Malachi's Adoption

So we sent our first payment to go towards Malachi's adoption and I have learned more about his birth mom and what a sad story it is. I hate that one day I'm going to have to explain some hard things to him.  I'm praying even now that the Lord would give me grace to tell his story with as little hurt to him as possible.  Adoption is such a sad beautiful story.  His mom is about 27 weeks and had her last baby over four weeks early, so we plan to have our bags packed in 9 weeks or so.  So, what happens when she goes into labor, you ask? Well, they will let us know that she has gone to the hospital and we will grab our bags and head to Dallas. We aren't sure if we will be able to be in the delivery room, or if we will have to wait till he's discharged to get him.  It all depends on the birth mom's request and what the hospital allows for adoptive parents.   We will have to wait for ICPC clearance to be able to take him across state lines. After his birth mom signs the papers after 3 days then we will be his legal guardians till we go to court when he is 6 months old.   We will be going to meet with the attorney in Monroe in July and after this time will be contact with his birth mom till she gives birth.

 So far we have used our Ethiopia adoption money to pay the first $5000.  We have to pay the next $5000 in the beginning of July. We have received a grant from the SBC for $500 and we have applied for an interest free loan if we end up not having the money in time.  Praying that they will expedite our application since we had such short notice.  I'm trying to trust the Lord and not be anxious about where the money will come from.  I do know that the Lord has brought us this far and will continue to show the way. We are also planning another big garage sale/bake sale for July 27th, so mark your calendar and clean out your junk, because we will take it :) If you feel led to give toward our adoptions you can donate on the top right through our pay pal account. Even if it's only $10 dollars that is more than we had and are so grateful.

the Houghs

We NEED your PRAYER

What does adoption look like? It looks like James 1:27. It looks like Christ. It looks like the gospel. It looks less like what we want and more like what God wants. Adoption to the world doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Why would you want to love someone else's child? Why would you want an interracial family? Why would you risk that?

When we first started our adoption we were looking for that perfect fit for our family, A little girl! We would have her home in no time.  Maybe a year or so. We had our own ideas about what it would look like for our family, but we forgot that God is ultimately in control.  He knows what her name is, where she is, and when she should come home to us. We rest in the fact that He knows and He has her in his hands and will bring her to our family in His time, which is beginning to look like three years or so. Three years is a long time it seems.  So what will we do in the meantime? We thought we would be doing nothing but living our lives and waiting for our family to grow through adoption from Ethiopia.

A few days ago we received an unsolicited call from our social worker. She had a birth mom who would deliver in September with a little boy.  She wanted to know if we knew anyone that was interested.  Casey and I had talked previously that if we could we would love to adopt in the interim time before Willow comes home if the Lord saw fit.  What an amazing providence, so we said we were interested. Actually, we asked for more details.  We would have to decide within 48 hours if we wanted to move forward and would need to pay $5000 deposit to commit to him. No pressure right? Well, we prayed and cried and prayed and cried.  Well, I did anyway. I don't think Casey cried.  We wanted to have faith that the Lord would provide the $19,000 that we needed for this baby, but also didn't want to be presumptuous. A very thin line to be sure.  There was another catch, there was another family also interested.  Somehow they were going to decide which of us it should be. The next morning we received a call that the other family had withdrawn from the process, and that left only us. After much prayer and 48 hours we decided to move forward and so here we are. 

We would ask that you would pray for our family. Pray that the Lord would supply all the money we need to bring this precious baby home. We know that if it's the Lord's will He will provide exactly what we need.  So, Lord willing, in September, Willow will have a brother. A brother that will share her skin tone. She doesn't know it yet and neither does he.  Isn't it amazing how the Lord moves? We are in awe of His goodness and mercy to us.  Pray that we would have faith to press on. We are clinging to Malachi 3:10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.  And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.  This is our cry for this baby boy. And we would name him Malachi. Casey happens to be preaching through Malachi and what a providence that this is the passage for next week.  Most of all we want to see the Lord glorified in all of this and the gospel proclaimed and exemplified through adoption.

thanks, the Houghs