Getting our feet wet

So we left off with us being on the same page about pursuing adoption. Can I say overwhelming I felt like I did when I started to cloth diaper, so many options, they all sound good, how do you choose? Domestic, international, Hague, or non Hague, open, closed, special needs? AHH I had mentioned before that I started following the Reece's Rainbow website which is a Christian nonprofit that aids in raising funds and finding homes for special needs orphans. Joey had mentioned that he would like to adopt a sibling group because he was adopted as a sibling group. Well that led me to RR sibling group page, and I found the most gorgeous little twin boys! They are so precious 2 years old with big blue eyes. I emailed RR to see where their country of origin was, some countries have a stipulation that you stay in country for 7-9 weeks straight and that is not doable for us. The boys are in Ukraine which involves two, two week visits, we could work with that. Next we learned that Ukraine only does independent adoptions, meaning we would not need an agency to complete our adoption just a facilitation team. We were thrilled especially when RR let us know that as a nonprofit they do all the facilitation for FREE! We took all this information in on a Sunday afternoon, the following Monday we started paperwork like crazy. We placed the boys on "hold" and began looking for a home study agency. Although we did not need an agency to finalize the adoption, we needed a home study stateside to get our adoption started. We picked a small agency that had its office close to my parents home in Loudon so we would be able to drop the kids off when we had meetings. The social worker emailed us back almost immediately after sending our application and made an appointment for the following Tuesday. We felt like God was flinging the doors wide open in regards to our adoption, we had specifically prayed for open and closed doors. At church that Sunday as we left Sunday school and headed up the stairs to our "designated seats:)" Joey hands me a check and I look at him confused. He explains that someone in our class has made the first donation to our adoption. I was so shocked! If I wasn't in church I probably would have screamed when I opened the check $500! I burst into tears. It is an indescribable feeling to have the body of Christ obey God in a way that directly affects you. More then the amount or the fact that our friends had monetarily given, we felt God saying you are where you should be, you are in My will. That money would hold a powerful symbolic meaning for me as we entered the next week. God was going to slam shut door after door and it was going to be hard.  But I was able to look back and see, God does want us to adopt and we just need to be still and hear what is next.