So much has happened

Hello All,

We have meant to up date our past now for weeks. The Lord had been weaving His tapestry in bringing our precious baby to us. Through different relationships I met a wonderful foster mom named Kim. She and I are in the same support group Embrace and she had a foster child that was being moved to foster/adopt. She thought of our family and brought pictures for me to see at our meeting on May 6th. I will never forget the moment she slid the picture of her across the table. My heart just melted. I came home and told Nelson all about her and we talked to the Landon and Lincoln the next afternoon. We told them she was a little younger than we had planned. They ask to see her picture and we slid it across the table. Their exact response ooohhhhh we want her. We got permission to meet her that night. I was grinning from ear to ear the entire visit. You would have thought she had always been a part of our family. Over the next weeks we had several visits and asked to move forward with becoming her foster to adopt family.

Lily moved in with us on June 7th and the time has just flown by. She is such a blessing and is adapting to our family very well. We gave her the love name Liliana and we call her Lily. She is 15 months old and full of life. She has learned many new things in the last weeks. She is walking behind a toy, blows kisses, gives kisses, climbs off and on her horse, waves hi and bye and many more. Do I sound like a bragging mother? :) We are so in love with her and it feels like she has always been a part of our lives.

We went to court on the 19th and the all parental rights were terminated and the judge waived the 6 month wait. If everything goes well we will be able to officially adopt her on National Adoption Day, November 20th. We are over joyed and thank God for adding to our family through adoption. Once she is officially adopted we can post pictures to the blog. God is so good and we can never dream as big as He dreams for us.

We will keep you updated as we continue to go through the process. It is has been a very positive process and God has held our hand the whole way. God bless you all and feel free to ask us any questions if you feel called to adopt.






The Carters

God is at work!!!

Hello All,

All my last posts have been the same message "We are Waiting." Well our wait may very well be over. God is at work and we are being considered for a precious little girl. My heart is flooded with love for her already. The process is moving quite quickly but we should know more next week.

Please keep us in your prayers. The boys are very excited and we all are praying for God's will. I don't think I could have gotten better news so close to Mother's Day. God is so good. More posts to come as we know more.

Thank you all for your prayers, love and support.

The Carters

Still Waiting

Hello All,

I wish I had news for everyone. I feel like a broken record these days. We are still waiting for God to grow our family through adoption. We had our first email over Spring break but chose not to submit our home study because they were outside our profile. Since we are not foster to adopt the process can take a lot longer. We don't know what the Lord has planned but we are willing to praise Him while we wait. I do have to say I look forward to the day that I hear the laughter of a little girl or girls coming from the room that awaits them.

Thank you all for praying and we hope to have news soon. They say things pick up on the summer. We will have to wait and see.

Hugs, Kisses and prayers,
Sandy Sue

While I am Waiting

Hello all,

I am sorry once again for not updating the blog. I will try harder to update it more often. I don't have any new news which seems to be my mantra lately. I have to confess that I have been some what disappointed that we have not heard from our agency for a placement. I know with out a doubt that the Lord has called us into this ministry and I can't wait to serve when the time comes.

I have been praying a lot lately and I know God is in control and everything will be in His timing. As I prayed in my car the other day while driving to Bible study a song came on that was an answer to my prayer. I have the lyrics and a link below. I cried, I sang, I praised and I felt so close to my Lord at that very moment. Waiting is the hard part and I truly believe God uses this time to draw us closer to Him. Enjoy the song I hope it moves you the way it moved me. The Lord reveals so much to us through so many venues. Thank you all again for your prayers and the support you have shown Nelson and I in this amazing adventure. I can't wait to see what God does! (In His timing of course.)

Sandy Sue

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb7TSGptd3Y

Lyrics to While I'm Waiting :
I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am hopeful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it is painful
But patiently, I will wait

I will move ahead, bold and confident
Takeing every step in obedience
While I'm waiting
I will serve You
While I'm waiting
I will worship
While I'm waiting
I will not faint
I'll be running the race
Even while I wait

I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am peaceful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it's not easy
But faithfully, I will wait
Yes, I will wait
I will serve You while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting
I will serve You while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting
I will serve you while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting on You, Lord

Thinking Out Loud

Hello Friends and Family,

I am sorry we have not been updating the post like we should. I mainly haven't been doing any updates because I don't have any new news to share with you. We are still in the waiting phase and could be here for quite some time. We did receive our official license and our home study is being submitted for potential little girls.

I had a friend ask me the other day to just share my heart so from now on that is exactly what we are going to do. I try not put time lines around when we will have our daughter, one so I don't set myself up for disappointment and two because I know the Lord has a divine time set aside just for this moment. I will confess I had hoped we might have a little girl by Christmas.

I have to share with you that I have never felt so called by the Lord to anything like I have to adopt (and through CPS). I have prayed and prayed and talk to the Lord all the time. I always want to be doing the will of my heavenly Father and not just to fill my own desires. The Lord continues to affirm this decision for Nelson and I almost daily. My heart is already filled with love for the child or children the Lord has planned to become a Carter. I think of her often and pray for her and her family. I can't help but look at little girl clothes and toys. I have even bought some toys for her.

We have yet to be contacted about a match for us but every time I check my email or my phone rings from our agency my stomach gets butterflies. When I think about a little girl or girls coming into our family it makes me smile. I can see her and see what a blessing it will be to our whole family to love her. I really can't wait for the day it really happens. The Lord calling me into this ministry is one I feel the Lord has prepared me for in my own childhood. Being a child of abuse I feel God has taken something bad and will turn it into good. As His word says He can use all thing for good. (And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose) Romans 8:28

Thank you all for your support and please continue to pray for us and our future daughter or daughters. Always include their parents in your prayers. We have to remember we don't know what they have been through and ideally we want them to get their lives together so they can be the parents God called them to be.

God bless,
Hugs, Kisses and Prayers
Sandy Sue

We are officially Licensed

Hello Friends and Family,

We are sorry we have not given any updates recently. The adoption process is a lot of waiting and this is what we have been doing for the past couple of months. We found out on November 6th that we are officially licensed for foster/adoption. When I received the phone call and they told me they were now submitting our home study for potential children, I got butterflies in my stomach and thought and thought wow this is really happening.

At this point we do more waiting. We are so excited and can't wait for God to grow our family. We will keep you posted as the process moves forward. Please continue to pray for our future daughter or daughters and their family.

We will wait upon the Lord and trust in His timing. Thank you all for your support in our journey to adopt.

Nelson and Sandy

Waiting again

Hello all,

I am so sorry it has been so long since our last post. It has been crazy around the Carter home with school starting back up. We had our home study on the 17th and everything went really well. We did a mad cleaning the weekend before so we were ready. It was painless not quick but painless. All in all our case worker was her for seven hours. We only had a few things we needed to fix and two of them we did on the spot.

At this point we are just waiting to be licensed. Once we are officially licensed they can submit our home study for little girls who fit our profile. We are excited but also a little nervous. We have put this in God's hands and we trust in Him completely. We don't know when He will add to our family or if there will be one or two little girls. We are so ready to offer the child a loving home and family. The boys keep asking when she is coming? We have to keep telling them we don't know we just have to wait. In the adoption process you do a lot of waiting.

To help you better understand how the process will work I have listed the steps below.

1. Receive our license.

2. Adoption agency submits our home study for potential placement.

3. CPS decides which families will be the best fit for the child.

4. Our agency plus any other agency goes in to represent the proposed family.

5. If CPS choosing our family we met with them and our case worker.

6. They give us the child's information folder. We review the folder and then within 24 hours let them know if want to move forward.

7. We choose to move forward and the child will be given our life book. This book contains pictures of home, family, neighborhood etc.

8. They set up what they call a pre-visit with the child at their current foster home. Nelson and I will go and visit her and get to spend some time.

9. We will have a second pre-visit with the boys. This time we get to take her to the park or to go get an ice cream.

10. We have one more pre-visit. At this point the next time we see her will be her moving into our home.

11. She will live with us for 6 months under a foster status until we legally adopt her.

So as you can see there is still a lot of steps to be taken. Please continue to pray for her and her family. Thank you all for your support and please feel free to ask questions. We want everyone to be part of the adoption and welcome comments and questions.

Sandy Sue