Praying for our Little Miracle as we Begin our Journey of Adoption

And the work begins,  the past couple of weeks have been busy work, trying to determine what agency we are going to chose if any, what company to do our home study. But God has found a way to put someone in our path that went through the same, and was able to give me advice in some of the different avenues that we can take that we never thought of. So here's the plan "at least our plan"- Jason and I are choosing a consultant that is able to work with many many genies throughout the nation that will facilitate the placement of a baby sooner, and an separate agency to do our home study, Please pray for us to be making the right decision. 

In other news, we have our FUNDRAISING page up and running as of today, and hope and pray that our family and friends can become part of us becoming parents, and would be willing to help us in any way possible. 

I once heard that god will not put you through something unless He can get you through it, well this is true now more than ever, He surely has His hands all over adoption, and we know and believe that if he made us take this big step, he has paved the way for it and will get us through it. He is our guide, our stronghold, that cannot be shaken, and in Him we trust alone to make something beautiful out of our circumstances.

Below is our fundraising page:

https://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/bring-home-baby-mcdowell-we-re-adopting/214735

WE'RE ADOPTING!!!!!

This is by far the most exciting news we have to share!! after some years of infertility we have decided and hope that it is the will of God for us to adopt our “missing piece.” This will be a long journey that awaits ahead of us, but this is the main reason we started this blog to share our every step of the way with friends, family, and anyone out there who is going through something similar. We want to have all of the prayers and support we can get from everyone in our lives, since we know it will be a long difficult bumpy road. 

Never in our life did we imagine taking this step, I never thought I would adopt a baby since I always dreamt of carrying a baby in me, and neither did Jason, but God can surely do it all, including changing both of our hearts in such way that we are so overfilled with Joy with this new season that’s ahead.

The Journey to finding our “missing piece” and making this family of 2, a family of 3 (or more). 

Next step.. finding the agency… and start the fundraising for our family and baby McDowell

In case you did not know or where wondering Adopting is extremely expensive Domestic and international and after many phone calls, emails, and extensive research we found that domestic adoption is the best fit for our marriage, because of our ages and length of marriage. 

We hope we can count on your prayers, and support since without those around us we can’t do it. We are tired of doing it alone, and trust that God will provide a way for that little one to be in our family and arms soon! 

EXCITING PICTURES TO COME!!!! 

Laura on A Mission Trip, DR

Fast-forward a year, we are in a new season, still waiting for our miracle. But have decided that we will not stop praying we will just pray a different prayer, that the Lord our God will give a baby even if its not from us, we are letting His grace work in our lives in a different way. We have decided to follow Gods foot steps, and make disciples. 

Laura decides to go on a mission trip to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, and who would of thought as if we could ever doubt his provision, the fundraising for her trip was finalized in less than a month!!! 

June 14 she’s off to the DR> 

June 21 She’s back changed and so is our marriage!

In my heart I knew i would be okay with adopting but never felt strongly about it, until I returned from the DR, and Jason never thought about it only if it was our very last resort. but now!!! More to come! 

A Lesson Learned

A lesson learned! 

Laura goes to a women’s retreat with Forest Hill Church - Little that I know that on the retreat the Lord was going to speak loud and clear to me, He opened a door in my heart and a light to understand His mercy better. i learned that God uses our struggles to let His light shine in the world, for those around us to see Him in us and His love. I understood that longing for a child more than for Him was idolatry, and as Christ followers we are called to love Him above all things, including something as good and pure as a baby. 

We then realized that we needed to fill that whole with God and Him alone, and there I found peace and knew that somehow God will provide and will give us a baby one day.

We have days that are harder than others, when a good friend tells us their joy of getting pregnant, and over and over and over, its hard but we love them and are happy for them, just hope that joy can be ours sooner than later. 

in other News, we are Homeowners of a beautiful home! 

“Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives and the one who seeks dins , and to the one who knocks it will be opened” - Matthew 7:7-8

 

In The Weighting Room!

Living with infertility.. This season in our lives has been so far the most difficult struggle I have ever imagined having, and doing it by ourselves was not the smartest thing we could have chosen to do. So we decided to share it with some friends and even went to a healing service at Forest Hill Church (where we are members), and both Pastor David Chadwick and Jonathan Scott where both there, and prayed for our future children. 

Along with our life groups from church and our families we had great support system, but still felt like there was a big whole in our hearts that longs for a baby. So we didn’t just pray we started to give thanks because as the bible teaches us, in Samuel 1:27 when a woman prays for a child the Lord our God who is always faithful will grant what we asked. 

On this promise alone we continue to pray without ceasing, remembering Sarah and Abraham who at their old age were barren, and God fulfilled His promise. 

“By faith Sarah herself when she was unable to have children, received the power to convene offsprings even though she was past the age, since she considered the ONE who had promised was faithful”- Hebrews 11:1

Our Dreams crushed.. October 15, 2012

This may be lengthy but it’s the reason behind our blog.

Fast forward 5 months >>>> of ‘trying’, For those who have gone through this know how it all is and can relate: basal temperature, a thousand pee sticks, the ‘right’ time of the cycle, this day and the next, you have 72 hours!! Its stressful and consuming, it makes you angry and grow apart, its not fun for sure to then have another disappointment, on that time of the month, (maybe too graphic if you haven’t gone through it) but its nothing but the truth. We did it all, until breaking point. Everyone will tell us, DON’T STRESS OUT THEN IT WILL HAPPEN, but you don’t want to hear that. So we went to the specialist highly recommended and started numerous tests on Laura first… a couple thousand dollars later in medical diagnostic bills, everything was perfectly normal. Then they tested Jason, and there it was one small fee and a couple of days later we had the answer we DID NOT WANT TO HEAR.

We went in to get our results on our 1-year anniversary with the hope that it was going to be great news, and everything was fine with both of us and it was just going to take time. But to crush our dreams and hopes of a baby we found out that we are infertile and completely unable to conceive without extensive medical uncertain interventions. It was heart breaking for the two us, my desires to be a mother were crushed, and Jason could have never imagined this was happening to him.

Jason has always exceeded in every aspect of his life, academics, sports, looks J, and a happy marriage, but this, the one thing that many say: ‘it’s the easiest thing a man can do, and it even happens without trying’ he couldn’t do. We were diagnosed with Azoospermia an unexplained condition where the man does not produce sperm. There it was an unexplained condition, and the anger and frustration began.

We were angry at God, at life, and wondered what we ever did to deserve this, if it was some sort of punishment, and even looked at others wondering how they could have babies when they didn’t want them, when we wanted one so badly but couldn’t.

We were in the midst of a storm that we saw no way out, we couldn’t tell our friends because we didn’t know what they would think, we were embarrassed, we told our families to keep it to themselves, and there we were with our hearts broken grieving for the loss of someone we never even met, our child.

But that night, the same day we found out were couldn’t be parents naturally, Jason came home with the most beautiful sunflowers (my favorite) and we held each other, in a way I would never forget and cried because then we knew we had each other no matter what. We were standing there facing the vows we made exactly a year ago, in illness and health, we will stay together, because we knew God has a plan for us, something greater than we could ever imagine.

SO WE PRAYED!!!!!

“For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare, and not for evil, to give you a future and hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you” Jeremiah 29:11-12

Ready for the next step... "trying" May 2012

So... we're ready to start on our next season, we want to become parents!!  off course everyone around you asks, when are you getting married? we are married now, next... when are you having babies? well we are now ready for that too.. lets see how that goes.. Jason claims he never thought about this, or wanted to in the past but now he's ready, and so am I. Secretly I have always in my heart desired to be a mother and birth a child more than anything, but now, that I have the perfect someone next to me I am definetly ready! Lets hope that it is in the Lords plan also.
And the waiting begins.... Nothing... another month... NOTHING... AND over and over again..

This verse gave us hope in the midst of the new found storm..
"For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end- it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay"- Habakkuk 2:3 

The pastor of our church Forest Hill, likes to use this verse when we get into a waiting period of our life, here we are waiting to get pregnant, and nothing. But this verse reminds us that we shall certainly wait because it is not about our timing but Gods timing, so its not late, its just not the appointed time yet.