Adoption Update...Exciting News....photo posted

Well, the day we have been anticipating has arrived….we now have a face and a name of the child we will be adopting! On Monday we received 2 ‘referrals’ of children up for adoption near Ghana by way of photos and an email…..both 4 years old (not siblings - we would just choose one) and the photos were taken last week. The age range that we originally specified was a boy from 1-4 years old....so they would be at the end of our age range. We knew the day would soon be coming when we finally had a ‘referral’ in our hands. I had been praying about this point in the process ahead of time, because I knew that it would be unimaginable to make such a life-changing decision based on a photo and little information. I wanted God to be in control of it all….and all along I felt like He already had our child picked out and would lead us to him. From the beginning I prayed that we would not have to turn away a referral…..that the first one that we would get, would be the child that God had for us. From Day 1 in this adoption journey I also felt an overwhelming sense that God would make it clear who we should adopt by way of the child’s name…. I wasn't sure if this would be something along the lines of a 'J' name (since we are all J's) or something else. When these referrals came to us on Monday and I opened up the email and saw the one child’s name was Solomon I was overwhelmed with peace.....Jake had wanted to name our first child Solomon, but I talked him out of it and we started the ‘J’ theme instead. I am sure you can imagine how emotional this moment was for us. I continued to pray about both referrals throughout the day, and God continued to put Solomon on my heart as well as Jake’s. Since sharing the news with some of our friends and family who prayed for us about this on Monday, we have already gotten a few responses saying that they were thinking Solomon, Solomon, Solomon the entire time…..not even knowing why, but just having a feeling that he was the one. And, Solomon it is. What a blessing it is to finally have a name and a face to be praying about. I am so excited to finally have a picture to share with JJ….to really start preparing him for the arrival of his new brother. It has been an emotional few days….overwhelming, relieved, excited, confident, scared, wondering, and most of all, fascinated with God and his abundant goodness. I will never understand how He orchestrates all of the circumstances in this world to shape lives, grow faith, and speak to people in very personal and moving ways. Tonight I stand in awe of God, like I never have before.

I will be posting Solomon's photo soon, once I have triple-checked that it is okay to do so….

1/14/09 It is confirmed that it is okay for me to post his photo....so, meet Solomon!