The Wait is Over!

For those of you who don't know - and that's probably many of you - my life has been crazy busy the past 7 weeks or so. I've been obsessed with the process of helping get the above pictured baby into the custody of my brother and his beautiful wife (pictured above).

This beautiful baby girl was in foster care and through many miracles she is now part of a family. I met the birth parents through a mutual friend who is in my ward. Social Services had determined that reunification of the baby and birth parents was not going to be possible, and I approached the birth parents to see if they'd be willing to place the baby for adoption - that my brother and his wife would love to have a little girl in their family.

There is A LOT of craziness that happened in the weeks between my initial visit with the birth parents and Friday, Dec 17th when my brother and his wife finally got custody of the baby. I don't feel that I can share the entire story online, but I do want to share that I don't think I have seen the hand of God so clearly as I did during this process. Last week, in a conversation with my mother regarding the adoption, I told her "we need a miracle". We had an obstacle placed in our path last week that literally seemed insurmountable. Nothing short of a miracle was going to solve this problem and allow them to get custody before Christmas. Because of MANY friends' and family's fasting and prayers we got that miracle. I know beyond any shadow of a doubt that God hears our prayers, that He knows each one of us and that NO ONE can thwart His purposes. This little girl was undoubtedly supposed to be a part of my brother's family - and she was supposed to be with them in time for Christmas. He didn't provide a miracle right away, when the obstacle was new - we had to be patient and we had to exercise our faith. But, He did give us the miracle we needed when we NEEDED it. I am so thankful for the knowledge I have of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and for wonderful friends and family who supported me in my efforts. I am so thankful for LDS Family Services and all the hard work that they put into getting this adoption done. There are angels working there in the form of Shannon, Sherri, Christine, and Mike. I'm sure there are others that helped too who I don't know. I am just so grateful to have been a part of this amazing experience and to have grown closer to the Lord through it. This is one more reason that our family needed to be here in California, instead of Arizona where we wanted to be. I'm grateful that the Lord knows what we need and that He is in control and not me. I'm so thankful that I was able to be an instrument in His hands and that He provided such an amazing experience for me to be a part of.