So we have Waldroup family baby news...but not the kind we had expected in early 2012. We are 10 weeks pregnant...and not the paper kind of pregnant. We are very unexpectedly expecting, and we find it quite humorous that despite the baby road God has given us in the past, He has a great sense of humor and power over the whole thing. So in case any of you had doubts, God and only God makes babies. He makes who He wants when he wants, and every baby is a blessing.Though the news definitely took some adjustment for both Andy and myself, we know God is in control of all of this, and we are more than excited that He chose to give us this blessing.
So our biggest question at this news...and maybe yours, too...is what about the adoption? We had a couple of early ultrasounds because of our miscarriage history, which showed good growth and a little heartbeat, even at just 6 weeks along. So we've had some time to discuss our situation with our adoption agency, Buckner Adoption. They have advised us to put the adoption on hold until our new baby is about 9 months old. We definitely felt sad to hear this. We've been waiting now for about a year and praying daily for a son in Russia that we had yet to meet. But at the same time, we believe this is wise counsel from experienced professionals who have our new son from Russia and our whole family's best interest at heart. From a logical perspective, it would take us about four months from the time of referral to get a child from Russia home, and I could not travel internationally past June per my OB. So this left a very small window for us to accept a referral at all. Also, even if we were able to come home in May or June with our new son, this would not allow much time for us to get him adjusted to life in the United States and in our family before the new baby would arrive in September. While we know that our agency could certainly have taken the other perspective that we should do what we could to add this new son to our family as soon as possible, we feel comfortable and confident in this new delayed road. They also confirmed that had we already received a referral, we would have completed the process and brought that child home, even if it was on a tight timeline. We also, as we said, know that our God is sovereign over all things. We still believe He has a child for us in Russia, and, despite our expectations, that child may or may not be conceived or born as of today. As any family with children who join their family through adoption will attest, God's timing is perfect, even when it seems painfully slow to us as we wait.
We also have other exciting family news. Andy's brother Eric and sister-in-law Joni Beth are expecting as well. Eric & JB will welcome the next Waldroup grandchild around August 1st, and our baby will come around September 19th. Today, we had back to back ultrasounds, as we use the same OB. It was such a fun and unusual blessing to get to share our joy together. We had confirmation that our 10 week old is thriving, and they found out the gender of their 17 week old(watch Facebook for this news...no spilling the beans on our blog). Needless to say, Andy's parents, Denny and Lee, are just a bit excited about two new grandbabies this year, and we all thank God that Lee is retiring in May to make more/longer trips to Lexington possible. Joshua is very excited. We shared the news of a baby in mommy's tummy with him tonight. He is convinced the baby is a boy. (I guess a year of talking about his brother may be a hard habit to break, if need be.) He loved seeing the pictures of "mommy's baby," so this adds to our joy of this new pregnancy. He also said tonight before we had our family prayer time that, "I love him (baby). I will tell him I love him when he comes out. I will pat his hair."
We would appreciate everyone's prayers through this pregnancy, and please continue to pray that God would prepare us to welcome our child from Russia in God's timing. Thank you as always for your love and support.
