Ezekiel James Smith

Well, by now most everyone is aware that Clay and I have a new addition in our family.  On February 11, 2011, Ezekiel (Zeke) James Smith was born.  It has been an unreal 3 weeks to say the least and all I have to say is God is so GOOD!

I will never forget Tuesday, February 15th, for as long as I live.   I received a call from our agency at school.  They informed me that we had been picked and Clay and I needed to get together for a conference call with the agency asap. I was so overwhelmed and excited that I could hardly breathe.  I called Clay immediately, and he came straight to my classroom.  My poor students!  I know they knew something was going on, but didn't know what.  My wonderful co teachers split my classroom and Clay and I had our conference call with our agency right there in my classroom. 

Long story short, 24 hours later, Clay and I left the hospital with a beautiful baby boy.  Zeke is just perfect.  Everyone even thinks he looks like Clay!  We are so blessed, humbled, and thrilled to be chosen as Zeke's parents.  God's timing truely is perfect. We just can't get enough of him!  Time is already flying by.  On Friday my sweet baby will be one month old. 

We just want to thank everyone for their endless prayers and support through this whole journey.  The great thing is that now our real journey is just beginning.  We also want to thank all our friends in Midland for EVERYTHING you have done for us.  From bringing us two weeks of meals, to our beautiful shower that you gave us.  We are so thankful for your friendship.  I guess we should probably change the title of this blog from Operation Baby to something else... :0)

Zeke's 1st picture at the hospital

Loving on our sweet boy the day we met him

Bath time with Daddy

Hanging out with Max

Mommy and Zeke before our Shower

 

Joyful in Hope

First of all, a big give thank you to everyone who has been praying for us.  We greatly appreciate it and feel your love and prayers.  Please keep them coming!  :) 

I've had a lot of people ask me how we are REALLY doing and if we have heard more news from the adoption agency.  Well, I am glad to say that we are doing fine.  We have had our ups and downs in the last month, but we believe with all our hearts that God's plan IS perfect and that baby must not have been the baby for us.  I have learned a lot from this little hiccup in our journey to being parents.  I've learned that there are more people than we even know that love us and are praying with us on this "baby operation".  I've learned that I am blessed beyond measure with a wonderful husband who is there to let me cry, laugh, and be frustrated all in one day.  Even the day that we found out that we were not going to be adopting that baby boy, Clay could still make me laugh and remember how blessed I am.  This process has helped me see that Clay and I can get through hard times if we trust in God and in each other. 

Several people tell us that when we do get the baby that was meant for us, everything else that has happened along the way will make since.  It is hard to see that far ahead right now, but we trust that God has a plan for us and that He knows what is best for us even when we don't. 

The only news from our agency is that when we were initially picked, our file was put on "hold" and other birth moms could not choose us.  When the birth mom changed her mind and decided to parent her baby, our file was immediately put back on the list for choosing.  So we are simply waiting to be chosen again. 

One of my favorite verses right now is Romans 12:12 "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."  We have hope that we will be chosen again and that God will bring us the baby that we need and needs us.  :0)

There are no words...

Clay and I got a phone call from our agency...the birth mom has changed her mind.  There are no words to describe how we feel right now.  We would appreciate your prayers.  We are not sure where to go from here...

Praise You In This Storm ~ Casting Crowns

I was sure by now,God, that You would have reached down
and wiped our tears away,
stepped in and saved the day.
But once again, I say amen
and it's still raining
as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain,
"I'm with you"
and as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise
the God who gives and takes away.


And I'll praise you in this storm
and I will lift my hands
for You are who You are
no matter where I am
and every tear I've cried
You hold in your hand
You never left my side
and though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

I remember when I stumbled in the wind
You heard my cry to You
and raised me up again
my strength is almost gone how can I carry on
if I can't find You
and as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain
"I'm with you"
and as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise
the God who gives and takes away


I lift my eyes onto the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth
I lift my eyes onto the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth

This Could Be It...

What a long weekend Clay and I just had!!  On Friday at 5:00pm our caseworker called and said that a birth mom selected us.  All she told us was that she was due in October and we scheduled a conference call for today at 4:00pm. Today the caseworkers would tell us all about the birth mother and birth father's medical and family background and history.  All weekend we were excited and hesitant all at the same time. 

Then today, after an extremely long day, 4:00 pm finally came.  We heard all about the birth parents and felt very good with everything we learned.  We were told to take the evening to pray and think about everything and decide if this could be our baby.  We definitely feel like this is the baby for us.  Tomorrow we will call our agency back and set up a time next week to meet the birth mom (she lives in Houston).  We will then go back when she is induced on October 17th!!!!!!!!!!  

We are so excited and overwhelmed with how fast this is all moving.  God is so amazing!!  If this baby ends up being ours, they were conceived before we even started the adoption process.  How's that for God knowing what you need and when you need it??  Oh, by the way it's a ...boy!!!!!

Please continue to pray for all of us involved in this process.  A number of things could still happen before we actually get our baby in our arms.  Please pray that this is the child for us and that God leads all of us where we need to be.  We are so excited for the next 3 weeks!!!!!

We Made it into the CLUB...

When we first began looking into adoption through Christian Homes of Abilene, I would contastly look at their website to see the families waiting to adopt.  I loved it when families were added and removed.  It was so awesome to see new families just beginning the process, then again seeing their profile come off the site when they were blessed with a precious baby.  Well...today was our day...we finally made it onto the website!!  We are so excited to see our profile on the site.  It makes everything seem so real.  We are offically, offically in the waiting stage.  It is a great feeling to know that birthmoms are looking at our letter and profile.  I wonder when OUR birthmom will pick us...exciting times!!!!

Check out our profile...

Jumping on the Bandwagon

It seems like everyone is blogging these days...so, I've decided to "jump on the bandwagon"! I figured this would be one of the easiest ways to keep everyone posted on our "Operation Baby".  :)

As most of our friends and family know, in March, Clay and I decided to begin the adoption process.  We both feel that this is how God has intended for us to begin our little family.  We are both so excited about this process.  We decided to go through Christian Homes and Families of Abilene and in April we attended Adoption Orientation.  We then began the grueling task of filling out paperwork, scheduling classes, gathering references, and filling out even more paperwork. Thanks to lists, lists, and even more lists, we were able to have everything ready and sent in our application in May.  In July we had joint and separate interviews with our agency.  The last step in the process was the home visit, which we had August 19th and it went wonderful!!

We should be getting our acceptance letter by our agency within the week.  So we are officially in the "waiting phase".  We are so excited to be moving through this process. But we feel the hard part is probably yet to come.  Clay can tell you that I've never been a particularly patient person!  But patience is definitely a must in a journey like this one.  Another hard part of this whole thing is trying to explain the process to people.  I've had so many sweet and eager people ask me questions like "So when are you getting your baby?" "Are you having a girl or boy?" "When do you go pick a baby out?"  LOL!!! If only it were that easy! 

The way it works with our agency is birth mothers get a notebook with letters from families who are interested in adopting.  The birth mothers go through the book and pick a few that interest them based on their letters.  They then get photo albums to look through that the families have put together to give them a closer look into their family.  The birth mothers then choose a family to parent their child.  The family will then get a call from the agency.  The agency will give the family the birth mother's medical history and background. If the family is interested, they will have a match meeting with the birth mother to see if there is a connection and a match can be made.  If so, when the baby is born, the birth mother will then give her baby to the family to parent.  

That's as good of an idea that I can give.  The hard part to explain is that every situation is so different that our experience might not be like that at all.  Sometimes the babies are born, then the family gets the call.  Or families are matched but birth mother's decide to parent the baby themselves. There are so many different scenarios that there is not a "normal process".  Which is why it is hard to explain to people.  So my new answer when people ask me about the process is this..."We are now in the waiting stage. It could take 2 week, 2 months, or 2 years to get our baby.  We don't know if we are having a boy or a girl.  Whatever God blesses us with is what we were meant to have.  Waiting is hard, but we know that God sees the bigger picture and his timing is perfect."  

This has been a roller coaster of a journey, but a wonderful one and the end result will be so sweet.  Please continue to pray for us along this journey.  But more importantly, please pray for our selfless and strong birth mother and the sweet baby she is carrying.  While I will be so ecstatic the day we are given our baby, I will never be able to imagine the pain and agony she will be going through when she chooses not to raise her baby and gives us the honor of raising her baby for her. 

This first post sure ended up longer than I had imagined. But I will leave you with a few pictures...    

The picture we chose to use along with our letter to birth mothers

A few pages from our adoption photo album