Apparently its been a while since our last update. Last May we were hitting the one year mark of our profile being given to potential birth-moms. Over the summer things just progressed without any big news. Our profile was still being requested and sent out monthly, but nothing seemed to be coming our way. Late in the summer a few friends came to us with potential adoption situations through their acquaintances. Although none of these situations worked out, we are grateful to our friends and family who thought of us and gave our information to these women considering adoption. Last fall, we began to have some interest in getting to know us more. We were given contact information for a few birth moms. Once the agency passed their information onto us, it was in our court to reach out to these moms, introduce ourselves and see if we could get to know them more. The first birth-mom e-mailed back and forth with us for a few days and then all communication from her ceased. The second birth-mom never replied to our first attempt at communication. The third birth-mom we contacted through the agency seemed to hold some promise. We talked to her on the phone once and even set up a time to meet her in person. Unfortunately when we arrived at the destination to meet her she did not show up and we have not heard from her since. At this point, shortly before Christmas, our hearts were broken. We were feeling pretty defeated, why was it that all of these women were interested in our profile but then would disappear into thin air on us.
A good friend of ours asked us how we guard our hearts during this process. This questions has created a lot of discussion in our home. We were struggling with this exact situation. As we are introduced to these women, we are also exposed to their stories of how and what lead them to looking for an adoptive family for their child. Some of these stories were tough to hear. We both found ourselves taking on the pain and emotional suffering of these women, with little we could do to help except offer to listen. This vulnerability left us exposed and heartbroken with each of these potential adoption situations that were not meant to be. Our focus now is to remain hopeful and cautiously optimistic with any situations that are presented to us.
Coming up on our two year mark with the agency, we both never thought it would take this long. We continue to pray for the birth mom and child that will one day be a blessing in our home. We have hope that our time is coming soon. Although the agency fee has been paid, we are still expecting significant expenses for lawyer and finalization fees when our time comes. If through your prayers, you feel called to assist us financially, we would be forever grateful. We have a compassionate crowdfunding site set up at youcaring.com under Grass Family Adoption or feel free to contact us directly.
Steve & Annie
