Long Overdue Update

First off, I just want to say how excited I am for Julie and her hubby Jeff. They're pregnant! I'm so happy for them. I pray that this little miracle would grow to be a healthy baby and that Julie's pregnancy would go smoothly. Congratulations, guys!

And my heart has been breaking for Rach. I know the loss they are dealing with right now is devastating. I can't even begin to comprehend all the emotions they are feeling. And I so wish I knew her IRL so I could do something, anything for her. Rach, I'm praying for you constantly. You are on my mind all the time and I pray that you would feel His presence now more than ever.

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Since I last posted (which, embarrassingly, was in May), we have endured 30+ hours of foster training, filled out form after form after form, cleaned our house from top to bottom and child-proofed our house to the max. We had our health inspection yesterday and we passed! I'll go to the fire marshal today to fill out the form for our fire inspection. We still have TB tests, a few more forms, and the big, intimidating home study to endure complete.

We've decided on fostering children ages 0-3 since that would be a realistic age if we had a biological child of our own. One thing that's been fun has been fixing a room for a child, since once we're certified we could get a placement call immediately. I've always wanted to do a gender-neutral room because if we were to ever get pregnant, I didn't want to know the s.ex of the baby. Now, it makes even more sense to do this because we really won't know the gender until the call. We've painted, ordered a crib, I made cornices for the windows, and re-purposed some other furniture we had. I'll post pictures when it's finished.

Tomorrow we leave for CO with D's family for vacation. Seven immediate family members + 2 grandparents + 15 passenger van (yes, you read that right) + 10 days= a very interesting time. And that's all I'm going to post about that. :)

Finally, I have a huge prayer request. D plays softball with our church youth minister (J) and after the game Monday, he was pulled aside by J to talk privately. When D got in the car, I asked him what it was all about and he told me that J asked him to pray about it and then talk to me. I told him he better pray really fast! haha. J told him that there is a 16 year-old girl in the youth group who is pregnant and contemplating abortion. J has been counseling her and since he's a reference for us for foster care, he knows about our situation, so he asked us if we would be interested in adopting the baby. D and I both prayed about it Monday night- apparently he fell asleep praying about it and dreamed that we adopted the baby, and when he woke up, he was so excited. We both knew right away that we were supposed to give her this option, not that we know she's going to decide to do this, but we know that we would rather that baby live. D called J yesterday evening and told him our answer, so J will be talking to her soon (maybe today). He also was going to contact a lawyer that goes to church and talk to him about the situation to see, if she decides to do this, what would happen next.

Please, please pray for this teenage mother. I can't imagine the emotions and fears she's feeling right now. Of course we would love to be the parents and raise this child, but my prayer right now is that she chooses life for this baby, whether it be her raising the child or placing it in an adoptive home. If your views on abortion prevent you from praying that, just pray for her as she's going through this.