The Journey to adopt....

You read that right 'The Journey to ADOPT'

So not sure where to begin this post... I am writing this over a longer period of time as we were waiting to make the announcement but I also wanted to journal the events that led up to it..

So do I start back in 2004 when I was in China holding baby Jamie who was dying in my arms? Do I tell my story of Zhihong who was left at the home and brought to tears that I would 'GIVE' her a gift even one as simple as my sunglasses?

Do I tell about the time 3 years ago that I requested information from an agency only to let it sit around and never look at it...

Or I do I tell you about 3 weeks before today (5/2/11) when Bill who works at my Waldorf, MD location sent me an email out of the blue about a conference he and his wife were putting on at a local church. Or do I tell you how I immediately told him that I had previous obligations etc..

Maybe I start with how days later God challenged me and told me 'It's TIME to pursue what He has for me." Just as clear as that I heard/Felt it in my heart!

That Saturday (4/30/11) Mandy and I went to his presentation. This was a presentation put on by AWAA who just so happened to be on the trip with me to China back in 2004. Brian Luwis was/is the founder and was with us on the trip.

AWAA stands for American World Adoption Agency. So unbeknownst to Mandy until the week of the event I had registered us for this event. We went and felt God's tugging both looking at each other saying it's ABOUT TIME to the other one.

So then later on Saturday we took pictures of the family and filled out the application to adopt. We also sat the kids down and asked them what they thought about that. All of them said I would love to have another SISTER AND brother! We hadn't been thinking 2... Yet every time we turned around we keep feeling like God 'has big things in store for our family'.

That night when Mandy and I prayed over this I inadvertently, while trying to be non-gender specific so as not to feel like I was leading one way or another (EVEN THOUGH I WANTED A GIRL), I asked for God to reach down and touch whoever he has prepared for us and let "THEM" know we are coming for them... I said Amen and Mandy looked at me and said "DO you realize what you just said? Them as in PLURAL!"

Then on 5/2 we took some friends out to Supper. Joseph and April Cox had just finished adopting a baby from China. So we talked through the whole time frame, the process, their worries their fears.. the after shocks, the $$$ Shocks etc.. It was a great night. While we talked the kids all played in the corner.

That night Mandy was tucking the boys in and Gavin said "Mommy we need to pray" and he proceeded to ask that Jesus help us to adopt his new Brother and Sister. She then went to find Skylar kneeling at her bed praying that we would be able to afford to adopt her new SISTER And BROTHER!!! This is very unusual! We pray with our kids but (unfortunately) not nightly...

So we keep coming back to "God has big things in store for our family!!

Not one week after we filled out the application we were contacted and APPROVED! We expected to be contacted in the 7 to 10 days but not approved!! It was so exciting.
We then spent the entire weekend completing the 8 hours of on-line study required by the Hauge Convention... That was very interesting and informative of all the 'issues' that could arise from Attachment dis-orders, to anger to..... you name it. Yet through the whole thing I knew that my God was bigger then any of these.

So on Friday the 6th of May we called Mandy's mom and told her.. then we called my Parent's and told them.. The kids yelled "You're going to be a Grandma again... but not the way you think!!!"

Then on Sunday the 8th we told some friends at church and started to tell our small group and others... Mandy was having fun by posting a cryptic facebook status about it as well..

Her status was:
Happy mothers day to me... The Cecil house is gonna get crazier!!!

This really got people questioning:
Are you Pregnant, are you moving, ARE YOU GETTING A Dog??

So I put on the following comment:
we Are the pirates who Don’t dO anything we just stay home and lay around and if you ask us to do anything we’ll just tell you we don’t do anything cause we’re the Pirates who don’T do anythIng we just stay hOme and lay arouNd and if you ask us to do anything we’ll just tell you we don’t do anything!!

To which Mandy changed her status to:
so exCited for tHe wInk, wiNk... prAy for me!

So by now some of our friends understood the CRYPTOGRAPHIC notes in the message!

But for those who didn't get it I posted:
How about them washington CAPITALS... LOL!!!

We were still amazed that many didn't get it..
So here we are... It's 5/9 our world is going to change for the better and we are announcing to the world that we are ADOPTING from CHINA!!

It can be a bit of a process and we have just begun but God is bigger then the process. We are also adopting Special needs (Which can be color blindness to much more difficult issues) and GOD is bigger then those.
And it will cost $30,000+ and I keep having to remind myself that GOD IS bigger then that!

Funny how I can trust him on so much and yet I worry about the money!
Still praying for the finances.. but again my GOD is bigger then all of that!

Hope you will all join us on the journey in prayer!