papers, papers, papers

It is exciting to say that we are nearing the end of our paperwork!  I can hardly believe it, but we just checked, so it must be true!
Our agency is a Type-A person's dream.  They have an online portal where we interact with our case worker when we have questions.  There is a section where they have broken down our required documents, trainings, and other activities into several checklists as we upload documents or mail them to CAS we can check the item off the list and each checklist gets submitted to the case worker as it reaches completion.  She reviews the documents that we've uploaded and marks the list as 'accepted' if she has all the information needed.  Its a great help for organization, timing, and for reviewing when I feel like I haven't done anything towards the adoption in a while.
We received confirmation that our references have gotten their letters and are working on those for us.  It kind of makes it a little more real to know that some work is being done by others toward the end of Baby Henderson!

Additionally, I had some wonderfully encouraging conversations with several friends this week.  It was incredible to feel loved by each of them in such special ways. 

I have decided that we will do a Spring yard-sale to help raise funds, so if you live nearby and have items that you'd like to donate start thinking about it and making a pile because spring will be here before we know it. 

Lastly, one of our sweet talented friends has been busy working on some home décor items that she will be selling for our adoption at an undisclosed location on a Saturday in November from 9am - 3pm.  Please stop by Ozilia's Originals (this is a working business name) and check out her handy work! This is all done free hand which blows my mind, see the example below:

oziliascott@gmail.com if you want to place an order. (I don't know if shipping is an option)

Progress

This week was exciting because we were able to submit 2 more checklists of documents to CAS (the adoption agency)!  So that's 4 of 11 lists now completed. 
Saturday was a cool, rainy day (Luke's favorite kind) and most of our regular housework was done so I spent a few hours in our guest room cleaning out drawers in preparation for the transformation into our child's room. 
A few months ago my parents visited and brought some boxes filled with some of my old stuff.  It was a pretty surreal moment to be going through my old books and thinking that these might actually be read by my daughter one day.  I'm not going to lie, I got a little teary eyed.  Then today we were speaking to some friends and Luke remembered that he had some of his childhood dominos in a drawer.  When he showed them to me we found the onsie that he was brought home from the hospital in.  When Sandi first gave that to us I was a little heartbroken because I was convinced that we'd never have children. (yes I'm prone to be a bit dramatic at times)
I love that each little step toward adoption and each little moment of revelation that there is hope for a child at the end of this points me back to my Savior; His changes in my life and His love for me.

Giving Platform Decided

Hello Friends! 

We have made it back safely from the UK and have hit the ground running in regards to the adoption world.  Our latest efforts have been in the fundraising relm.
after much research we have decided to use YouCarring.com as our platform.  Basically, this was the website that will end up passing the largest amount of the raised funds through to us.

If you are desiring to donate to bring our child home and have a PayPal account, please use your PayPal to make the donation as this will result in 100% of the donation coming through to us. If you use your credit card your donation will have to have 2.9% + $0.30 withheld for processing fees. The other sites that we researched withhold 5% or more.
I know some people might think that this is too much information to share, but I feel that you deserve to know the rationale behind the site we chose as well as why we're asking you to use PayPal if possible.
We want you to know that we appreciate your contribution toward our adoption whether it be prayer, emotional, financial, or anything else. 

We have had a few fundraising ideas (home décor & jewelry) from friends around us so if you prefer to buy an item rather than just donating funds please hold on, an update will be coming for you soon!

We love you all, please keep praying for our little one and his/her mother.

URL:  https://www.youcaring.com/luke-lynn-henderson-445032

Two in One Update

This was Luke's Monday update to the growth group:
 "I wanted to give everyone a quick report on the recent adoption agency meeting Lynn and I attended (this past weekend) in Charlotte. For the most part, the meeting was fine; we were not very thrilled with the way the meeting was structured (not the most organized), but we still were able to learn a little, and what we did learn encouraged us. In addition, we still feel very confident with our choice to go with this particular agency (answered prayer) and happy that we have completed this initial step of the process. As of right now, we are just waiting on the agency to let us know if our application has been accepted (we should know in the next week or so). Thank you for your prayers and the incredible support you have shown Us!!

 Lynn and Luke"

And on Monday afternoon:
 "Thank you all for your prayers.  We have been notified that we are approved to move forward with the process at CAS!  Praise the Lord!  We now get to move into the formal application process which consists of  lots more paperwork, some trainings, meetings, and the home study.
For those who have asked, we should have a better idea of fundraisers (and the giving platform) very soon.

We love you all.  Please joining us in praising our gracious Lord for the quick response!

Starting the adoption process

We have wanted to adopt for awhile now, but for various monetary and time reasons did not feel that it would be prudent at the time to adopt a child at that time.
So along with my job change to Nexus Global last October came an actual home life.  I no longer have to drive over an hour each way and I don't have any mandatory overtime, so early in 2015 Luke and I began to talk about the possibility of moving forward with the adoption process. 
We have been praying about it for a couple of years, and this past spring we began to research agencies and attend their informational meetings.
The Lord also lead us to change churches (for many reasons that I'm not going to get into here) with this change came a new small group.  One of the couples in the small group connected us with their friends who had just completed an adoption in North Carolina within the last 6 months.  We met with them and they were so helpful with many aspects of the VERY daunting process that is adoption.

We have decided after much prayer and research that (for this child) we are going to pursue domestic adoption.  We don't have any gender or race preference.  We are not limiting ourselves to open or closed adoption, but are hoping that the birth mother/family chooses an open or semi-open adoption.  We'd love the opportunity to use this difficult situation to be a ministry to her/them.

We have completed our preliminary application (roughly 15 documents) with an agency called Christian Adoption Services.  Their main office is about 3 hours from us outside of Charlotte.  Thursday 9/10 we will be attending their informational meeting at 7pm.  We should be hearing back from them in roughly a week as to whether or not we have been accepted to proceed in their program.  If we are approved, we will need to submit the formal application and the first and smallest of many fees.

There are many things that we don't know at this point about the process in general as well as what is provided by selecting this agency.  Unless something crazy comes up in the meeting tomorrow we will be trying to proceed with CAS.  We are super excited to get this show on the road as we hear the average time frame for placement is 15 months after the home study is complete (roughly 18 months from today)!

Our growth group had a prayer time last night for us and for this process that we are beginning.  We have never had anyone do something like that before.  We are just unbelievably humbled that so many people (both those that could make it AND those that could not physically join us) care enough to take the time to join us in praying.  I was just amazed by the love of the body of Christ that has surrounded us both from our new IDC family, from our RCCC family, from our various friends & family back in Texas, and from our biological family members.  We are so undeserving, but desire to be vessels of our God's perfect grace and love.  We hope to one day have a child to teach the truth of how the God of the universe reached down and adopted us into His family.
During the prayer time we were asked to provide 5 specific requests that could be lifted up for us, so I've provided them here in case you'd like to join us in prayer. 

Prayer Requests:
1. That each of would have a peace concerning the particular agency we are using. And that our application would be accepted.
2. Knowledge (good understanding) about the actual agency, the overall process, and the immediate tasks we need to fulfill and about practical (realistic) ways to raise money quickly.
3. That we might be approved for grants.
4. That our emotional state would remain focused on the Lord and His will/ timing rather than our efforts and desires. And that we will not be discouraged by lengths of time and the piles of paperwork.
5. Health of our baby and his/her birth parents. We're praying that this experience would be a ministry to the birth parents that they might see God's love and provisions for His children through this picture of adoption. (Regardless of the level of contact they chose to maintain)

You have no idea how much your prayers, love, and support mean to us.  We have been overwhelmed by you all. 
Our God is great, and greatly to be praised!  I look back at the few postings I had in 2012 and remember the bitterness that I allowed myself to stay in so frequently.  He has done a great work to soften my heart!  I don't know that I will ever be able to fully explain the depth of the change.  That is more than enough.