Adoption: We have a profile!

First of all, check it out!  We have a profile up on Reece's Rainbow!  (There's a picture!)

http://reecesrainbow.org/57146/sponsorbirnie

So technically, I could tell you all more about "Stellan" now--which I really want to do!--but we mailed out pictures and information about him to our family and I'd like to wait until those letters reach them.  I'm so good at being online and so bad at sending real mail, so my dear, sweet, supportive friends, I'm going to make you wait a few more days before gushing about him.  :S

As I was mailing all of these letters, I couldn't help but think that
these are exactly the things that Stellan does not have right now.

But honestly, it's scary.  It's scary to think that our lives will change.  It's scary to think that we won't have the ease of life that we have now, that we won't be able to take things like walking and talking for granted anymore.  It's just a bit scary.

But I feel God so completely in this.  And even if I didn't necessarily "feel" him, it's still obedience.  Quick side note:  I am not trying to say that everyone needs to adopt a special needs child.  In fact, Linny at Our Place Called Simplicity wrote a good post on how every child is important and you're not better than someone else if your adoptive child fits into one particular category instead of another.

I hear story after story of God working things in amazing ways to get this child or that child home.  Just read a story yesterday about a woman that felt God was telling her they were going to adopt one more teenage boy.  (Though they had thought they were done and weren't really in a place where they wanted to then.)  So she prayed that if that was the case, God would just lay him in her lap so that she didn't have to go looking for and trying to find this child.  And at a meeting the next day, a lady opened her laptop to the profile for a boy and plopped it into her lap telling her she needed help advocating for this child.  And there's more to the story, but that was that.

Story after story.

And we have some more incredible praise reports!

1.  We went to an open house on Saturday at a special needs school right here in our town.  I thought we'd get a tour, maybe see another student with cerebral palsy, talk to a few teachers.  We ended up sitting down with the founder of the school for more than an hour while a few of the teachers watched our children.  Oh, I could cry talking about this.  This woman has two children with cerebral palsy and has such an amazing story of God's goodness.  She answered a million questions that we did not even know we had.  We have an incredible resource here and should be able to get most of the services Stellan will need right here in our own town.  We're free to call her cell anytime if we need something.  This woman doesn't take a salary because they're doing okay on her husband's paycheck and she really feels she's just doing what God has led her to do.  The school wasn't even her idea, but something that came about over time and she finally agreed to it.  Seriously, I could write an entire post on how awesome our visit was.  And remember, I have an education background so I mean what I'm saying.  ;)

2.  We've assumed that we would be taking out an adoption loan to pay for this.  But first of all, right at the time we were starting this, we paid off all of our credit cards!  Woo-hoo!  And now, we add to our savings each week, take some away to pay for this or that adoption expense, add a little more, etc...  There is a chance we will be able to pay for the whole thing out of pocket as we go along.  Craziness.

So I know that Reece's Rainbow is set up for us to receive contributions for our adoption, but we'd really like it if those of you that would like to support us monetarily would consider supporting some other amazing ministries.  Look around at Reece's Rainbow to donate to another waiting child or donate to Rise & Shine (our amazing local special needs school that runs off grants & donations) or finance a microloan through WorldVision or some other really cool ministry that has your heart.