Well it’s been quite awhile since our last post. I’m sure that many of you have been wondering what is going on in our adoption world. Truthfully, we haven’t posted in months because there really hasn’t been anything to tell. I can catch you up pretty quickly -

We were selected last April to Foster to Adopt two beautiful little kids (M&M).

Their move into our home has been tied up in court since then.

Honestly, that’s all we really have as an update at this point. It seems simple and uncomplicated, but it’s been everything but that in our heads and hearts. There have been multiple moments where we’ve been close to getting them, and court has been postponed for varying reasons. That has been hard emotionally, but we trust our God who is faithful, not only to us, but to these kids as well.

We have another court date coming up next week, and would ask your prayers for these kids and those in charge of making these decisions.

Because we don’t have too much to share at this point, we thought we could give you a glimpse into our home and the room we have ready for them. Emily and I have worked hard to be prepared for them at any moment (as we have to be). 

Because it will be most comfortable for them at the start, we have them sharing a room together. You can see from the above early pic that we once had a crib in the room (Emily made a cute little crib quilt). The youngest is now too old for that, so I built a little toddler bed and Emily made a comforter for it.

Here's a little shelf area with a place for more books (we LOVE books!) and toys. We have a little chalkboard framed on the wall to leave notes!

We want to say a special word of thanks to each of you who have been praying for us these past months, even without word of an update. We believe that now, more so than ever, we need to be bringing these kids before the Lord. If you can join us in praying for them over the next few weeks, we would be incredibly grateful. 

Can you pray for us? Yes, but I would hope that you would especially pray for these two beautiful little kids made in the image of God. Pray that, no matter the outcome, they find their hope in the one who made them for His glory!

I made a decision to separate my blog into two separate blogs. I think it's confusing to have family stuff and work/theological stuff located together. So for simplicity sake, I'm creating this new blog to deal with our adoption journey and family life. You can find my other blog dealing with christian issues here.

It's been interesting to look back on life as I've put this blog together. The last several years have been quite a journey for Emily and I. The Lord has been beyond good to us, but we've walked through some difficulty as well. Sometimes it seems easiest to put difficulty behind us. But the truth is, it's never really behind us. The things that we go through in life stick with us and make us who we are today. 

It's tempting in starting this new blog to just erase it all and start where we are, which is full of hope and joy in what God is doing. But the last year, our failed adoption, and the pain that came with it existed for the glory of our Lord. That's why I can't bring myself to erase the past. I believe it exists to strengthen us, but also maybe to encourage others. Adoption isn't always easy, and it doesn't always work out. But that doesn't mean it's not worth it. We learn from the journey. So take a journey through our blog and our story.

I hope and pray that this blog is an encouragement for people dealing with the pain and struggle of loss in adoption. God is faithful. He will carry you through. There are too many children out there in need of a family. We can't give up just because it's hard.

God has proven His faithfulness to us. We are in the process to adopt two beautiful kids, and though slowdowns continue to pop up, we ultimately trust in the sovereignty of God. He will have His will, and that will is beautiful and trustworthy.

He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.  - 1 Thess. 5:24

I just got off a pretty exciting phone call. Let me give you some background -

Most of you know that this past year has been a difficult one for Emily and I. You can read back through this blog to find the history, but here’s a basic summary. We were in the process to adopt a beautiful thirteen year old girl through DSS and were confident that God was guiding the entire thing. She was with us for four wonderful months and then made the decision to attempt an adoption with a family member who stepped into the situation. It was heartbreaking for us, but we were still confident that the Lord was guiding the entire thing. We have realized through all this that we are called to obedience, even in difficulty. In all this, however, God has blessed us with His kindness and comfort, a wonderful marriage relationship, and incredible family and friends who have been a great support. We have much to be thankful for.

Today, we have even more to be thankful for. We still believe that God has called us to adopt through the DSS system. There are too many children in our own neighborhoods that are without families. A little while back, DSS contacted us and let us know that our file would be going to a selection committee for a young sibling group. A couple of weeks ago, we had the joy of discovering that we had been selected for a Foster to Adopt situation with a girl (almost 3 years) and a boy (1.5 years). Yesterday we met with DSS, were presented with all information on the kids, saw pictures of them (they are beyond adorable), and wanted to immediately say YES! Under state law we had to wait a day to do that, so that was the pretty exciting phone call I just got off of.

Their names both start with M, so for now, we will call them M&M in all of our online sharing. We are unable to share any details beyond that and probably can’t for awhile, but I will explain a little more about Foster to Adopt and where we are. In this situation, the rights of the parents have not yet been terminated (it’s in process), but DSS is fairly certain this will take place. So we will foster the children until they are legally free to adopt, and then be able to adopt them. It’s not a certain thing that they will ever be free for adoption (it’s ultimately up to a judge), but DSS wouldn’t move forward with this if they didn’t feel pretty confident. We understand the risk in this, and knowing that God has called us to care for the fatherless, have confidence in His best as we say yes.

This can be a very quick situation from here on. There is a ten day transition window, and barring any slow downs, these kids could be living with us in as little as 10 days! That’s a big transition for a family that’s never had little kids before, so we are working hard to get things ready with the little bit of information that we have at this point. Most people have 9 months for this, so we are working to prepare for two kids pretty quickly.

So we would ask that you please pray for us -
1. Pray for these sweet kids that they would have a smooth transition into our family.
2. Pray that we would be able to do the work of preparation needed ahead of time. As a side note, I’m leaving in the morning for a mission trip to Haiti for 7 days. Pray that Emily won’t feel overloaded or stressed working through this stuff without me here.
3. Pray for God’s best in this. That’s really what we desire for these kids and us. We hope and pray that it’s with us as a forever family.

Thanks for all your prayers over the last year or so. God never ceased working in this situation and we are thankful to be a part of His story!

Many of you have asked in recent months about our adoption. Unfortunately, back in October our process to adopt was halted outside of our control. The sweet girl who was living with us had a family member pop up at the last minute who wanted to adopt her. She was of the age to make the decision and she decided to attempt to work that out. I know how difficult that must have been for her, because the draw of family is so strong in our lives. We still pray for her and ask that you do as well.

We are trusting the Lord in this. His faithfulness endures through ALL generations. It is enduring in our lives even now. Things may not have happened they way we desired, but we trust God's hand in it all. I'm thankful that we had the opportunity to show her the love of Jesus, even if only for a few months. I pray that she would constantly remember that love in her own life.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers for us. We are continuing down the road of adoption through DSS and trusting God's timing for all of this. He is faithful. He always has been and He always will be.  Like David in Psalm 26:3, we trust in God's love before us, and walk in His faithfulness.

Psalm 26: 3 - For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness.

On Monday of this week, Emily and I went to the zoo.

This wasn’t just any normal zoo visit. It was the second biggest and most important day of our relationship so far - we met our future daughter!

Here’s the story:
We had been planning this day for weeks, working with DSS to get a date on the calendar. After having been approved to meet her, and us deciding to move forward, we put together a scrapbook of our life and sent it to be used to introduce us to her. So a few case workers got together with her and showed her the scrapbook. At this point, we didn’t even know that it had happened until Emily got an email at her work from her. She took the time to track us down across the internet, and we began a process of emailing back and forth with her. I haven’t been so giddy to get an email since Emily and I first started emailing each other. I’m still at the point of constantly checking to see if there is something new in my inbox.

Monday finally came, and we were so nervous. Not only were we meeting her for the first time, but her foster parents and three social workers were going to be on hand as well. As soon as we met her, all of that washed away and it was just natural. We had a wonderful visit for six hours at the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia as we fed the animals, chased squirrels, made every animal sound in creation, and just marveled at the fact that we were hanging out with this girl who, if the Lord wills, will become our daughter. It was such a great joy.

There is alot that we can’t tell you about her online, but here are a few tidbits:
1. She just turned 13 years old.
2. She is absolutely adorable.
3. Zebras are her favorite animal.
4. She just got braces.
5. She wears neon socks.
6. She told me last night in an email that ‘she can’t wait to become an Ainsworth’.

So here is where we are now -
We get to spend every weekend in May with her. We will be heading to the upstate this Friday for our first visit, and will follow with another up there the following weekend. Hopefully, for the last two weekends in May, she will be able to come spend the weekend with us in Charleston. If all goes well and everyone is happy, she should be able to move in with us at the beginning of the summer!!

Please keep praying for us as we continue in this journey. It’s all moving so fast now (which is such a contrast to the earlier pace), so pray that we can keep up with life over the coming months. Pray for her that she would feel comfortable, loved, and attached to our family. Pray for her transition away from the foster home that’s been her most consistent home in her life. Pray for us that we would make God honoring decisions as we begin to parent her.

We love you all and are so thankful for your thoughts, encouragement, and prayers over the last two years. You are all our family. God is beyond faithful!

Get ready.

This is the most excited that I have ever been about a blog post.

Most of you know that Emily and I have spent the last two years working through DSS in SC to adopt a child. More recently, God began to work in our hearts to adopt an older child. More info on that here ---> http://pursuitofblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/an-adoption-update-something-far-better.html

Around November, Emily and I inquired about a girl that we saw online through DSS who was twelve years old. Pretty soon after, we got a call letting us know that we would be presented at a selection committee as possible adoptive parents for her. We were very excited about this, and began to pray for her and the process.

In early December, I had the chance to do an interview through Love Gave (http://lovegave.com) about our adoption process that was live streaming on the internet. You can watch that interview here ---> http://vimeo.com/57062240 . There were pictures hanging up everywhere of kids who were waiting to be adopted in South Carolina. But there was one picture that was sitting right in front of the couch across from me. It was the only picture that was by itself. It was of a girl, and it was the girl that we had been praying for. There are over 1,100 older kids in South Carolina waiting to be adopted, and the only one who was pulled out to set on the stage was this girl that we were going to a selection committee for.

It was one of those moment where you just knew that God was working in a situation. We spent much of the two years earlier not finding much traction and wondering where God was taking us in all this. But as I sat through the interview talking about the great need of all these wonderful kids in our state without a family, I had her on my mind the entire time. It was really difficult to not start talking about it during the interview. God was making this personal in our lives, and Emily and I were getting very excited about that.

It really wasn’t much of a surprise at that point when we got a call in January letting us know that we had been selected by the state to adopt her. We knew God’s hand was in this. It took a couple of months at that point for them to pull together all her information, and last week, we had a meeting in Columbia where we were presented with all the information. We are beyond thrilled to move forward and to be a part of a young girl’s life, providing her with the love and stability that she deserves.

We are now putting together a scrapbook of our life, which they will present to her. After that, we will begin setting up a day visit, and then weekend visits where we get the chance to meet her and know her. Pray for God’s will to continue to work in the midst of all of this. Pray for this sweet girl that God will work in her life and have her be receptive to a new family. Pray for us that we would be obedient to God’s will and would display the love of Christ to her in this. We are so thankful to all of you for your prayers and thoughts over the last two years. Keep it up!

As many of you know, Emily and I have been on this journey of adoption for almost two years now. It has been an experience of patience, with lots of ups and downs. We signed up with South Carolina DSS to adopt a child from birth to three years, and have worked hard through all of their adoption requirements to get to that final point. There aren’t many other things that we would cause us to hang a fire extinguisher in our kitchen and childproof all our cabinet doors. What we didn’t expect, was that somewhere along the way, God would begin to change our heart in some pretty significant ways.

We really believe in adoption of all kinds, but for us, we really felt like God was pushing us in the direction of adopting locally. Specifically, we wanted to be able to help put a small dent in the amount of kids in our foster care system. No child should be without a forever family, and we want to be a part of that solution.

As our journey continued, we began to hear from DSS that there was a great need for something that we weren’t even considering: adopting an older child. We wanted younger kids, to be able to walk through the whole experience of parenthood and to not miss out on the cute kid phase. But some of the stats that we began to hear really shook us. Things like:
1. There are 500 families in the state of South Carolina waiting for kids 3 years and younger.
2. There are 1,100 kids older than that sitting in foster care that are available and waiting to be adopted that no one is adopting.
3. In the US every year, 20,000 kids age out of the foster care system, setting them up to be without a family for the rest of their lives.

So God changed our heart. While we were desiring one thing for ourselves, God was desiring something else, something even better. Ultimately like marriage, adoption is a picture of the gospel. It’s one of selflessness, sacrifice, and love. Looking into our hearts, we understood God was taking us somewhere far better than just filling an empty spot in our lives. He wanted to use our family to be a glimpse of His love.

Emily and I have changed our age range and are now focused on adopting an older child, and we would love it if you and your family would pray for us as God continues to work to bring His best to our lives. We are really excited, specifically as we realize more and more that God has prepared us for this. Through Emily teaching middle school, and my involvement in student ministry, God has been getting us ready for this and building a strong desire in our hearts. Thanks for all the thoughts, prayers, and support that we continue to receive along the way. We love you all!