and excited about adoption that this has been the least of our worries or focus. I am still praying for a successful surgery and no complications right now though. So please keep me in your prayers Thursday. Pray for wisdom, alertness, and God's guidance over the doctor's hand during surgery.

During my day of recovery, my plan is to continue to work on funding paperwork....then starting next week, when I can do a little bit more, I will start cleaning out the guest room to turn it into a nursery!

Much needed adoption training!

Three days of sitting all day for training can make a person so tired! Seems strange, though, since you are are sitting all day long! At the end of each day, we were exhausted! Jon and I went through PAT training, which is the training that is required for all parents adopting children out of the foster care system. I felt that we needed to keep all avenues open for the child or children that God has planned for our family. If our child is in the foster care system, then I wanted us to be ready to go! I believe that this training would be very helpful for anyone adopting, though. It was very informative in all areas of raising a child. Jon and I both thought that we would have loved to have had this training before we adopted Nicholas, but now that we have had the training we will hopefully be able to apply it to raising him now. The training answered a lot questions about Nick's behaviors, too! It's hard to believe that even though he was taken from his home at 2 months of age, he still has long lasting affects to the neglect and trauma of his reason for removal even now. We also realized that his strong will and effort to be in control here with Jon and I had a lot do with his time with my mother. I'm not saying my mother wasn't an amazing foster mom, because she was, but let's be honest....Nick was always in control at her house and probably never felt secure because of her constant visits to the hospital. We struggle a lot with him wanting to be in control of every situation, but now that we see this, we can now guide him through the healing process and hopefully bring Nick to his fullest potential. One other thing we learned, which we kind of knew all along, but didn't have anything to back it up is the fact that we have a nine year old child with the emotional age of a 6 year old. This is very common with children in the foster care system, b/c at different points in their development they did not receive the needs they required for that stage in their life.

We are so thankful that Amy Curtis, our social worker, recommended these classes for us and that Gladney Adoptions were so gracious to let us take their classes, even though we are not a Gladney family. I would strongly recommend this training for anyone considering adoption of any kind!

Oh...and by the way....our letters have been sent out for our grant matching program! Well, most of them...I need to make more copies and then I will get the rest in the mail on Monday!

Working on Funding

So, I have been sitting here for about 2 hours, addressing, stuffing, and locating addresses of family and friends so that we can send out our Adoption Grant Funding letters. It's a long process, but we are so blessed that Hand in Hand Adoptions has offered a matching grant up to $5,000. Every amount is so helpful and brings our baby closer to coming home into their forever family!

We are also trying finish up paperwork for another grant that would possibly help with funding near the end of the adoption process and help fill in the gaps. The only catch with that one is that they only award 8-10 grants out of about 20 applications they receive each month! We pray for favor in their eyes as we get ready to submit the application to them. Their process involves more paperwork and resources to be sent in, but it's so worth it to us!

Another option Jon is suppose to be looking into are his benefits through his job. When we adopted Nick they reimbursed us a portion of the adoption fees, which definately helps in the long run. Again, we pray that they are still helping their employees bring little ones into their homes through financial support.

Let's see....what other avenues have we or are we doing? I did do a Pampered Chef Show and was able to raise a little bit of money, so that we nice to be able to put into our adoption account. We also were able to put savings bonds that my Aunt Arlene purchased when I was born in the adoption account as well.

Although the financial portion of adoption can be stressful, we are confident that God is going to provide all finances for our adoption and in His perfect timing!

Again, if you feel God leading you to help with bringing a child into a forever home, please send your donation to the Hand in Hand adoptions by December 15th. If you would like for me to send you a letter than send me a message with your mailing address.

Well, we must go to bed! We have 3 full days of Adoption training starting tomorrow morning at 8am! I will fill you in soon!

The adoption journey begins

After receiving e-mails and messages from people asking about our adoption process, I felt called to start a blog, so that you can stay up to date on what is going on. Let me catch you all up on what has been done so far.

In January/February of 2010, Lou Engle came to our church and spoke about "life," and the Zoe Foundation. During this message, God specifically spoke to both Jon and I, seperately, and told us this was how we were to increase our family. We waiting through the spring for them to come back to the church and give us more information about how this was to happen. In June of 2010, Randy Bohlender came to our church, through the Zoe Foundation, and from Hannah's Dreams Adoptions. We knew right away that this was God's calling for us, so we immediately received info for the consultant, Tracie Loux, to start the process. Shortly after that, we started the paper process for Hannah's Dream Adoptions. We are working with Tracie, our consultant, in a multi-agency approach. This is where we are able to place our name on more than one adoption agency list at the same time. Currently, we have our name on three agencies' lists, in Florida, Kansas, and Texas. As of right now, we are waiting for God to match us with the child He has waiting for us and we know that this is all in God's timing.

While we are waiting for our match, we are in the process of gathering funding for our little one's adoption. Right now we are about to send out letters asking for donations through the Hand in Hand Adoption grant program. Adoptions can cost up to $20,000, with attorney fees, home study fees (which we have completed), medical expenses, travel expenses, etc. If you are reading this and feel called to sow into the life of a child and would like to donate, then you can send a donation to:

Please send all donations made payable to “Hand in Hand Christian Adoption” before December 15, 2010 to: (for tax purposes please include our name on the outside of the envelope only…do not put our name on the check itself)
Hand in Hand Christian Adoption, Inc.
The Jonathan Stewart Family
18524 Juniper Street
Gardner, KS 66030-9147

I will do my very best to keep you posted!!