I ran 8 miles yesterday. With each and every step, the reality of the half-marathon is drawing near grew stronger. It's been quite a journey. In January when I first started, I could barely run 2 miles at a time. All the snow and ice we experienced has made training cold and challenging. But Saturday, I ran eight miles. I've come a long ways, but still have a long ways to go if I want to finish it on April 27th. Two and a half months of training have flown by, but the journey continues.
In many ways, my journey with the half marathon has paralleled our adoption journey. It seemed to have started off slowly, but now we are taking huge steps! January started by getting all of our paperwork and background checks to Gladney. After clearing that hurdle, in February we traveled down to Fort Worth to the Gladney Center for our big interview with our social worker. The interview lasted from nine in the morning until nearly 3 in the afternoon (they were very thorough). I think Sarah and I have a slight advantage in these interviews because we always interview together doing churchwork. After this interview, Sarah went to work putting together our profile for the birthmother to look at. The way it works at Gladney is that the birthmother picks us, which is humbling and terrifying at the same time. In order to do this, we have to create a "profile" for the birthmom to look at. This profile is actually a photobook of our lives (like one you would make on Snapfish). All the while, Sarah has also been raising money through her business at Premier Designs selling jewelry. The response to this has been incredible. At one of her parties, she sold the 4th most jewelry for one party in the whole company during the first quarter sales (her name was in the quarterly magazine). People have been generous and encouraging every step of the way. I do not go one day without someone asking how the adoption process is going. At the beginning of March, a social worker who works in the Gladney Oklahoma office came to our house to complete our home study. Again, it was a relaxed atmosphere, although we deep cleaned the house and even painted a couple hallways to get ready for her. Then finally, we got the big news Friday: WE ARE OFFICIALLY ACCEPTED AND WAITING! Our profile is being sent out and we could have a match anytime. It's been a process, but one where we have seen the goodness of God played out each step of the way.
We have more fundraisers coming up. I, of course, am running the half marathon on April 27th. If you would like to sponsor me on my run, you can click the paypal box to the right. I will also set up a benefit website in the near future. We are also working on a "Coffee and Karaoke" night at a local coffee shop here. If you can't donate, we ask that you would pray for us, pray for our potential birthmother, and pray for our future baby!
