we are home, blessed and love our birth mom :)

God is beyond faithful. I WILL post more when I have time lol but just so you all know, we are home with OUR little one and SO thankful for our birth mom and all she has sacrificed to make this happen. We are praying for her all of the time and although many do NOT understand our relationship.....no one has too bc WE know God orchestrated this all and we are SUPPOSED to have this relationship. Honestly, if I have to be honest (and i can be..it's MY blog right and I AM Kim..you know ME..haha) we ONLY get upset when people question US and our decision and why we are STILL here for her. ANSWER(S): 1) Because God called us to be! 2) Because we love her 3) Because we are NOT the kind of people to just look out for us, take a precious gift from someone and not care about her 4) we are forever thankful for her and 5) she does NOT take us for granted but considers us just as much of a blessing for helping her and Lily get in a better place in life. SO, all that said...we are GREAT and more to come.We love you ALL!!!! just know that when God works and moves, it's not always "typical" or "common" or for our human minds to have to understand!!! His ways are Higher than mans!!! :) going to add more later about our first few days home!!!! been AMAZING!!!

spent a week with our birth mom and little girl :)

So, I just got home yesterday after spending the week with our beautiful and amazing birth mom and her 21 month old. She had two dr appointments I was able to take her too and I got to see the 3D ultrasound. Of course, I cried like a baby!! So did our birth mom, as soon as she heard that Sara Beth was ALREADY 8 lbs!!! haha...she cried for a different reason!! BLESS HER!! She supposedly has another 3 1/2 weeks but we go back Tuesday for another ultrasound and they may induce because Sara Beth is growing and SO healthy. Jeff and I will BOTH be at this one!! :) The technician said with tears in her eyes that she had never ever seen such a beautiful ultrasound with such a healthy gorgeous heart. She showed us her diaphragm moving so well, meaning she is breathing well on her own AND we may have a singer on our hands....yay!! :) She has gorgeous, full, pouty lips, looks like a head full of possible curly hair, chubby cheeks, a beautiful nose, long feet with wiggling toes, kept yawning and is in the "ready" position. Has been for DAYS. Our birth mom is in so much pain and SO tired, understandably. SO, please continue to pray for her and that all will go smoothly. She may go into labor before the ultrasound Tuesday according to the doctor. We are getting everything together here. I can't believe how quickly God moved once we started this process. Most adoptive parents wait for at least a year or more and we started with the lawyer June 15th and here we are!!!!! MIRACULOUS! Our relationship with our birth mom is a gift from God and we have so much peace. We are blessed beyond words in ONLY a way God can bless! :) We are praying for her life to be blessed and for God to overwhelm her and Lily with His love now and after the birth of our little one. What a beautiful, precious gift she is giving us!! How can we even say thank you? We will always protect and love Sara Beth unconditionally and she will forever know she is safe, secure and in God's loving arms! That's how!! :) Thanks you for all of the prayers. Please continue to pray because we still need a good bit of finances to come in to complete the adoption. It's all supposed to be given before she's born, but because she's coming early, the lawyer is being very understanding. People have been so gracious and we are SO much closer to our goal. Again, we had more expenses than expected but KNEW God would provide. AND HE IS!!!! We'll keep you posted and when I have time (haha) I WILL share all the small but HUGE details that will  bless your heart as they have blessed ours simply because we see GOD in it all!!!! more to come soon....... (oh if anyone has a little table for Lily to sit and color or a small bookcase for Lily, please let me know via email or Facebook...thank YOU soooo much!!)

Click Here for ultrasound pics!!

Putting this out at the shower today with the pair of booties :)

AN AMAZING STORY OF GOD’S FAITHFULNESS:

I had my first miscarriage in April of 1999, while serving as the Children’s Minister on staff along side Jeff as Youth Ministers as well at our former church, Mullins First Baptist. While I was pregnant, a lady named Ms. Vicky Ghazal, now 91, known to ALL as “Mother Goose” because she ran a nursery/daycare out of her home for many years, knitted some yellow booties for our baby. After we suffered the devastating loss, I thought about discarding them and realized that our precious baby was in the arms of her Creator and we would see her one day! So, I decided to pray weekly over these booties for the past 11 years. We suffered another miscarriage in April of 2004, while here at Trinity, We weren’t sure what God was doing but knew He was true to His Word and had “plans to prosper us not to harm us, plans to give us a hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11) so we continued to pray. Through an abundance of health issues God has and is healing me from, we are miraculously blessed to now be able to adopt. This was God’s plan all along and He was saying “I am in control my precious children, just trust me.” Why don’t we trust our Creator, our loving, Sovereign, Divine God at ALL times? Jeff and I have decided to give thanks as Paul says in God’s Word, in ALL things, good and bad because not only are we commanded too but they ALL bring us closer to Him and grow us. SO, now, here we are. We started the adoption process on June 15^th and are having a baby in a couple of weeks. What precious booties!! Let this be a reminder to all of us that He is on His throne and will never leave or forsake us. His timing is perfect and he will forever be Sovereign! We prayed for a little one to hold in our arms on THIS side and will have one soon. And one day be united with her two brothers or sisters who are being adored and held by their DADDY now!! Thank you ALL for loving and supporting us through all of this. You WILL be blessed as YOU have been a huge part of this process.

                                                   Love to you ALL!!!!!

How incredible is our birth mom??

She just told me that her little one picked out a birthday card today for Sara Beth and she got us a congratulations card. She is writing a long letter to us and our family about how blessed she feels by US!!! Is she for real??? WE ARE THE BLESSED ONES!! Of course I told her that but she is just amazing!! We have so much admiration, respect and love for her!! Thank You Lord for being God and having these "plans to prosper us, not to harm us but to give us a hope and a future" all these years. (Jeremiah 29:11)

Our unbelievable journey

Hi everyone. We are Jeff and Kim. We've been married for 16 years, are in ministry and have been trying to conceive a baby for 14 years. I have suffered two miscarriages and been told that it may be impossible for me to not only conceive again, but to carry to term. We have ALWAYS desired a child and adore all children. We have prayed, along with family and friends ALL these years that somehow, God would provide a way for us to either have a child or adopt. To be quite honest, because we knew we didn't have the finances to go through the adoption process, I've prayed that someone would just "drop a baby in our laps." :) Well, that never happened, although we KNOW God can do anything He desires. We have also prayed for years that if we were not going to have a little one, that God would remove the STRONG desire for us to be parents. Again, that didn't happened. In fact, quite the opposite. Our desires grew stronger and stronger! I have a dear friend at church who is always the one who consoles me during baby dedications because as happy as I always am for the families, it would break my heart that it wasn't happening for us. She would ALWAYS say to me that she believed we were going to adopt. I always told her there was no way financially but she would hug me, smile and pray!! :) I always see her at church and her daughter went through our youth group, but I had never called her. ONE day, when I heard that there may be a couple of pregnant teens, since we'd talked about adoption, the thought crossed my mind that maybe she might know someone who could help these girls decide not to have abortions. I was so desperate and willing to say "I'll take the babies" but KNEW how crazy that was. I didn't even know the girls. Now I know WHY I felt compelled to call her! You're going to love this.....the same day I called and again, the ONLY time I'd called her, she'd run into a high school friend who recently adopted and shared with me that I should talk with his wife about the process even for us. I said "Okay" but still felt it wouldn't happen for us so just kept it in the back of my mind.

SO, here's the rest of our amazing story SO FAR. :)  I am 37 and Jeff is 39. We have always been told how long the adoption process takes and again, we knew we didn't have the money but on June 10, 2010 (only a couple of months ago) we decided to PRAY specifically for God to provide for us to adopt because it became clear in our hearts that this was what we were supposed to do. The very same night we made this decision, the night before our 16th wedding anniversary, we received a call from my mom, who had been praying and knew for a few months that she miraculously had the money for us to start this process if we were still considering it. She hadn't said anything because she knew it was a sensitive subject for me and thought we were still trying to have a biological child. When she asked me if we were considering adoption and told me..MY MOUTH FELL OPEN and tears started steaming after we hung up the phone. As always, we were in awe of how amazing God is! I called my friend from church that night and asked for her friends number again to meet with her. I met with her and got to meet her 9 month old adopted little boy as well. She told me the lawyer she had used (the one we went with) and her amazing story. We immediately began the process, hearing great things about this particular lawyer about 2 hrs away and he happened to have an opening to meet with us on Tuesday, June 15th. We decided on a domestic adoption mainly because we know there is a need here as well as internationally and knew the process may not take quite as long in the US. After meeting the lawyer, we KNEW he was the one we were supposed to have help us make this happen. Afterward, we found out we had many friends and others who also used his firm and we felt even more peace. We were told even then that this could take up to a year and according to everyone we spoke with, maybe even longer. However, we went ahead and progressed as if it was going to be soon and hired the BEST home study agency in the Southeast. Our home study was scheduled for July 14th. Everything went GREAT and again we were told, "expect at least 9 months before you are matched with a birth mom." WELL, on August 5th, I received a phone call from the lawyers office letting us know that there was a birth mom who wanted to meet us. ALREADY?? Again. my mouth fell open and heart was beating like crazy!!! Then of course the fears of "will she like us?" "is this REALLY going to come to fruition? etc but.....

We spoke with her on the phone that Saturday night. She felt so comfortable with us and we KNEW this was THE ONE!!! She is incredible and has a beautiful 20 month old. She asked to meet us the next day, so we met her in person, Sunday, August 8th and took them out to eat, then to a play place where I jumped in the inflatables with her little one. From there, WE WERE officially matched!!!!! (Of course we'd had all of the interviews already with the adoption agency we used as well, paperwork was done, physicals and everything was READY..unbelievably!!) She moved from another state to start over for her and her sweet one so we moved her into an apartment on Saturday, August 14th. MIRACULOUSLY, we had asked for everything to furnish the apartment and things for her little girl since she was only able to bring 3 suitcases and a couple of carry on bags. People were and still are amazing. She has been given everything she needs and her place is beautiful. We were and still are so amazed at how EVERYTHING came together so smoothly, easily and the details were incredible!! People were giving toys without knowing her favorite ones that suited her PERFECTLY and gave above and beyond!!!!!! We are blessed to have amazing people in our lives who will and have sacrificed SO much to make this a reality!! Even two of our boys in our youth group and my sister and brother in law helped move her in. We got a call on the August 16th that she may be in labor even though she isn't due until the last week of September. So we rushed out of town to the hospital but Sara Beth wasn't quite ready. We are praying she will come when the time is perfect and she and our beautiful birth mom will be healthy. ALL IN HIS TIMING!! I just got home today after spending two nights with her and her precious little girl bonding even more. This experience for us has been unique but ALL God!!! She has said "I am so blessed by you two and am thankful I can give you this beautiful gift." She compared this to buying someone the perfect present in July and having to wait until Christmas to see their face when they open it! However, WE are the blessed ones!!! She is giving us a gift we NEVER thought we'd have and we will be eternally thankful and grateful!!! Praying constantly that God will richly bless her!! She is at peace and we are as well!!! AND BEYOND BLESSED!

We are still in need of a few thousand dollars because the adoption costs are more than expected considering the circumstances and us being matched so quickly and moving her. So, we are praying and believing that the same loving,TRUE, ONE and ONLY God Who has had this in HIS plans ALL these years and made this process possible, will continue to be faithful!! We appreciate ALL of the prayers, support, love and happiness for us. We are overjoyed to see and hold our baby!!!

My mom and sister had my first baby shower this past Saturday and it was one of the greatest days of my life because I NEVER thought it would happen for us. Some dear friends are having another shower this Saturday and we have 3 planned for after she is born!!!! :)))

We decided to name her Sara (for my mom's mother who passed away with cancer a few years ago), Elizabeth (for Jeff's mom's mother who is almost 90) and after speaking with our birth mom and finding out she has a very dear grandmother named Clara and wanted but not asked for a form of her name to be in there somewhere..her third name is Claire. So, she is Sara Elizabeth Claire and will be called Sara Beth!!! We pray for her by name always!!! We will keep you posted as we go along. From what the doctors say as of yesterday, we're looking at maybe two weeks. Our birth mom is hoping for sooner because SHE IS READY!! haha...we love and appreciate you all!!

We are about to be a mommy and daddy!!!! :)))) We have extremely excited grandparents (our moms and dads) and aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, friends, etc.....this child will have SO much love!! She already does! God has known about her since the beginning! How amazing is that??