Prayer Needed

I feel that I am constantly asking for your prayers. However, I truly feel God telling me to ask those of you who faithfully read, to lift us up in prayer. We have now submitted four grant applications. We should be hearing back from them at the beginning of the new year. One in particular is meeting on January 10th. Please pray specifically that those who review us would find favor with us. In the book Prayers That Avail Much, there is a specific prayer that we will be praying over in these upcoming weeks. If you feel led, we would ask you to do so as well.

Father, in the name of Jesus, You make Your face to shine upon and enlighten Chris/ Vanessa and are gracious (kind, merciful and giving favor) to them. Chris/Vanessa are the head and not the tail. Chris/Vanessa are above only and not beneath.

Thank you for favor for Chris/Vanessa who seek Your Kingdom and Your righteousness and diligently seek good. Chris/Vanessa are a blessing to You, Lord, and are a blessing to these adoption grant funds. Grace (favor) is with Chris/Vanessa who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity. Chris/Vanessa extend favor, honor and love to adoption grant funds. Chris/Vanessa are flowing in Your love, Father. You are pouring out upon Chris/Vanessa the spirit of favor. You crown them with glory and honor, for they are Your children-Your workmanship.

Chris/Vanessa are a success today. Chris/Vanessa are people very special with You, Lord. Chris/Vanessa are growing in the Lord-waxing strong in spirit. Father, You give Chris/Vanessa knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom.

You bring these adoption grant funds to find favor, compassion, and loving kindness with Chis/Vanessa. Chris/Vanessa obtain favor in the sight of all who look upon them this day in the name of Jesus. Chris/Vanessa are filled with Your fullness-rooted and grounded in love. You are doing exceeding abundantly above all that Chris/Vanessa asks or thinks, for Your mighty power is taking over in these adoption grant funds.

Thank you, Father, that Chris/Vanessa are well-favored by You and by man in Jesus' name! Amen.

Thank you to those of you who are upholding us in prayer. We had a busy, but very fulfilling Christmas. I will try and jump on here in the next few days to update you with a few pictures of Zoelle and maybe (if I am brave) a pregnancy picture. Blessings to all in this New Year!

All I Really Want For Christmas

On this cold December day, my thoughts, once again turn to adoption. Here is an absolutely beautiful music video by Steven Curtis Chapman on the miracle of adoption.



As we come closer to Christmas, I can't help but think all I really want for Christmas is my baby to be in my arms. However, there are millions of children out there who only want a family for Christmas. So instead, in honor of my child to come, I pray and focus on those children this Christmas season.

Birth Day

Today is my birthday! I say that not because I want lots of "Happy Birthdays", but rather because it has me thinking about a very special "birth day" that one day (hopefully soon) I get to be a part of.

Since having Zoelle 18 months ago, the two birthdays I have celebrated have been so different for me. I understand and know now exactly what my mom went through on the day she gave birth. There was nothing more exciting, terrifying, painful, emotional, etc. for me then the day I gave birth to our precious Zoelle Grace. I'm sure my mother felt the same way when she had me. Which brings me to thinking again about our birth mom and the birth day she will one day experience.

No, we don't have a birth mom yet, or not one we know specifically. However, God knows who she is, and He has shown me the need to pray for her and today on my birthday, I think of her. What an absolute sacrifice it is for her. To go through the amazing, terrifying experience of birth only to look at that child and give him/her to their adoptive parents. The love I experienced for Zoelle upon birth was like nothing I have ever experienced before. She too, will experience that love, and because of that love, will give us her child to raise as our own. Seriously, is that not a direct show of God's love for us in giving His son to us to save us? Think what Mary must have felt as she laid Jesus into God's loving hands. It is the ultimate love sacrifice for your child, and I am grateful for whomever God has chosen to be our birth mom.

In the meantime, thank you to those of you who have facebooked me, e-mailed me, or managed to catch me and ask how I am feeling this pregnancy. Thanks to many of your prayers, I believe I am officially done with the "all day sickness". It lasted about 3 weeks shorter then it did with Zoelle. Praise God! Just last week, I felt the baby move for the very first time, and what a joy that is to me!

Chris and I also want to thank those of you who make it a point to ask us about the adoption. You have no idea how much that means to us. Many people avoid asking because they aren't sure what to say. However, to us, it is just like we are carrying this child. This child may be in our hearts instead of my tummy, and it may take longer then 9 months, but we still love to talk about the adoption!

We have heard back from both adoption grants places and currently both are just waiting to hear back from our references before moving forward. May I just ask for your prayers in that our references will respond quickly to their questions.

Love to you all, and enjoy this "birth day" with me in praying for our birth mom.

Thanking God

“Learn to do what is right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow and the orphan.” Isaiah 1:17

What a week it has been for all of us! The biggest news we have is that thanks to your prayers and God's help last Friday and Saturday we were able to mail off two of the applications we have for adoption grants! Praise God. We seriously do not think we would have finished those two if it were not for prayers for Vanessa's sickness to pass. It passed enough that she could fill out the necessary paperwork, and get them in the mail. So, for now...two down, more to go!

We don't have a lot to post on this blog except to say that thanks goes out to you for praying (Vanessa asks that you don't stop yet!). Also, thanking God for being such a faithful God in all aspects of our lives, even a very sick pregnancy. :)

We hope you have a very blessed Thanksgiving!

National Adoption Month

For several days now, we have been praying that God would show us what to update in our blog. Yesterday, we felt that God gave us two things he wanted us to share.

First, November is National Adoption Month. There are 500,000 children in foster care. Of these children, 129,000 are "legally free" and waiting for a family. Many of you know that adoption is near and dear to our hearts. Not only because we are adopting is it so, but also because Vanessa comes from a family with nine adopted siblings. We know that adoption is not for everyone. However, we want to encourage each of you who reads this blog, to pray through the rest of the month of November. Ask God what He would have you do to support adoption. That might not mean fostering or adopting a child. However, maybe God wants you to come along side a family who is adopting, or who already adopted and support them in prayer and encouragement. As someone told Vanessa in a conversation very recently, "There is no greater show of what God has done for us, as His children, as what He does with adoption here on earth". Isn't that true? God has adopted us as his sons and daughters, and we can do the same for those here on earth who need that.

Secondly, we have had many people ask us where we are at financially for the adoption. So far, we have been pretty vague. However, after praying to God about this blog, we felt the Lord leading us to declare exactly what we still need. So here is the info. So far, through the support of so many amazing people, we have been able to pay for our home study. What does that cost? $3,000. How much does an adoption cost? Each adoption is different, but those we have heard about thus far, seem to average out to be about $15,000. We are asking, that you join us in prayer that we can raise this $15,000 to get this child home to us. Now, do realize that some of this money will (and we say will, because we are trusting God completely) come from grants. However, we have not got any of that paperwork out yet. We know, everything is in God's timing, yet every time we try to sit down to do it, something comes up. Pray especially, that we would have the time, energy, and that Vanessa would be well enough to do this paperwork.

The pregnancy is continuing to go by so quickly. Vanessa is still sick. However, there have been some good days amongst the bad ones. Pray specifically, that if this is not to pass soon, emotionally, Vanessa can keep her spirits up.

Lastly, our little baby girl Zoelle is going to be one and a half years old on Tuesday. My how fast time goes! We'll attach a picture of her at birth, and her now, just so you can see how much she has grown. What a joy to her mama and dada she is. We constantly are praying that God softens her heart to Him and that the plans He has for her shine through in everything she does.

Blessings to all of you for reading this long post. Thank you for your encouraging words and prayers. They mean the world to us!

For Such A Time As This

"And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" Esther 4:14

If you are now squinting and staring at your screen, going "Uh, no she didn't?!?", yes, she did! :) I did just post a beautiful picture of a pregnancy test. Not just any random pregnancy test, that test would belong to me. Yes, we are pregnant!

We were a bit surprised, but the only verse that kept going through my mind over and over again, was the verse above. For some reason, God used that verse to reassure me (Vanessa) that it was in His timing and for such a time as this. I need that reassuring as I get very sick in my pregnancies. God has been good though, and this pregnancy has been slightly easier then Z's pregnancy. Thus, no throwing up everyday, all day long. :)

So the big question everyone wants answered: Are we still adopting? YES! Absolutely! God has placed on our hearts adoption, and we truly feel that the time for that is still now, despite a pregnancy. If God calls both to us, then He will allow us to handle both. We sincerely look forward to it. There was not one bit of doubt in our minds that God had called us to still adopt.

When am I due? If you take a look at my pregnancy test, I have marked the date. Yep, that would make me 3 months pregnant. We have known for some time, but wanted to wait until our first appointment. Baby is due to come around May 22, 2009. Zoelle and this baby will be just two years apart. A very exciting time for us.

We ask that you, as our faithful supporters and prayer warriors uplift us in prayer. Specifically, I ask that you could pray my all day sickness ends soon. We also would ask that you would pray for God to give us the patience to wait out both an adoption and a pregnancy. Lastly, we ask prayer "for such a time as this", for God has called us to this time, a time that we are unsure of in the adoption world. Please pray that He would continue to love and guide our hearts in this adoption.

Homestudy Completed

The day has finally come! I just sent off what is hopefully our final draft of our homestudy! Yay! I know I have been talking for what seems like forever about our homestudy being "almost completed". Well, it takes time. Not only for us, but also for our dear social worker. The paperwork to complete a homestudy is huge!

Look for further updates soon as now we can finally start moving forward in the process. :)

Supplying Our Every Need

Can I just say how amazed I am with God? He supplies our every need in ways that are absolutely unbelieveable!

This week we needed to finish paying for our homestudy in order that our social worker could finish it. She needed to finish it so that we can turn in our grant paperwork. However, because Chris owns two businesses we were stuck with some expenses on both business that were rather substantial. Thus, leaving us with not much leftover to pay for our homestudy. We were praying that somehow God would come through. Guess what?!? He did! Why do we even doubt right? He came through in an amazing way. It is our hope and prayer that God will bless the person that He called to help us, and we pray that one day we can do the same for that person.

So, now we finish up grant applications (lots of them, some we still have to start). Then, we wait on God to provide favor and blessings on us. How amazing to watch this journey that God is taking us on!

Be Still and Know That He Is God

Which is exactly what we have been doing! :) I realize that I haven't updated you all in more than a week now. Sorry about that. It's just that there really hasn't been anything to update concerning the adoption. So we wait. Today, I received an e-mail from a friend that said to "Be Still and Know That He Is God". It was exactly what I needed. Isn't that the truth? He is God. He knows the timing of all. He sees through our every emotional, financial, and physical needs in life, including those in this adoption. It is what I needed to hear today, what I will need to hear tomorrow, and probably for some time yet.

Meanwhile, while we wait on finances, we have been doing more paperwork. We have been anxiously filling out lots of paperwork for different adoption grants. Please pray that God finds favor for us in these grants and that we can finish up this paperwork soon. It is a lot of paperwork! Very draining at times, yet we know worth it.

Since I don't have any other huge news, how about I end this with a video of my one baby I do have now-Zoelle Grace. She is getting as big as ever! She is 16 months and a delight to both of us. She is very "active" lately, which is a kind way of saying getting into everything. So, we are doing some training. Has anyone ever said how exhausting that can be?!? :) She loves to talk and astounds us at times with how much she knows. She is going to be an awesome big sister! Which reminds me, we talk about a new baby to her all the time, and each time we do she smiles and nods and tells me "baby". She also makes sure to tell me that the new baby can nurse as well. No kidding! My little girl loves to nurse and I have been preparing her with the idea that another baby will probably nurse. Every time I nurse her, I ask her if it is ok if the new baby nurses she will smile and nod, sometimes even say "yes". Let's hope she stays that way when a baby does come. ;)

Blessings to all of you. Thank you for your continued love, support, and prayers. We appreciate and love you all.

We have a decision!

Well ladies and gentleman, we have a decision! We decided no. Why you may ask? Well, specifically long before we even started this adoption process we felt that the Lord had in mind a specific child for us, including a name, gender, and race. When told about this little boy, it did not match up with what we feel came from the Lord. However, we also know that what God has for us may not be this child, but possibly a different child down the road. So, we are open to any gender and any race for that reason alone. As both of us prayed on it this afternoon we both felt a gentle no from the Lord and that a child will come to us in His timing. The perfect child for us! If it was up to us, I think we would take any and every child that came our way. Please pray for this precious little one to get matched soon.

Continue on in your prayers for us as well! Thanks.

Prayers Needed Please

Yesterday, I received a call from our social worker about a little boy (1 week old) from Texas up for adoption. We had to make a quick decision about whether we wanted to put our names in for the adoption because of the nature surrounding his adoption. We originally said no because of finances. However, we received a second call today involving this boy and we are again praying. They need a family for this boy badly and so our decision has to be quick. So, I'm not sure how many of you read our blog but if those of you who do would pray that God would provide us with the correct decision, we would appreciate that.

In other news, God came through with our money needed for the home study! I don't know why I doubt him, but I did.

Off for now, please pray. I'll update when I can.

Where we are at?

We seem to be getting lots of questions of where we are at in our adoption journey. I come to the blog hoping that some of you read it so I can answer your questions. As of now, we have turned in all of our home study paperwork. We can pretty much put our name out there to be matched with a birth mom at anytime. However, we could be picked rather quickly and thus need the finances to pay for the adoption right then. So, for now, our home study is complete (or just about) but we are not sending it out to agencies yet. Why you wonder? If a birth mom would pick us, imagine the hurt and pain she would feel if she later found out that we did not have the finances right then. That is not something we want to do to a birth mom. This is a very emotional processes for both the birth mom and ourselves, and we need to be ready financially before we put our home study out there.

Chris and I constantly keep talking about how God must be strengthening our faith and trust in Him during this journey. It is a complete and total faith walk as we have no control over any of the decisions. It is all up to Him.

So where are we at financially? We have gotten some great responses to our adoption. We are so thankful to those of you who have committed to praying and supporting us. Without you, this adoption would not be taking place. Right now, we have a need of about $1,000 to pay for part of our home study. This is a fee we did not expect to pay so soon. However, as I told our social worker, we believe in a God who supplies our every need and we know He will supply this need. If you would join us in prayer that God would provide the $1000 we need by this Friday, that we would appreciate it.

Thanks for checking out our blog. One day soon, I hope to be posting on here that God has picked out the perfect child to join our lives. :)

Our family waiting for baby

Here we are as a family. I thought you would all appreciate a family picture you could see. We have an empty spot just for a baby to come fill our hearts and lives.

Faith the size of a mustard seed

Matthew 17:20-Jesus answered, "Because your faith is too small. I tell you the truth, if your faith is as big as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there', and it will move. All things will be possible for you".

As a child this was one of my (Vanessa's) very favorite verses. Of course, at that point, I had such childlike faith. So many times I wish I was a child again so I could have that faith all over again. Lately, if has been very hard for me to have faith in Jesus that He will provide for our adoption. Chris does so much better with it then I do. He constantly declares around our house that, "God is going to provide, you will see.". I realized today though while praying about it that I can have faith like I did as a child. It may only be a tiny bit, the size of a mustard seed, but God will honor that and provide me with even more faith.

In other news, God did give me faith today in the forum of a letter. Well, actually, our first support back. Praise God! Thanks for praying with us and supporting us.

Keep faith!

To Make A Donation

If you are feeling that God has called you to make a donation and you would like to do so online, we have set up a paypal account in which all money will go toward our adoption. Our paypal address is: cvjacobson@yahoo.com or you may click the Donate link on the left to be linked directly to a paypal payment.

We thank you sincerely for helping us on our journey to our child. Many blessings on you.

Our First Step In Our Journey

Dear Family and Friends,

We write this letter to you in celebration of an exciting event in our lives. We are expanding our family through adoption! Years ago, as a teen, Vanessa felt God’s calling on her heart to adopt a child. In recent years, Chris too has felt the Lord calling him to adopt and help a child in need of a home. Since our marriage five years ago, we have been waiting on the Lord to guide us on when to begin the adoption process. It has become very clear to us this past year that the time is upon us.

We have been working locally through God’s Children Adoption Agency and are just about finished with our home study. At this point in our lives, we know that God has called us to adopt a baby through domestic infant adoption. Outside of domestic infant adoption, we have no idea what God has in mind for our family. However, we are excited and eager to find out!

We feel so incredibly blessed and loved to have family and friends such as you to share in this incredible experience. We will need plenty of prayer as we continue on with the process. We ask that you specifically pray for the birthmother, whoever she may be. Pray that her heart would be prepared and at peace. Please also pray for the child of our hearts that is to come into our home. Pray that God would specifically prepare him or her for our family. Also pray for our family; that the Lord would prepare us for another child and prepare Zoelle to be a big sister!

Our main prayer right now is concerning finances. We feel very strongly that this is from the Lord, but also know that it will be difficult for us financially. We believe in a God of miracles and ask that if you feel called to be a part of this miracle, to please consider giving to us financially in support of our adoption. We know and trust that God will provide and we look forward to seeing just how He will.

In the meantime, if you would like to keep updated with where we are in the adoption process, or to make a donation, please visit our blog at: http://cvjacobson.blogspot.com/
Thank you so very much for your prayers and financial help. We feel blessed that you are a part of our child’s new life.

Love in Him,

Christopher, Vanessa, & Zoelle Jacobson