Update. . .Long Post

Sorry I haven't updated in a while on the adoption front. Since my last post about it, we've been dealing with extreme exhaustion with it. It's been emotionally draining and well, down right exhausting. The search process is a daily task and it involves searching the national (yes-every single state) databases of children looking for what we think would be a good match for our family. Isn't that funny, as if WE know the right match! We all know the only ONE who really knows that answer! Lots of sleep lost and lots of disappointment as well. That said, we had made the decision that we were going to take a break from the search in hopes of re-grouping so to speak. At the time that we made that decision, we had/have about 8-10 inquiries out. We decided that if one of them turned out to be a match then we'd go for it of course but if not, then we'd just wait until we felt the time was right to start searching again. We're definitely ready to be parents again to one of these precious kids but it's the searching we needed the break from. We made the decision to stop searching about 2 - 3 weeks ago. It was no coincidence that soon after, we got the news of Ryan's diagnosis. While his diagnosis doesn't change anything about our daily lives or his needs, God knew we were in need of emotional rest before getting that news, as well as some time after to deal with the news. While, I'm sure we will be coming to terms with his formal diagnosis for a long time to come, it has honestly made dealing with his needs and behaviors much easier. It's as if we feel we understand him now. Not to mention that he's making progress it seems like daily and we can't help but celebrate that. It's amazing to watch! Then came Gucci :) He sort of fell in our laps so to speak and honestly, since we have taken this break, we've just been living life and enjoying every second. This "re-grouping" time has made us both realize how much we have to offer one of these special children. Knowing the full, happy lives we have makes us even more eager to adopt. However, we still didn't feel it was time to start searching again just yet. Just taking it as it comes. We still hadn't heard anything back on any of the 10 children we inquired about. But low and behold, we got an email from our social worker stating that one of the states that has our information wanted to know if we would consider being a candidate family for a 3 year old sweet, gorgeous little boy. We had never seen him on any listings, thus we hadn't put an inquiry in on him. So we talked about it, thought about, slept on it, and most importantly prayed about it. And neither of us have been able to shake the image and thought of this little boy. Just when we had decided to stop for a while, this little boy found us. It's a sureal thing when God works so clearly in your life. HE asked us to slow down and let HIM handle it, so we did, and this is the result. We don't know yet if we've been decided on as his family or not but God is all but screaming at us about this little boy so we've given our "okay" and are waiting to hear back on the decision. No clue yet when the decision will be made because we've learned not to put much worth on the timelines we're given. But our social worker is in close and constant contact with his case worker and we're being updated on every little step. We learned with the last few disappointments not to get our hopes up to high but this is the most promissing case thus far and like I said, we can't help but think it's for a reason. It's so funny because we've definitely learned patience through this process. I thought we'd become pretty patient people over the years dealing with all we've faced with our kids and the military but God has quite the sense of humor. My dad told me that in his men's group at church they have a joke "don't pray for patience cause God will give you something to teach you patience!" LOL! AIN'T THAT THE TRUTH!!! When he told me that, I told him it was too late, I'd already asked HIM for patience and so I guess I'd just hold on for the ride HE was gonna send me on to teach me a lesson. :) So we're on the ride and learning more and more patience as we go. :) We'll keep ya'll posted as we learn more. LOVE AND HUGS AND KISSES!!!