Monday, April 30, 2012
Humbled
God has humbled us in many ways through this journey. I think the first way is that He chose us!!! Why would He choose us? I was the one who was mad at God for at least 9 months after our last failed in vitro cycle. Why would He use me? The only answer I have is that I was willing to be used (we were willing). I have heard the saying "God will get His" meaning that even if the person that God chose to use is not willing to be used He will find another way to reach people. That person just misses out on the blessing.
I am so thankful that we have been apart of this blessing. Not just the blessing of becoming a parent but the blessing of seeing God work in the lives of other people. I know that there have been people who have thought there is NO WAY that you can raise $20,700 by the time the baby comes and as we are closing in on our amount they have realized that GOD has provided the money and that He is involved in the little things in our lives and that He cares so much about His children.
As I type this we have raised to date $17,350. That has been through donations, yard sales, and Pizza Inn fundraisers. There is not a doubt in my mind that God has brought this baby to us because He has provided a way for us to bring him home. My wonderful attorney has even given us an extension of 2 months to get the rest of our money in so that we will not have to borrow any from the bank. God is so good.
There was a point that I wondered if I would ever be a mommy, something I have dreamed of for a very long time. God saw and heard the desires of my heart but He said in MY timing I will give you this great gift you have been wanting. I think He wanted me understand that this baby is a child He has entrusted to me and Chris but the child is really His. He needed Chris and I to grow in our faith so that we would instill an unwavering faith in this little boy so that when he grows up he will have a passion for God. Which is something I prayed for 4 years ago. I wanted our children to know beyond a shadow of a doubt who their parents served, I didn't want an auto-pilot faith, I wanted an on-fire faith. God knew that and He had to allow me to endure the last 4 years to get me there. While I would have never asked for these trials I would not trade them because I know I wouldn't be here now.
Please join me in praying for Elijah over these next 10 days. Please pray that the time would go quickly for us and that we would soon be able to hold our precious sweet blessing.
The baby is born!!
We found out Friday morning around 8:20ish that our baby had been born April 26th!!! It was a healthy baby BOY!!!! His name is Elijah Christopher. We think he was 22 inches but that is not officially confirmed and he was 6 pounds 8 ounces.
The worst part of this news is that we have to wait 2 weeks before we can go get him. We knew about this so we were prepared but you just want to there right away. We know God has a plan in all of this, we just don't know exactly what it is. My personal thought is that it is just going to bring Him more glory in the end which I have no doubt it will. Hopefully we will be on a plane by May 10 to go get our sweet baby boy!!!
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Jehovah Jireh
I titled this entry as such because of what all those two words mean. I read the following on bible.org:
the Lord Who will see to it that my every need is met. One Who knows my need because He sees. One Who is able to meet my need in just the right time as He did for Abraham, and One Who can meet it fully. For Abraham, it was the ram caught in the thicket that was offered in Isaac's place. For us it is whatever we need.
When doing the bible study The God Who Sees Me, God spoke to me beyond what I could have expected through the story of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael, and Issac. When I first began this study I thought that it was for people who felt like God never "saw" them or heard their prayers, little did I know how much meaning it would have for me.
When Chris and I agreed to move forward with this adoption we had no idea where the money for this baby was going to come from. I mean who has $20,700 just laying around? And due to our in vitro expense we could not get a loan for that amount much less afford the monthly payments when a baby was about to come into our house. We believed that our God would provide for us and we had no idea how or what time frame we just knew He was capable and would do it.
The first amount we needed to pay the lawyer was $8600 the week we needed to pay it we were over $500 short of what we needed to pay it. The following Sunday when we left church we had all the money we needed because people were constantly coming up to us handing us money.
I am getting ready to mail another check for $6600 to the lawyer because that is what we have collected at this time. That puts us ONLY $5500 away from our total amount needed!!!! Isn't that amazing?!?!?! Who is able to raise $15,200 in a matter of 4 months? I know that if God had not blessed it and we could not have. We raised $5500 alone just from 3 yard sales!!
God has most definitely affirmed the fact that He intended us for us to adopt. I am reminded of the old song God Will Make a Way by Don Moen. For those of you who may not know the lyrics they are:
God will make a way
Where there seems to be no way
He works in ways we cannot see
He will make a way for me
He will be my guide
Hold me closely to His side
With love and strength
For each new day
He will make a way
As we are quickly approaching our deadline that ALL our money is due (it is due before we are able to go to California) I have no idea how we are going to get the final $5500 we need but I know my God is in control and He knows and has EVERYTHING under control!!
the Lord Who will see to it that my every need is met. One Who knows my need because He sees. One Who is able to meet my need in just the right time as He did for Abraham, and One Who can meet it fully. For Abraham, it was the ram caught in the thicket that was offered in Isaac's place. For us it is whatever we need.
When doing the bible study The God Who Sees Me, God spoke to me beyond what I could have expected through the story of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael, and Issac. When I first began this study I thought that it was for people who felt like God never "saw" them or heard their prayers, little did I know how much meaning it would have for me.
When Chris and I agreed to move forward with this adoption we had no idea where the money for this baby was going to come from. I mean who has $20,700 just laying around? And due to our in vitro expense we could not get a loan for that amount much less afford the monthly payments when a baby was about to come into our house. We believed that our God would provide for us and we had no idea how or what time frame we just knew He was capable and would do it.
The first amount we needed to pay the lawyer was $8600 the week we needed to pay it we were over $500 short of what we needed to pay it. The following Sunday when we left church we had all the money we needed because people were constantly coming up to us handing us money.
I am getting ready to mail another check for $6600 to the lawyer because that is what we have collected at this time. That puts us ONLY $5500 away from our total amount needed!!!! Isn't that amazing?!?!?! Who is able to raise $15,200 in a matter of 4 months? I know that if God had not blessed it and we could not have. We raised $5500 alone just from 3 yard sales!!
God has most definitely affirmed the fact that He intended us for us to adopt. I am reminded of the old song God Will Make a Way by Don Moen. For those of you who may not know the lyrics they are:
God will make a way
Where there seems to be no way
He works in ways we cannot see
He will make a way for me
He will be my guide
Hold me closely to His side
With love and strength
For each new day
He will make a way
As we are quickly approaching our deadline that ALL our money is due (it is due before we are able to go to California) I have no idea how we are going to get the final $5500 we need but I know my God is in control and He knows and has EVERYTHING under control!!
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Closer to April!!
I just have to say that those of you who have babies the regular way; I don't know how you wait 9 months to see that precious baby!!! I am only having to wait 2 months, max, and it's killing me!!!
I talked with the birth mother this past Monday. I did not find out anything earth shattering but we just talked. We ended up talking 30-45 minutes about Spring break plans, life in general and missions. Who talks to their birth mother about missions?!?!?!
We also talked the director of the adoption center who is handling our case and she told us that the birth mother has signed up for Medicaid and that there would be a 7 day wait period before they would call her back but she is certain she will get it. Keep praying the birth mother will go to the doctor so that we can have a better idea of when we will actually being going to California.
Once again I just have to share how God's hand is in this. First of all I want to thank all of you who have donated because we needed to mail a check to the lawyers office tomorrow for $8,600 and guess what? We have $8,500 and we are adding the extra $100 and so we have officially met our first deadline!!! Today alone we were given $460 at church!!!
One of our big concerns was lodging in California. For those of you that don't know we have to stay a minimum of 10 days with the possibility of up to 14 days in California while we wait for interstate paperwork to go through. We had a friend whose college roommate's family lives in...you guessed it, San Diego!!!! One of her roommates family members has offered to let us stay in their house and have told us not to worry about a car while we are there, yet another concern of ours. God is so good!!
During Spring break, Chris and I were supposed to go to Providence, Rhode Island with our church on a mission trip. We had already paid our deposit when we found out that we were matched with a birth mother. We decided that since we didn't know when exactly the baby was due it would probably be best that we not go, just in case, but our plane tickets had already been bought. Our missions pastor found out for us that we can still use our plane tickets we just have to pay $150 to have them changed to go to San Diego and whatever the difference in the price is. Again another huge answer to prayer.
Over the past 4 years my faith in God has wavered. When we went through failed IVF I thought, why would you do this to us?? I thought the same thing when we had our miscarriage. I was in such a dark place at that time, I couldn't sing songs of praise to God because I didn't really believe he was so wonderful. I remember one Sunday we were singing, How Great is Our God, and had to sit back down in the pew because I was crying to much because I didn't believe He was so great.
As I am on this side of 4 years I can see that God answered a prayer that I prayed probably about 5 years ago. I knew that Chris and I were getting close to wanting to start a family and I began praying that God would transform us. You see we weren't bad people at the time. We had both been Christians for quite some time but I felt as though our lives were on auto-pilot when it came to God. We went to church, we were as involved as two people could be but there was no depth. I knew that when we had children I didn't want to be that way. I wanted our children to see a passion for God that would transfer into their lives. I knew that I wanted our children to be 100% sold out for Christ and not be ordinary Christians who just went through the motions from week to week.
Little did I know that God begin to transform my life, our lives, from that little prayer but I am so grateful for it. I have always been self sufficient. I haven't ever had to FULLY rely on God for anything. I could always make things work out on MY own. God has taught me through this painful journey that I have to give EVERYTHING to Him. He never intended for me to take everything on myself. My relationship with Him has grown so much while I have been on the threshing floor of life. While I may not have wanted to endure the last 4 years I am thankful for it. I would never be where I am right now had I not.
My prayer through this entire journey is that God will be glorified and lifted up. I pray that through each blog entry you will see what I mighty God He is.
We still need 403 people to donate $30 or more to make it to our total of $20,700. We are having a yard sale this Saturday. This will be our second one. At the first one we raised $2400. Please be in prayer that God will again multiply our profits and provide beyond our expectations.
If you would like to mail a check you can mail it to:
Hope Poteat
253 Mystic Ct
Chesnee,SC 29323
I talked with the birth mother this past Monday. I did not find out anything earth shattering but we just talked. We ended up talking 30-45 minutes about Spring break plans, life in general and missions. Who talks to their birth mother about missions?!?!?!
We also talked the director of the adoption center who is handling our case and she told us that the birth mother has signed up for Medicaid and that there would be a 7 day wait period before they would call her back but she is certain she will get it. Keep praying the birth mother will go to the doctor so that we can have a better idea of when we will actually being going to California.
Once again I just have to share how God's hand is in this. First of all I want to thank all of you who have donated because we needed to mail a check to the lawyers office tomorrow for $8,600 and guess what? We have $8,500 and we are adding the extra $100 and so we have officially met our first deadline!!! Today alone we were given $460 at church!!!
One of our big concerns was lodging in California. For those of you that don't know we have to stay a minimum of 10 days with the possibility of up to 14 days in California while we wait for interstate paperwork to go through. We had a friend whose college roommate's family lives in...you guessed it, San Diego!!!! One of her roommates family members has offered to let us stay in their house and have told us not to worry about a car while we are there, yet another concern of ours. God is so good!!
During Spring break, Chris and I were supposed to go to Providence, Rhode Island with our church on a mission trip. We had already paid our deposit when we found out that we were matched with a birth mother. We decided that since we didn't know when exactly the baby was due it would probably be best that we not go, just in case, but our plane tickets had already been bought. Our missions pastor found out for us that we can still use our plane tickets we just have to pay $150 to have them changed to go to San Diego and whatever the difference in the price is. Again another huge answer to prayer.
Over the past 4 years my faith in God has wavered. When we went through failed IVF I thought, why would you do this to us?? I thought the same thing when we had our miscarriage. I was in such a dark place at that time, I couldn't sing songs of praise to God because I didn't really believe he was so wonderful. I remember one Sunday we were singing, How Great is Our God, and had to sit back down in the pew because I was crying to much because I didn't believe He was so great.
As I am on this side of 4 years I can see that God answered a prayer that I prayed probably about 5 years ago. I knew that Chris and I were getting close to wanting to start a family and I began praying that God would transform us. You see we weren't bad people at the time. We had both been Christians for quite some time but I felt as though our lives were on auto-pilot when it came to God. We went to church, we were as involved as two people could be but there was no depth. I knew that when we had children I didn't want to be that way. I wanted our children to see a passion for God that would transfer into their lives. I knew that I wanted our children to be 100% sold out for Christ and not be ordinary Christians who just went through the motions from week to week.
Little did I know that God begin to transform my life, our lives, from that little prayer but I am so grateful for it. I have always been self sufficient. I haven't ever had to FULLY rely on God for anything. I could always make things work out on MY own. God has taught me through this painful journey that I have to give EVERYTHING to Him. He never intended for me to take everything on myself. My relationship with Him has grown so much while I have been on the threshing floor of life. While I may not have wanted to endure the last 4 years I am thankful for it. I would never be where I am right now had I not.
My prayer through this entire journey is that God will be glorified and lifted up. I pray that through each blog entry you will see what I mighty God He is.
We still need 403 people to donate $30 or more to make it to our total of $20,700. We are having a yard sale this Saturday. This will be our second one. At the first one we raised $2400. Please be in prayer that God will again multiply our profits and provide beyond our expectations.
If you would like to mail a check you can mail it to:
Hope Poteat
253 Mystic Ct
Chesnee,SC 29323
Sunday, March 11, 2012
The Journey Begins
We have finally been matched with a birth mother!!!!! We don't know whether the baby is a boy or girl yet (since the mother has not had prenatal care, which is common in an adoption scenario) but he/she is due sometime in April. She is supposed to be going to the doctor soon so that we can narrow that down and make sure the baby is healthy. We will be traveling to San Diego, California to bring our baby home in less than 2 months!!! I can not contain my excitement!!
For anyone reading this that doesn't know our story let me fill you in:
When you decide to have a family you never think, oh that might be hard to do, you just think you'll be like everyone else and be able to get pregnant very easily. Well, that wasn't (isn't) the case for us. This March marks 4 years of trying to begin a family for us. A road that has been filled with surprise, tears, heartache, and now joy.
After we had tried for a year unsuccessfully we went to the doctor to find out why we weren't getting pregnant. She sent us to an infertility doctor who said the only way to get pregnant was through in vitro,a process that costs $15,000. Who has that much money just laying around for a rainy day? When I called my insurance company to find out how much they covered and found out is was nothing, I was devastated!! I cried my heart out because for me having a family full of children was not just some whim I had come up with one day, it was a dream I had dreamed ever since I was a little girl. I had found my prince charming but there were no children in my sight.
Through a God ordained turn of events, the infertility doctor called to say that if I would change my insurance I would get 70% coverage for the in vitro so that's what we did. That was in October of 2009. We began the in vitro process in March of 2010. God began to open so many doors that I just knew that we were going to get pregnant and have a baby through in vitro, but I was wrong. We ended up with 5 embryos and in our first transfer we transferred 2 but neither implanted and nothing happened. A few weeks later we transferred the last 3 and got a positive pregnancy test only to loose the baby 3 days later.
Devastated was not even the word to describe our emotions. I was so hurt I took a week out of school and really didn't want to go back and work with children but I knew I didn't have a choice, which was a good thing.
I mourned for a good 9 months for the loss of the baby I thought would be in our home right now. Some dear, dear friends of mine encouraged me to attend a bible study on Ruth that our church was offering, I reluctantly did. You see I attended church during this time of mourning, but that was it. My heart was not there because I was still so infuriated at God for what He had taken away. He used that bible study and the teacher to break down that very tall wall I had built and began to gently talk to my heart about adoption.
I heard Him remind me that He did not want our baby to die but because we live in a fallen, sinful world it happened. He told me that He missed His fellowship with me and that He had a plan bigger and better than I could have ever dreamed up. So in the summer of 2011 Chris and I began to talk about adoption. He showed me that to a mommy doesn't mean that the baby has to come from my womb, lets face it there are plenty of people who are MOTHERS and not mommies. It's about the times you spend with your child, reading stories before bed, building forts in the den, pushing them in the swing, and kissing their boo boos when they get hurt. I can do all those things with MY child whether I give birth or not.
We figured that the only way we could afford to do that was through DSS because we had taken out a rather large loan for in vitro (let's just say in the end they didn't really cover 70%) and I couldn't imagine going into debt for adoption too. So we went to the DSS adoption meeting in September and we realized that that was not where God was leading us to adopt from. He was leading us to a private adoption but we had no idea how that was going to work.
In October 2011 we got a phone call from the lawyers office that we had called to get some information about asked us if we wanted to send a portfolio to a birth mom in Texas. I told them we didn't have a portfolio or money but we could send pictures so we did. We didn't get chosen and that was TOTALLY OK, because I didn't have a peace about it. God used that to get us going on the adoption road because you see OUR baby had already been conceived to a mother who knew she couldn't keep him/her and didn't know what to do.
We attended a couple of adoption seminars where our attorney that we are using spoke and it just confirmed our desire to use him. In November of 2011 we went public with the fact that we were going to adopt and began a Christmas gift wrapping fundraiser. Our goal was to raise the $1,000 it took to retain our lawyer. Through donations and that fundraiser we were able to schedule a meeting with our lawyer January 26, 2012. We had our home study on the following Sunday January 29.
After that we began fundraising galore. We had a fundraiser at Pizza Inn were we raised $1400, the biggest they had ever had. We had a yard sale where 95% of the items were donated to us and we raise almost $2400. We sold jewelry where we raised $350. All together we have raised $5,000 in just a matter of 1 short month.
In the meantime we had been getting phone calls asked if we wanted to send our portfolio to birth mothers. For one reason or another we said no to the first 4 birth mothers our attorney had called us about and then we got a phone call on Saturday, March 3, 2012.
This birth mother was in California and wanted an evangelical Christian family to adopt her baby and this baby was $8,000 less than the other babies we had been called about putting it in our range. They were going to mail portfolios Saturday evening but there were some questions we needed answered before we were OK to send ours. It just so happened that they weren't able to mail any portfolios Saturday night and were able to call the California lawyer and ask the questions we needed answered so we said go ahead and mail our portfolio Monday.
We got the phone call Wednesday, March 7 that we had been chosen and we set up our three way call with the birth mother for the next day at 8:00. Our phone call lasted an hour which was unheard of and it could not have gone any better. We felt like she was a kindred spirit. God orchestrated the whole thing. Even though the facilitator wanted us to both pray about the birth mother said, "I know I want them, they are perfect." We got the phone call March 9th that we did want to move forward and now we are expecting our sweet, precious baby in April.
Since things happened so fast we have not been able to raise all of our money yet. We still need to get $15,000 by the time the baby is born in April and we do not qualify to get that large of a loan due to our in vitro loan. We have been praying that God would lay it on people's heart to donate to help us bring our little miracle home in April. IF we can get 500 people to donate at least $30 we will be able to do it.
For anyone reading this that doesn't know our story let me fill you in:
When you decide to have a family you never think, oh that might be hard to do, you just think you'll be like everyone else and be able to get pregnant very easily. Well, that wasn't (isn't) the case for us. This March marks 4 years of trying to begin a family for us. A road that has been filled with surprise, tears, heartache, and now joy.
After we had tried for a year unsuccessfully we went to the doctor to find out why we weren't getting pregnant. She sent us to an infertility doctor who said the only way to get pregnant was through in vitro,a process that costs $15,000. Who has that much money just laying around for a rainy day? When I called my insurance company to find out how much they covered and found out is was nothing, I was devastated!! I cried my heart out because for me having a family full of children was not just some whim I had come up with one day, it was a dream I had dreamed ever since I was a little girl. I had found my prince charming but there were no children in my sight.
Through a God ordained turn of events, the infertility doctor called to say that if I would change my insurance I would get 70% coverage for the in vitro so that's what we did. That was in October of 2009. We began the in vitro process in March of 2010. God began to open so many doors that I just knew that we were going to get pregnant and have a baby through in vitro, but I was wrong. We ended up with 5 embryos and in our first transfer we transferred 2 but neither implanted and nothing happened. A few weeks later we transferred the last 3 and got a positive pregnancy test only to loose the baby 3 days later.
Devastated was not even the word to describe our emotions. I was so hurt I took a week out of school and really didn't want to go back and work with children but I knew I didn't have a choice, which was a good thing.
I mourned for a good 9 months for the loss of the baby I thought would be in our home right now. Some dear, dear friends of mine encouraged me to attend a bible study on Ruth that our church was offering, I reluctantly did. You see I attended church during this time of mourning, but that was it. My heart was not there because I was still so infuriated at God for what He had taken away. He used that bible study and the teacher to break down that very tall wall I had built and began to gently talk to my heart about adoption.
I heard Him remind me that He did not want our baby to die but because we live in a fallen, sinful world it happened. He told me that He missed His fellowship with me and that He had a plan bigger and better than I could have ever dreamed up. So in the summer of 2011 Chris and I began to talk about adoption. He showed me that to a mommy doesn't mean that the baby has to come from my womb, lets face it there are plenty of people who are MOTHERS and not mommies. It's about the times you spend with your child, reading stories before bed, building forts in the den, pushing them in the swing, and kissing their boo boos when they get hurt. I can do all those things with MY child whether I give birth or not.
We figured that the only way we could afford to do that was through DSS because we had taken out a rather large loan for in vitro (let's just say in the end they didn't really cover 70%) and I couldn't imagine going into debt for adoption too. So we went to the DSS adoption meeting in September and we realized that that was not where God was leading us to adopt from. He was leading us to a private adoption but we had no idea how that was going to work.
In October 2011 we got a phone call from the lawyers office that we had called to get some information about asked us if we wanted to send a portfolio to a birth mom in Texas. I told them we didn't have a portfolio or money but we could send pictures so we did. We didn't get chosen and that was TOTALLY OK, because I didn't have a peace about it. God used that to get us going on the adoption road because you see OUR baby had already been conceived to a mother who knew she couldn't keep him/her and didn't know what to do.
We attended a couple of adoption seminars where our attorney that we are using spoke and it just confirmed our desire to use him. In November of 2011 we went public with the fact that we were going to adopt and began a Christmas gift wrapping fundraiser. Our goal was to raise the $1,000 it took to retain our lawyer. Through donations and that fundraiser we were able to schedule a meeting with our lawyer January 26, 2012. We had our home study on the following Sunday January 29.
After that we began fundraising galore. We had a fundraiser at Pizza Inn were we raised $1400, the biggest they had ever had. We had a yard sale where 95% of the items were donated to us and we raise almost $2400. We sold jewelry where we raised $350. All together we have raised $5,000 in just a matter of 1 short month.
In the meantime we had been getting phone calls asked if we wanted to send our portfolio to birth mothers. For one reason or another we said no to the first 4 birth mothers our attorney had called us about and then we got a phone call on Saturday, March 3, 2012.
This birth mother was in California and wanted an evangelical Christian family to adopt her baby and this baby was $8,000 less than the other babies we had been called about putting it in our range. They were going to mail portfolios Saturday evening but there were some questions we needed answered before we were OK to send ours. It just so happened that they weren't able to mail any portfolios Saturday night and were able to call the California lawyer and ask the questions we needed answered so we said go ahead and mail our portfolio Monday.
We got the phone call Wednesday, March 7 that we had been chosen and we set up our three way call with the birth mother for the next day at 8:00. Our phone call lasted an hour which was unheard of and it could not have gone any better. We felt like she was a kindred spirit. God orchestrated the whole thing. Even though the facilitator wanted us to both pray about the birth mother said, "I know I want them, they are perfect." We got the phone call March 9th that we did want to move forward and now we are expecting our sweet, precious baby in April.
Since things happened so fast we have not been able to raise all of our money yet. We still need to get $15,000 by the time the baby is born in April and we do not qualify to get that large of a loan due to our in vitro loan. We have been praying that God would lay it on people's heart to donate to help us bring our little miracle home in April. IF we can get 500 people to donate at least $30 we will be able to do it.
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