The Match Meeting

Just an overview of how Bethany Christian Services works... They have birth families look over profiles and choose one family to interview. So it isn't like they interview everyone then pick. By the time they interview an adoptive family they have already "picked" them and the match meeting is more of a confirmation of that choice.

As you can imagine the last week and a half was a time of total anticipation. It has been so awesome to be able to pray for our potential child's birth mother by name. We have been enjoying the time of excitement, but have been guarding our hearts as well because nothing is for certain.

Yesterday we woke up perfectly refreshed. We thought we might not be able to sleep, but we did! I made some cookies to take with us while I drank my morning coffee. The morning was so beautiful! On our way out the door Jake was talking to our friend Chad. (Chad and his wife Rica have adopted 2 kids through Bethany and have been a huge support to us. They recently moved to Ohio, but were back in town for a visit this week) He told us they were just having breakfast and to stop by. It was so good to see them and be encouraged by them and to pray with them. God is cool how he works even the little things out! We picked up some pictures we wanted to share, got gas and a carwash, then were on our way to Bakersfield!

We arrived 1 1/2 hours early to the meeting place. So we had some time to kill. We spent that time talking, praying and playing on the iPhones. (What did we do before iPhones? haha) We saw one car pull up and decided it looked like the social workers (Our social worker wasn't there, just the birth mother counselor, this was her first match meeting, so her boss was there too.). Then we saw another car pull up and Jake was like, It is them! I see our profile in the girl's hand! Then we both got really nervous and decided not to look. We didn't want to go in until 3:30 in case the birth family and their social worker needed time to talk before we came. We prayed one last time then went in.

When we walked in we were greeted by the social worker and she took us into the meeting room. It was packed! lol I don't think match meetings usually involve so many people, but it was great because everyone was there to support the birth mom. We met the birth mother, her parents, her sister, and her sister in law in addition to the social workers. Everyone was very sweet and supportive of the birth mother and her adoption plan. We found out that the birth mother had been adopted herself along with her sister. Her parents had over 85 foster children over the years and put us at ease telling us they knew how we felt because they had been in our shoes before. The social worker facilitated the meeting which helped get the ball rolling. She had us talk about our marriage and how we met. We talked about our jobs, family, and all of those basics. We learned more about the birth mother and her wishes for her child. She said she just wants us to give her child a good life. That is what is most important to her. We talked about our plans to homeschool, our views on discipline, our faith. It was cool because her parents are both pastors so it was really easy to talk about our faith and what it means to us.

We asked why she chose us, what stood out in our profile. She said we were #3 of the profiles she looked at. Once she read ours she did not put it down while looking at all of the others. She said she knew it would be us, but wanted to read more just in case. She said one thing that drew her to us was that Jake looked like her brother. :) She said that she knew she wanted us to be the adoptive parents, but now that she met us she was she knew for sure.

I guess typically they want you to wait a day or so and talk about it, then let the social worker know (on both sides) if you want to proceed. The birth mother's dad was like, "I thought it was already a done deal!" lol The birth mother said she had already made her decision, so we set up our second match meeting. We will meet next Friday and talk about hospital plans, what kind of contact is desired, etc. Soooo, if all goes well little Cadan Lee McCormack (Its a Boy!) will be coming home in 3-6 weeks or so!

***A little disclaimer... People are the variable in adoption, and there is no way to predict what people might do. So nothing is final until it is final. We have decided to allow ourselves to be happy, excited, joyful, etc. If something doesnt work out we will know that it is all in God's plan. It will hurt though and we would have to grieve the loss. But we don't want to hold back our joy based on the "what if's."

On our way home we were quiet most of the time, just allowing it all to sink in. To think that we would probably be driving the same road within a matter of weeks with a baby in the back seat!

God has so blessed us through this process and we know He will continue to do so. We can't wait to have more updates!

<3