Progress

It has been an eventful past week! We have researched many different agencies across the country. I've talked on the phone and looked at web pages. After much thought and consideration, we decided to apply to some more agencies. We narrowed it down to three. Zeb's fear is that we will get 2 babies at the same time or close to the same time; I'm not worried about that one bit!

A major factor in our decision making process was obviously cost. Some agencies want several thousand dollars just to get our name put on the waiting list. Although we hate the fact that money plays a role in all of this, it does.

The first agency is in South Carolina. We almost have all of the initial paperwork completed, and we'll send that off this week.

The second place (and the one we are most excited about), is in Ohio. It's a maternity home. (yes, they do exist) The lady that I talked to is wonderful -- very kind and helpful. She truly has a passion for helping the young girls that come to this home. We support their mission for ministering to young girls. The girls (must be 19 years old or younger) receive counseling while they are there. They cannot have drugs, alcohol or cigarettes while they are at the home. They keep up on their school work. This place just "feels" right for us. The reason I'm not applying to this one first is because I have to put together a lifebook to submit with the application. This is going to take me some time.

The third place is in Texas. I really liked talking with the person there, and they have really good placement rates. The only catch is, once we are on the list, we have to pay $500 per month towards the placement fee. We wouldn't mind doing this, as it's a good payment plan, but we are not interested in throwing all of our eggs into one basket, so we don't really want to completely commit to one place. We are waiting on this place for now....but if I could work something out with the money part (either get a guaranteed refund if we get a baby through another agency or somehow be exempt from making the payments and just pay at placement) we will apply with this place.

Another development....we may be crossing paths with a birthmom (through no agency). This is a long, personal story that I'd rather not go into to, but your continued prayers are appreciated. We honestly have NO idea where any of these paths are leading, but we are just trying to do what God would have us do.