Our Big Adoption Announcement

Well everyone... THIS IS IT!!!  We are about to become the parents of a precious baby girl!!

The opportunity came suddenly and has knocked us off our feet.  We're so excited to go and get our newest addition who we have named Piper.

The quick details are that she was born on Thursday, we were called on Saturday afternoon, we said yes on Saturday night, and we travel to Texas to pick her up tomorrow!!!  Like I said, the opportunity came SUDDENLY!!  What a blessing!

We're so thankful for the way God orchestrated this adoption.  It's truly been a demonstration of his mighty power and perfect will.

We pick her up in San Antonio, TX tomorrow night!  Please check back here for an update with pictures!!

Below is an email that Clay sent out to our family and friends last night.  Please read it if you are interested in the full details.

And finally, here is the last pic of our four person family...

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Hello family and friends...

I have an update on our adoption that I am excited to share with you.

Because I don't know if everybody knows all the details about our journey I will give a little background info.  We began pursuing an adoption in March after using up all of our resources at the fertility clinic that helped us get pregnant with Miller and Charlie.  Our initial course of action was to pursue an international adoption from Uganda.  We got relatively deep into the process before deciding to change course.  This decision was primarily made on the basis of need, specifically the need for domestic african american and bi-racial adoption.  

We got involved with an adoption consultant from Atlanta.  She has access to multiple agencies and adoption attorneys from all across the country, and had the ability to provide us with a great number of opportunities that matched what we were looking for.  Based on our willingness to adopt an african american or bi-racial child, she felt that she would be able to find a match for us within a few months.  We didn't necessarily care how fast it happened, but it was clear to us that we had been lead down the right track by getting involved with this person.

Fast forward to last Saturday... Mandy got a call from our representative who informed us of an urgent situation.  A little girl had been born on Thursday (9/20) in San Antonio, TX.  The birth mother had already signed away her rights, and the child was about to be released from the hospital in the custody of an adoption agency.  They did not have an adoptive family for the baby yet, and they needed to find one very quickly.  When we received the call we were given the opportunity to adopt the child, but we only had about 3-4 hours to make the decision.

We did not immediately say yes.  The cost was a little out of our range, which was our primary concern, but we also had many other fears and worries about making the decision on such short notice.  Of course we have been preparing to adopt, but there is no way to prepare for a situation like this. We knew all we could do was pray.  We sought as much help as we could from some close friends and family, and we received a lot of comfort from that.  Thankfully we were provided wisdom and clarity, and we felt very positive about the situation.

After we determined that finances wouldn't be a barrier we called the agency and said that we'd take her!!

We have a daughter who we have named Piper, and we are flying out to Texas on Wednesday to get her!

We're so overwhelmed (in a good way), that we haven't really been able to process it all yet.  We've been scrambling to make travel plans and get everything the agency needs from us, but it appears that everything is in order.  We have some good friends who have offered to house us while we are in Texas.  We will be there for a few days while some paper work gets processed.

I will try to keep you all informed.  We should have some pictures by Wednesday night.

Please pray for us as we travel, pray for the birth mother, who has given us such an awesome gift, and pray for our family as we integrate Piper into our lives.

We love you all and look forward to sharing more with you as soon as we can.

- Clay and Mandy