WE HAVE ACCEPTED A REFERRAL!!!

The entire time we have been on this adoption journey we have known that it would be a possibility for us to adopt 2 children. Quite honestly, we knew that this option was “out there” but I guess we never expected it to actually happen. Our agency contacted us in August about adopting a 3 year old healthy boy while awaiting the referral of an infant. We prayed about it for a couple weeks. We applied the same 3 questions that we worked through when we began the adoption journey. Those questions were, “Does this glorify God?, Does this make me look more like Jesus? And Does this help others see God’s truth?” The answers that we found were, YES, YES, and YES! We emailed our agency and within a matter of a couple days we received the information for this 3 year old boy. Kevin and I waited to open the referral together while our friends Brad and Elicia recorded and photographed this awesome moment! 

Opening E's referral! 

E was found in the capital city of the DRC abandoned and has been in his current orphanage since May. We are so thankful that we have accepted his referral and that he is our son and permanently a Weldon. He is healthy and handsome and smart. We have enrolled him in a program called Jump Start at the orphanage. This program is for children 3 years old+ who are being adopted. They are learning basic English and what life in America will be like. Also, they are receiving counseling on what it means to be adopted and what to expect. We have received a couple progress reports on how E is doing in his classes. His teacher says he is doing well in school and that he is a very smart little boy. Our agency (Children of All Nations-CAN) has been awesome every step of the way and we are blessed to have chosen them! It is easy to get frustrated with timelines, contracts, and adoption unknowns but our hope is in the Lord! We have confidence and assurance that we have made the right decision with our agency! For more info on CAN then click here for our review! 

Here are a couple cool stories about how E's story coincided with ours! 

*We received a $3,000 matching grant from Lifesong for Orphans! May 12 and 13, 2012 on Mother’s Day weekend we received word that we exceeded our Lifesong goal by over $2,000!!! Read the blog post from that weekend here! This mean’t that we had received all the funds we estimated we needed to complete our adoption. E came to the orphanage that same weekend. Coincidence?! Nope! It was God! 

*Kevin and I received our monthly email update from our agency about how the DRC program was going, etc. Our adoption counselor attached a couple photos of the children at the orphanage. Kevin and I both looked at a little boy in these photos and were immediately in awe of how precious he was. We talked about how cool it would be to have a little guy like him running around our house! When we opened our referral of E we immediately recognized that HE was the little boy we were so in LOVE with in that email update! Coincidence!? Nope! It was God! 

We will are still awaiting a referral of an infant from the DRC. We have been told that we will probably travel twice. Once to get E and once to get our baby! We will be fundraising again for our second set of travel fees! Please pray that we receive an infant referral soon along with God’s continued financial provision! Pray for E's health, safety, and transition! We are excited to be parents of this sweet boy!