Sweet Little Baby

Todd and I have been talking about what to blog about all week and we thought we would blog about our home study or setting up a changing table or maybe our excitement that next year at this time we could be parents. I have decided this morning that I will give you a quick update about those things but that is not what I want to blog about this morning, I want to blog about a song that is stuck in my head and the meaning it has for me this Christmas but first our home study.

We had our first meeting with Mary Ellen, our social worker, and it went well. We met at her office and both Todd and I were there. We have everything turned in so it was not a hard process she knows our life through paper so we just got to talk with her about it some more. The next step is that Todd and I will have separate interviews and then she will come visit our home. The home study has to take at least a month by state laws but she does not see anything that would make it have to take longer at this time so we are hopeful that by the middle to end of January we will be home study approved!

On Black Friday there was a sale at Babies R Us so we got a changing table and a crib for an amazing price. I thought we were going to leave them in the boxes for a while but Todd wanted to set up the changing table so I said go for it. He did and we both agree that we are happy that we set up one piece of furniture. It somehow makes this process more real, to think that soonish we will be changing diapers and blowing on a baby's belly as they laugh at the simple joys in life.

The song that has continued to run through my head this Christmas season is Sweet Little Jesus Boy and as I walked the dog this morning all I could think was that God gave His Son for us. We are all connected to this foster/adoption that God gave His son to Mary for us. I often wonder what I will say or what it will be like to meet or talk with our birth mother but when I think about it as God sending His son and giving Him to another mother, I have a peace about talking with the future birth mother of our child.

I have spent my life being thankful and trying to live a life that is thankful for that gift by sharing

my love of Jesus with others and now I will have an opportunity to do that with a human. To be thankful for the gift they are giving us, their child, and thank them by being good parents who love the child.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and that you know that you are in our prayers as we are so thankful for your continued support and well wishes for our journey!

Prayer: Thank you God for sending your Son here as a baby. Thank you God for our families and friends and the support through prayer and gifts that they have given to us through our adoption journey and thank you God for the love we have for our future child

!

God is great

Todd and I have been enjoying the Advent devotions by Mark Neilsen, "What Are We Waiting For."

We have been setting a side time every day to read the lessons and we find some of them so fitting. Like on Sunday the title was, "Waiting in Hope." That could be the title for our adoption, waiting in hope, waiting in hope for our home study to be complete and approved, waiting in hope for our birth mother to pick us, waiting in hope for our child to be born, and waiting in hope to bring our child home and introduce the bundle of joy to all our family and friends!

The next title was "What To Do" What to do when you feel over joyed by all the love and support you have received? What to do when you feel ready just to beg every pregnant person you see to give you their child? What to do when you don't know what to do in the crazy joys of adoption?

The title today was "Living with Questions," this could summarize my life. I always say at work, "I have a question." Who does not have questions? Who really won't have a question when you don't know when you will have a baby added to your family? Or who won't have questions when you just want your home study to be complete so you can apply for grants towards the adoption? And who would not have questions when we live a life that is relying fully on God for guidance and strength?

In all the preparation for the season we are continually grateful for the support that we have received and we are thankful for the devotions that center us back on God. "I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given to you in Christ Jesus"
1 Corinthians 1:4

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, help us to be patient and to trust in your enduring love for us. Help us to follow you, to walk in your life-giving ways and Lord, help us to prepare our hearts to receive your guidance and love always! Amen

Love,

Meredith Peters (and Todd :)

7 Poplar Lane

South Dennis, MA 02660

*We are grateful for any and all financial support! Thank you to everyone who has supported us financial in this process to adopt!*

Happy Thanksgiving

1 Chronicles 16:34 "Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever."

Today is Thanksgiving and we are thankful for my family! We were together at the house and I was able to have the time to be thankful to God for many things! The list could go on forever but we will list our top five things that we are thankful for...

5. Health and Insurance- We are thankful for the good health we have and we are thankful for health insurance when we need to see a doctor (like Todd with his kidney stone- yes, he still has it so please keep him in your prayers, no pain now but it needs to pass)

4. Family- We have a wonderful family, both our families are such blessings to us and we are thankful for who they are and all they teach us and also the fun and love we have together and for each other! Our families, both families and friends, have been so gracious in supporting our adoption process and their willingness to give and we are so grateful! God is so good!

3. Shelter and Food- How can you not be thankful for food on Thanksgiving but to have a safe warm place to live day and night is a truly blessing that we take for granted sometimes. We are thankful for jobs that help us pay our bills! It is a blessing and we pray for the people out there that were short food today and have a cold place to stay tonight, it breaks our hearts to think that someone didn't have enough food today when we had more than enough.

2. Marriage- We got to share today what we are thankful for and we both shared that we are thankful for each other and we love that we will be able to give the gift of a strong Christian marriage as an example for our future child. We love being married, through the good and the bad, we love each other and continue to grow closer to God and each other, a major blessing!

1.God- We would be lost and lonely and full of stress, worry, anger and missing our relationship without God. God loves us and wants a relationship with everyone and we are thankful for the relationships we do have with God and for all the ways He provides to us. The ways we see and notice and the ways he provides that we don't see or notice. We give thanks for his unfailing love!

We are both very thankful! We hope you all had a great day and were able to reflect on what you are thankful for, Happy Thanksgiving!

Love, Todd and Meredith Peters

7 Poplar Lane

South Dennis, MA 02660

Hats and pictures

We are getting the ball rolling with the adoption and one of the first few things we have to do is to get together 15-20 pictures of Todd and I together, no problem but there is a catch. You can not have sunglasses or hats on or being in bathing suits or have them be your wedding pictures.

Obviously this elements every photo but maybe 4, Todd LOVES to wear hats! He would wear them to bed sometimes if he could. It was funny to go through all the pictures and see how many failed the approved picture list. We will be going out and taking some new pictures though so we can get that done.

Then on the list was about us, what memories do you have together, favorite traditions, favorite movies, books, etc. Easy but then we have to write the Birthmother letter.

To say this letter intimidates me is an understatement. How do you explain to a woman through a letter that you would like her child? It seems so crazy to me. I can not wait to hold my child and love them and I can not figure out how a letter (1/2 page typed) is going to be the starting point for a connection with a lady to trust us to parent her child.

I want to tell her that my husband is the best, he works hard and is the most honest person I know. I want her to know that we have a crazy life and that Todd and I love each other more than we love ourselves. I want to explain to the birthmother that we long to be parents together and raise your child to love themselves and love others and mostly to love God. I want to tell her that our families are the best, that they are supportive and so excited to have a new person in our family to love and have fun with. We do have the best families. I want to explain to this woman that people are praying for her and hoping that she fully understands the joy that she is bringing to our life but making a decision that will change all of our lives. I just don't know how to express it best so I will leave it up to God. God knows the birthmother that he has picked out for us and He knows the words we should write so I continue to pray and trust Him for all the wisdom in this process.

Please continue to pray for us as we go through this journey, as of now we are still enjoying the process and we are so thankful to all our friends and family for their prayers and support. You don't know how much it means to us to hear you say you are praying for us or when we receive a check from someone. It is truly amazing!

Prayer: God please be with us as we write our Birthmother letter. Help us to express our honest thoughts and feelings and help us connect with the Birthmother that you have in mind for us. Please help us continue to trust you to help us through this process in all ways, financially, emotionally, and mentally. God keep our future child safe and thank you for the love and support of our friends and family. Amen

Children of God

We have had the joy of finding out that we were accepted into the adoption program and with being accepted comes the need to pay out of pocket for the adoption. It has been such a blessing and a joy to be able to have our family and friends support us. We do not like to ask for help, gifts or a loan but we know that we are called to adopt so we sucked up our pride and were able to send in our first payment towards our adoption.
It is now official. We are in the adoption phase. It is amazing to be able to hear all the adoption stories out there, both good and bad, and we look forward to sharing our adoption story with all of you.
Our next stage is still saving up money and working on figuring that out but God always provides so we will continue to trust Him! We will do our homestudy at the same time that Angel Adoption looks for a birthmother for us. We pray that we connect with the right mother, it is exciting to us to think that someone is concerned about raising a child or about being pregnant and we will get an opportunity to meet this mother and offer their child a family full of love!
This month is national adoption awareness month and my friend posted a video about adoption and it was perfect for us! It is by Third Day and it talks about us all being the Children of God and the video is beautiful! If you would like to watch it, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6jO7xhU_Pw
Thank you to all of you who are praying with us and a special thank you to our friends and family who have donated to our adoption! If you would like to donate please make checks out to Meredith and Todd Peters and in memo write adoption. Our mailing address is 7 Poplar Lane South Dennis, MA 02660.

Pray: God, help us be patience and faithful in our prayers about our adoption. We always want to follow your will for our lives and we look to you for guidance. Please protect our child and the birthmother, help them feel your love around them! Thank you for our friends and family who support us! Thank you for your unfailing loving and help us to always remember that we are your children and that we have been redeemed and forgiven and that we truly are your sons and daughters! Amen!

We look forward to working with you and enriching your lives with the miracle of adoption!

So I am going to write this post and then save it but not publish it and you will soon read why...

Tonight I was laying around watching my favorite show Grey's Anatomy and Meredith, on the show, was delivering babies and all I could think was "man I cannot wait to hold my own child!" So before going to bed I decided to check my personal e-mail one more time...

I was scared and nervous when I saw an e-mail from Angel Adoption but it said, "I would like to formally extend an invitation to you to join Angel Adoption in the month of October; I feel that you would be an asset to our program."

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We were accepted, 1 of 6 couples accepted this month to start the process with Angel! I could not be more pleased, I can't say "we couldn't be more pleased" because Todd is sleeping. Todd works the night shift and so sleeps at different times then me; I was tempted to wake him up and share with him but then if he is not awake enough he might not be excited enough or even remember what I am saying so I am having to wait to tell him.

Therefore I won't publish this blog until after I tell him but now it is 11:30 pm and I am wide awake, thinking and praying and over excited to share with my husband and then my family and my friends the good news that we will be beginning our adoption process formally!

To my future child: I pray for you and I don't know you. I love you and I may not meet you for a while. I long to bring you to my home and introduce you to our crazy dog and watch you grow into a child of God. You are being formed now in the image of God and I can't wait to see what creative things He makes you look like and be! God is a God who will always be there for you and I can't wait to share His amazing love with you! You are a blessing and a treasure!

Love,
Meredith

Waiting

Waiting!

One of those things I am so not good at!

When I was maybe 15, I was involved in many things such as Sunday School, church, youth group, etc. and someone smart said just go to God in prayer and ask for what you want. I don't know who it was or what I was thinking because I remember pondering the idea and really thinking about what I wanted. I don't remember praying for a new car or better grades; no I prayed for patience!

What was I thinking!? Since then I have seen God try to show me the way to have patience, the way to be content in waiting with Him for the answer. Maybe someday I will perfect this waiting thing or maybe when I get to heaven God and I can talk about all the times I tried to ask for that prayer back and rush things along.

Well today is a rainy Wednesday on Cape Cod, if you have ever been to Cape Cod in the fall then you know there are many rainy days, and Todd and I both think that today is the day the Angel Adoption looks at all the couple for the month of October and decides who to accept.

Waiting! So me and my impatience just wants to know the answer, we know that God's timing is perfect but I also am human and my desire to know whether it is this month that we get accepted or the next month or the month after that. I have great hope that it is this month but then again if it is November then my family would be here for Thanksgiving and we could celebrate together and if it was December it would be an amazing Christmas miracle so basically I wait.

Lord, help me as I struggle with my ability to wait. Help me to learn to be more content waiting in your safe and holy arms as you love me right where I am. Continue to bless Todd and I and our friends and family as we travel along this adoption journey. Amen!

Love in Christ,

Meredith

Welcome to our journey

Hello Everyone,

Todd and I are in the beginning stages of the adoption process and we would love your prayers. We are hoping to be accepted into Angel Adoption program. We want to adopt a domestic infant and we are excited about this call in our life. If you would pray for us, or if you would like to financial support us that would be amazing! It is a challenging and exciting road for us and we would be blessed to have you journey with us as we go along in the desire to grow our family through adoption.

Prayer Request:
- Angel Adoptions would accept our application and we can move forward with finding a birthmother, doing our home study, and getting ready to welcome our baby home!
- We would follow God's will on how to financial afford the adoption
- God would protect our future child and birthmother
- That this process would bring us closer to God and to each other

Financial Support:
- If you are willing and would like to donate to our adoption story please make checks out to Todd and Meredith Peters with adoption in the memo. Thank you for any size donation!

Love in Christ,
Meredith and Todd Peters
7 Poplar Lane
South Dennis, MA 02660