Congrats Post: Welcome to the World, Emma!

MARCH 14, 2018 IN ADOPTION

It was a joy to walk with Britt and Lindsey on their adoption journey. They were constantly following the Lord’s leading and listening for His voice and guidance along the way. I was so excited to call and congratulate them on their match. It was a call I will never forget- so many tears of joy! Lindsey has shared a little of their journey below.

“Our Emma will be 3 months old this month and it’s so hard to believe! The past year has flown by. But I definitely wouldn’t have said that if you asked me this time last year.

My husband, Britt, and I have always known that adoption was in our future. It’s something that has been on my heart since I was a teenager and something we talked about early in our dating days. We casually did adoption research for the first several years of our marriage and had conversations about how we wanted to grow our family when the time came that we were ready to do so. It became very clear that adoption was the right answer. So in December of 2016 we first contacted Christian Adoption Consultants, and sweet Elizabeth met us for coffee the very next day. We were so anxious to get started, but also so nervous about so many aspects of adoption. It was such a blessing that we happened to live in the same town as Elizabeth and that she was so flexible in meeting us and letting us ask her all the “stupid” questions we had about the process. We didn’t know anyone else who was going through the process or had been through the process and despite all of our research, we felt pretty lost. CAC was exactly what we needed. We hit the ground running and were home study official by the middle of February. The home study alone was so overwhelming that we are so grateful we had Elizabeth to help us put together our family profile book to present to expectant birth mothers.

We were ready to start presenting to potential birth mothers by the end of March and it was such a rush to see that very first situation come into our inbox. That is where the real roller coaster began. We presented to our very first birth mother situation in April and we felt like this was the *one.* It was an anxiety-filled couple of weeks as we waited to find out if we had been matched. We were heartbroken to find out that we had not. All of these emotions that you feel during the process are completely new and it’s so difficult to navigate them and not to get discouraged. Would we ever feel *that way* about a situation again? Why did it feel so certain? Why weren’t we matched? Are we presenting ourselves in the wrong way? It was a long spring and summer as we applied to several more situations and still had not been matched. To waiting families out there, I know it’s easy for us to say now, but try not to get too discouraged. Britt and I really had to check ourselves and get back in the right mindset when we started to feel so down about it all last summer. We had to remember to focus on God and focus on our marriage during this time. He gave us so many blessings when we had that shift in our mindset that reminded us that we were on the right path and this was God’s plan. And Elizabeth was there for us the whole time, reminding us that we weren’t going to miss our baby.

It was a Friday night in late September when I got a text from Elizabeth asking if I could talk. I said yes and she called me right away to tell me about a birth mother in Florida who was due with a baby girl in December and that we had been thought of as a potential family for this situation and asked if we’d like to take a look. Of course!!! I could already feel my heart beating faster as I hung up the phone and opened my email. I started reading and learned about this birth mother and knew almost instantly that it was one I would like to present to. But Britt and I always wanted to be prayerful and mindful when it came to deciding to present, so I tried to hold back my excitement when he got home from work an hour later and I showed the situation to him. He had pretty much the same reaction that I did. He immediately felt that we should present. The funny thing was, this was a situation that “just happened” to land in our laps and one that we never would have seen otherwise. We sat down to pray together and then sit on it for a little bit and within an hour or two, we let Elizabeth know we would like to present. There it was, that feeling. We didn’t want to get our hopes up, but something felt different about this one. The best phone call we’ve ever received came about a week and a half later, telling us that we had matched.:)

Our little angel arrived on December 18th and it was a whirlwind. We had some incredible moments in the hospital where we bonded with Emma’s amazing birth mother and birth father, and even got to meet some extended family as well. These are moments that we will remember and cherish forever and can’t wait to share with Emma someday. We are beyond blessed by these two people and for so many reasons, it became clear why this was the right situation, the right timing, the right baby. God always has a plan and His plans are always so much bigger and better than ours. Adoption is a roller coaster of emotions and is full of uncertainty. But there is so much beauty in the process, even in the hard parts.

Life with Emma is amazing. She brings so much joy into our lives every single day. Sometimes I cry just thinking about how incredible it is that she is here in my arms. As soon as we got the call, and even more so when she was born, all of the anguish of the waiting disappeared. It was like, “Wow! That was so fast!” We are so blessed, so in love with this little girl, and wonder every day how we got so lucky.

Thank you so much to Elizabeth, who helped us out SO MUCH along the way and to CAC for streamlining this often tricky and confusing process. I once heard an adoptive mom say that if adoption is on your heart, it won’t go away. So if you are considering adoption, give CAC a call and prepare yourself for the most amazing blessing that is headed your way.:)”