God's Presence is Amazing...

Where to begin...

WE ARE CHOSEN!!!

We have the honor of being the soon-to-be parents of a little baby boy who will be born in Idaho around March 10, 2011!!!!

So obviously we are going to tell you that first but here is our Idaho Adventure Story...

Friday: After a long day of driving (around 10 hours) & a few stops to fill up the gas tank we arrived in Idaho at 7:30 their time. We first ventured to find a Subway or something so that we could take some dinner back to the hotel. After locating a Subway (Quiznos no where to be found - I majorly had a craving - oh well) we headed to our Best Western hotel. Once we arrived at the hotel we checked-in, ate dinner and called the parents to let them know that we had arrived safely...I guess parents even worry when their children are grown :) Then we just hung out in the hotel room and watched some TV...driving sure makes you tired and we had a wonderful day of exploring the next day...

Saturday: This was our day to venture out at see what Idaho had to offer and to see what potentially our child's birthtown was all about. We decided to head to Cabela's...yep that's right...here to meet the potential birthmother of our child and Brandon wants to go to Cabelas!! Oh well we have been talking about heading to Cabela's in Lacey, WA but have not made it there yet so I guess it was a good reason to go now...we even purchased this camo pacifier for Baby Mulder (we do have a name chosen & a lot of people know...however Grandma-to-be Mulder doesn't want to know so we will now reveal on blog yet...)

After Cabela's of course I was going to "drag" Brandon to the mall just to look around...that is exactly what we did just looked around...this mall was CRAZY!! We then decided to grab something for dinner and head back to the hotel to hang out and get prepared for Sunday morning (THE BIG DAY)...we layed out our clothes & packed out bags because at that point we had decided we were going to head home right after the meeting and drive through the night...save some money $$!!!

Sunday: The BIG DAY was finally here...we would be meeting what could potentially be our little boy's birthmother...WOW!! Although we thought that we would both be extremely nervous we were actually more excited to see who this person was that we felt like we knew so much about already. As we sat in the Shari's parking lot waiting for the birthmother, her mom & dad and Amie from Bethany to show up we sat their thinking..."This is not fair we have a WA license plate and they know what we look like...they could walk by us know it was us and we would have no idea yet"...althought that was short lived because Amie arrived and we headed in with her to grab a table. We sat and talked for probably 5 minutes and then they arrived...We politely all greeted each other and sat down for some coffee/tea/water...we all had ate already...We talked about life in general, what we did for work and just basic conversation. The birthmother asked us some questions that she had been wanting to asked us and then showed us a wonderful book that she is creating for her little niece...WOW she is an artist. We do not have any artistic abilities so seeing such talent was amazing. After about 2 minutes at the table we knew this day was going to be amazing...it was so natural and it seemed like we had known her family forever. After that we headed to church with her family...including her sister & niece that met us there. We are a little nervous heading into church because we knew that they only had around 20 people in their church it everyone showed up and they worship in their pastor's house...but God was definitely present and it was so extremely easy to fill comfortable and fit in. After the service was over we hung out and talked with the family & pastor while the birthmother's sister (who works at Olive Garden) went to get a "special" table for us. Once we got the table we got a text saying to head to Olive Garden for lunch...when we say lunch we should actually say "a royal dinner"...we had appetizers galore, breadsticks, salad & then the main course...although we were really wishing we had room for dessert that was not going to happen. During lunch the birthmother brought along a folder full of pictures of her growing up, her family & extended family and grandparents...it was fun hearing stories and seeing pictures of her family...they are such a close knit group of people. We also then presented the birthmother with the scrapbook that we had made for her...I think her and her parents really enjoyed it...we also said it if the opportunity arose that we would love to continue to add pages to this scrapbook for her. We continued talking and then the real "fun" part started...seriously it was fun not being sarcastic...the birthmother's mom then had one serious question to ask us...she asked how do we plan on raising and disciplining this child...we just talked about how we wanted to raise our child in a loving Christian home that includes lots of fun yet discipline if necessary...I then asked if we answered her question like she wanted us to and with tears in her eyes said yes!! Then the birthmother & mom both said (get this)..."As far as we are concerned this is FINAL"...did you hear that...FINAL...meaning we were the family they had chose to raise this precious little boy...WOW!! We are literally still in shock...then they started saying how they already have made a care package complete with a blanket for Baby Mulder to take home with us...they asked us about our openness and if we would be willing to take pictures at the hospital with the baby and her family...really...we cannot believe this is happening!! Of course we said the openness is up for discussion and by all means pictures are a must. She then wanted to the spelling of Baby Mulder's name so she could make something with his name of it...cannot wait to see what it is. Then the birthmother & mom asked if we wanted to follow them back to their house where we could meet their cat, see pictures of their family (more) and they wanted to show us the things they have been working on for Baby Mulder...seriously...this is too much!! We followed then back to their house and (wait this will make you get chills) we go driving into their neighborhood and the neighborhood name is the same as the name we have chose for Baby Mulder...I get chills everytime thinking about this...Once we entered their house we were greeted by their cats and even given pictures of them to take home with us. They also showed us the blanket they had already made and many other items...we were overcome with joy & excitement. After about an hour we said our good-byes or I guess in this case...see you in March!!! We headed to the nearest gas station then ventured out of Idaho knowing that we have the privalege in coming back in March to bring Baby Mulder home....WOW did we just say that!!! We cannot wait to see what the next four months hold but all we know is we have a lot to do to now prepare for Baby Mulder...we cannot wait for the showers, to create ideas for birth announcements, getting the bags packed, house completely cleaned & meals in the freezer...well at least that is the plan!!

We do want to state this though...that although the law states that the birthmother have 48 hours after the birth to change her mind and decided to parent the child instead...in our situation we feel 100% comfortable that this is the child God has chosen for family and we are EXTREMELY excited and happy for the next few months as we become a Family of 3...

I know that this post was long but it was basically for us later on so when we print all the adoption posts into a book we have everything recorded...so thanks for bearing with us. Also thank you thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all the prayers, encouragement & well wishes as we ventured to Idaho...they were extremely felt. Please continue to pray that as the next chapter of this story unfolds that God will be ever present in everything that we do and that this little boy grows, is born healthy & that the birthmother is healthy throughout her pregnancy and then following the birth...also we will be getting ultrasound pictures of this little boy later this week...apparently he is going to be long and has long arms & legs.