Wait – 7?? Yep. God took us from six to seven this year. We can’t believe it either.
Here we are, on Asa’s Senior Night for just before his final home soccer game for York College.
The adoption won’t be final until sometime in the new year, but we’re well on our way. You can expect precious pictures of our Bonus Boy on adoption day in a few months.
What have I learned this year? I’ve learned that I should never make plans. Be kind of organized and maybe have a casserole in the freezer. But don’t make plans. GOD MAKES PLANS. Then He prepares us, equips us, and provides for us as He carries out His perfect plans.
We weren’t even looking to provide foster care, much less adopt. Indeed, I had all kinds of other plans for our lives in the next few years…but fostering? Adopting? Not even a blip on my radar.
Trusting God, though? Listening? Obeying and walking in the path He paves? That’s where we’ve been focused. We’ve been asking God to show us what it really means to love our neighbor…
As our hearts had opened to people in our community who needed support through special struggles, we became friends with Bonus Boy’s birth mom. When we discovered one night last spring that the little guy needed a temporary place to live, we prayed. God told us yes, so Bonus Boy moved in within just a few hours of our finding out about the need. This huge life change happened exactly that fast – with less than a day’s notice. But God knew all along.
Fostering turned into the need for adoption. And now here we are. We’re learning about God’s faithfulness and love in ways we never knew. This is the best gift of all.
I pray that as you celebrate Christmas and look back on 2018, you are filled with JOY as you see all the ways God stretched, molded, challenged, grew, and loved you this year. As the year ends, we hope to be more like Jesus than we were at the beginning.
From our family to yours – Merry Christmas. I can’t wait to learn what’s in store for 2019.
We can feel the joy in this post. You were obedient and now many lives are blessed. Give thanks to the LORD for He is good!
Merry Christmas! So happy to hear he gets to be with you!! ??
That’s awesome and exciting news, Laura! God’s plans are sometimes way different than ours…for sure!
Merry Christmas to you and your family.
My family looks very similar to yours this year, too! We became foster parents this year and have an 8 year gap in our youngest bio and the foster son we hope to adopt next year. It’s a bit crazy to be starting over at this point in our lives, but it was all GOD and HIS timing!
I 100% identify with this. We unexpectedly adopted a sibling set and went from 3 to 5 kids literally overnight. Fostering or adopting weren’t on our radar at all. In fact I was loving the glimpses of the freedom and flexibility we were beginning to experience with older kids. So glad to “meet” someone who can identify. I would treasure a phone/coffee date to hear your story and share our experiences.
Merry Christmas Laura! Thank you for sharing your life with us!
You have been truly blessed! Congratulations!
I love this, tears in my eyes. And boy do you look tiny next to all those big boys!
May you and yours have a Merry CHRISTmas and a Healthy, Happy New Year.
We never know the plans GOD has for us. That is a very Blessed little guy to have you all.
What an awesome story! We are waiting to adopt an infant. This waiting brings a whole new meaning to the advent season.
Merry Christmas to you all! Thank you so much for opening up your home to a child who needed one. Your story is very similar to ours: babysat a baby for a mom who needed help and ended up adopting that child who is now 10! After living in the adoptive world for 34 years (hubby is also adopted) I highly recommend empoweredtoconnect.org and the book ‘The Connected Child’ by Karyn Purvis. They are wonderful resources for foster/adoptive families and helped us better parent our foster and adopted children /teenagers. Many blessings!
I thought of you Laura when I saw a bumper sticker last week that read “Love people and cook them tasty food.” Thought and prayed that you and yours would have a blessed Christmas season. You have been a blessing to me in many ways, but specifically in showing the beauty and balance in healthy cooking and prioritizing what really matters. I was touched to hear you were launching into an unknown of fostering, and now to hear it’s moved towards adoption, is just incredible. This is something God has placed on the hearts of my husband and I, though we have no idea how it will ultimately all come about, and in fact at the moment, our mostly young-ish bio blessings keep us more than busy. I will be looking forward to any posts you may write that bring up this topic. The Lord bless and keep all of you!
His storyline for our life is often so different from the one we expect. He is a giver of very good gifts! Congrats on the son He gave you! ?? Merry Christmas!?
Love this! And looking forward to hearing all about God’s work this year!
Congratulations! What an exciting 2019 you’re in for!
God does work in mysterious ways and we can always be absolutely certain that He knows best. I am so happy for you and your family and I know this precious boy is gaining a wonderful family with lots of love and good food to share!! Congratulations to you all and Happy New Year!!
Congratulations!! What an incredible story. God bless you and your family!
Wonderful story presented in a humble not “look at me and how much I love people” way. I really appreciated how you give credit to God. I too am trying to walk on the path God paved for me. It is tempting not to want to pave our own paths to look like someone else’s path and do the good works God had planned for others instead of following the call of God in our own personal walk.
I had to come back and read this now, because even though I read it before, I knew I wanted to comment.
For years, I have wanted to have children that shared my DNA and to adopt. I have wanted a large family for as long as I can remember. I’m almost 34 with no children yet. Recently, the desire to start adoption processes has increased in me. I’ve been coming children in my area in need of adoption, and praying like crazy.
You are the inspiration I need to trust in God and to have faith in His timing and His plans.
I can’t wait to (hopefully) hear more about Bonus Boy once the adoption is final.
Amber, thank you so much for sharing! God definitely has a beautiful plan for you and your family. Praying for wisdom and discernment as you make some of this big decisions!
-Bethany (Laura’s assistant)