I thought you were adopting?

“You’re pregnant? I thought you were adopting!”

This is something that we’ve heard quite a bit, since announcing my pregnancy. The answer is “Yes, I am, and Yes, we are!” We are expecting baby number three, and we are still adopting. We are very much anticipating the birth of our third baby, but we have had to put our adoption on hold until sometime after the baby’s birth due to regulations at our adoption agency.

This came as no surprise, as we had been informed that this was part of their policy since we began the process. This seems to be a standard policy for most adoption agencies. It is designed to give each baby in your home (whether biological or adopted) adequate time to be nurtured and bond to the family, as each baby deserves.

Even though we knew this, it was still difficult to hear that we would be taken off the waiting list. Our hearts are invested in this adoption, we have been obedient to the Lord, and he has provided everything needed to complete the process thus far. We know this is something we are called to, so it hurts to see your calling and dream put on hold. But that’s all that has been done, it has been put on hold. We are still adopting, it just won’t be as soon as we had hoped. God knows each child that belongs in our home, and he will place them here when He they will most glorfiy Him.

Ecclesiastes 3:11-12 tells us:

Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.

All of this is beautiful for its own time…the birth of the sweet child that God is forming within me, and the adoptions and births of any children God plans to place in our home in the future. It’s ALL beautiful. We don’t see the big picture the way God sees it. I’m sure that one day we will look back at this chapter in our lives and have a little more understanding of what God was up to. He sees it, beginning to end.

Right now I am just so thankful for the life inside of me, and enjoying every moment of this pregnancy. I’m thankful that I am blessed to experience both pregnancy and, one day, adoption as well. We will celebrate this growing life, while continuing to pray for our children that will be brought into our family through adoption.