Our Family: What's Next (or What We Know is Not Next)

Growing our family has never gone exactly as we thought it would. Many of you have followed our journey through miscarriages, testing, prayer, and finally the adoption of our son, Reed. While it was no fun going through all the pain, unknowns, and what-ifs, we know with all certainty that God blessed us beyond measure with our precious baby boy. Without the journey we have had, Reed would not be with us, and I(Abbey) cannot even imagine life without our gift of Reed. He brings us joy and makes us laugh, just to name a few ways he's blessed us.

Then, you followed along with us as we announced we would adopt again through our same agency, JOH. Then, you read along again(and offered your encouragement) as we made the change to Marshall Islands due to some unforeseen circumstances with our program in Taiwan.

Being honest, the past few weeks have been extremely difficult for me. I'm not asking for sympathy; I just want to be honest. We love the family we have, and we also know God has more planned for our family. We struggle with being content where we are and dying to know what the future holds for us. While we know we will grow our family through adoption, we now know it will not be with a child from the Republic of Marshall Islands.

A lot has been going on in our family behind the scenes of this blog, and we're not ready to share it all yet. We aren't even sure where things are going, only God does. What I do know is we've been focusing on a direction with the mindset of "If this doesn't work out, we have the option of RMI adoption." We are letting go of that "second option". Please understand we are not saying anything negative about adopting from the Marshall Islands; it is just abundantly clear to us (and several of those praying for us) that the RMI adoption is not what we are called to at this time.

Where do we go from here? We are trusting God to guide us. Like I mentioned, we are still waiting to see how things go with a possibility that was shared with us. Until we know for sure that is going to happen, we are going to continue to pray and work very hard at being patient. (We hope it happens fast :))

Are we ready to grow our family? Absolutely! Is it hard to not know exactly how that will happen? No doubt. Do I have lots of questions and no answers? For sure. Here's what I know is not next: an adoption from the Marshall Islands.

We covet your prayers-prayers for peace, strength, patience, and God's guidance as we wait to see how He grows our family. Will you also pray for those who desire to grow their families and are waiting to see how it will happen (biologically or through adoption)? While we go through this new adventure, we are at least sure of how our family will grow, while some are still waiting to see what their next step will be.

Thanks for joining us on our adventure; we'll be sure to update you as we can!

The following passage is one our interim pastor, Bruce Raley, read last night at church. I'm working on the "joy" part, knowing God has great things in store for our family.

James 1:2-5
2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.