It's a... GIRL!!!

Wow, how quickly our life has changed in the short time since our last post! Let's bring you up to speed on the latest and greatest in the Bennett household. First, our home study was completed and approved by Bethany Christian Services. We were so excited because this was the stage in the game where we were placed on the waiting list. Our profile book was complete and ready to be seen by different birth families. Little did we know our lives would forever change on Monday, November 19th. Cindy and I had several missed calls on our phones, and voicemail messages to call the agency at our earliest convenience. We had just been put on the waiting list, so we assumed they were making sure that we had received the latest email about a potential birth mother.  Cindy was finally able to call our adoption specialist back and got the news that a birth mother had chosen us to adopt her baby girl! Words cannot describe what we felt, but you can imagine... Cindy was bawling (tears of joy!) and I was speechless and wanted to run the halls of my school! The news we had been waiting to hear for so long had finally came at the most unexpected time! We were prepared to wait weeks, months even! However, God had other plans. We were chosen 6 days after the final approval of our home study.  The shortest time that the agency has ever had between approval and placement is 5 weeks, and it usually takes months and sometimes even years!  Even the agency is shocked about how quickly this happened!  They said that the birth mother had looked through all of the profile books and was instantly drawn to ours... she said we reminded her of some of her best friends. :-)  Our adoption specialist was only able to hand out 1 of the 7 profile books we had printed and sent to her, so the others are sitting in a box on her desk!  God is so amazing!!!

Here's what we know... The birth mother's due date is February 18th. The baby will be biracial and we couldn't be more thrilled! We've been thinking about names, and have a first name that we really like a lot, and a few options for middle names.  We really want to include the birth mother in the naming process, so we will have her help us decide on the middle name, and then officially announce the name to our family and friends. We are traveling to Bethany Christian Services in St. Louis on Friday (12/7) to meet her and her family to begin building what we hope will be a long-lasting relationship with them. She'd like an open adoption, and we are completely on board with that. We are very excited about meeting her... but also EXTREMELY nervous at the same time!  Please be praying for her as she grows Baby Bennett in her belly.  We can't imagine how difficult of a decision this must have been and we know she has more tough times ahead.  Also please pray for her and her family as we have been told that the agency doesn't seem to think that they are believers.  We hope and pray that we can be a witness and testimony to them through our life style and that God can use us to plant seeds in their life and help them come to know Christ someday.

We really, really want the meeting to go well on Friday, and could use your help!  Most importantly, please pray super hard for us.  We will be leaving  by no later than 6:00 a.m. and driving to St. Louis, then meeting with the birth mother and her family at 10:00.  We will have to drive back right after the meeting to get Josh back in time for his play that he is in.  Prayers for travel mercies are greatly appreciated!  Also, we are compiling a list of questions to ask the birth mother that we would like to know or that we feel would be important for our child to know later in life. What questions do you think would be good to ask?  We are also compiling a gift basket for her filled with items to comfort her during the last couple months of her pregnancy.  What items were of comfort to you during your pregnancy?  Thanks in advance for your input!

We are still in shock and can't believe that our baby girl will be here in about 2 months!!!  We have SOOO much to do in regards to preparing the nursery and also coming up with the rest of the funds for the adoption.  The next payment is over $10,000 and we have no clue where this is going to come from!  Praise the Lord that He is in control and already knows how it will all work out!  We are applying for grants, praying for the adoption tax credit to be passed again (it is set to expire at the end of this month), planning a couple of last minute fundraisers, and looking in to loan options just in case.  Please pray that the financial side of this will all fall in to place.  We know that God has been in this process every step of the way, and we trust and believe that He would not lead us to this point and allow us to fail due to finances.  He is in control!

Thank you all for walking this journey with us!  Your love, prayers, encouragement, and support have been truly amazing!  We feel so blessed and loved and truly feel undeserving!  We can't wait to introduce you all to Baby Bennett!!!!!