Trick or Treat!

Unfortunately, we did not get to go Trick or Treating this year. Brianna is sick and has been running a fever since Thursday morning. She has no other symptoms but is running a fever doesn't have much of an appetite and is fussier than normal. We decided to dress her up anyway and since she didn't get to show off her ballerina costume, I thought I would share some pictures of her in it(Thanks, Tina for the tu-tu!). Isn't she cute!

Three years ago...

my life took a change of direction I had never intended. We were a year into the adoption process and had a meeting scheduled to meet a potential birth mother. We had an Encounter Service the Friday before this meeting and we went to pray about the meeting and for the young mother. In the middle of the prayer Pastor Aaron started praying in a different direction and was being very intense. We did not know what was happening but we could tell something big was happening. On that Monday, we started heading up to Indy to meet the birth mother. We were anxious but trying to enjoy the trip. We happened to notice the compass in our dash said we were heading South which was obviously not the case. We pulled off the road and try to reset it. It worked and we continued on our way. A few minutes down the road though and it said South again. We figured something must be wrong with it and we would have to get it looked at when we got home. We were about 30 minutes south of Indy and our adoption agency called and said the birth mother did not want to meet that day. We were obviously upset. We turned around and headed home. By the way, after we turned around the compass still said we were heading South.
In November, we meet Pastor Aaron and Stacey for lunch. I was having a hard time dealing with the fact that after being active with the adoption agency for over year (they normally place with in a year). Also, November is not a very good month for me...I lost my Grandma, and an uncle, both of which I was very close to during this month. Our first baby died during November (it was not confirmed until December) and we found out our second baby had died in November. During the meeting, Pastor Aaron said he had something to tell us. He said that night when he was praying with God told him that we were going to have a child of our own! He said he didn't know what we were supposed to do about the adoption or if we would have any more miscarriages but that God intended for us to have a baby of our own. We prayed about it and felt that that was what God wanted us to do.
A few weeks later, we get a call about a potential placement. And a few days after that, they call us about another and better placement. It appeared that we were going to be getting a baby very soon! We started preparing for the arrival of our little boy. The day we were supposed to head to Indy to prepare for the baby's birth our agency called and said that the birth mother had changed her mind...we were not going to be getting a baby. We were devastated. I hurt as much as any of our miscarriages. After praying awhile about the adoption, we decided that God did not attend for us to adopt.
In March, we discovered that we were pregnant! We were obviously excited and nervous. The pregnancy was not easy for us. I enjoyed it immensely but we were always afraid. But God got us through and blessed us with a beautiful and perfectly healthy baby girl.
I am writing this because I often forget the little ways God was with us during our journey. I am often dumbfounded about the situation with the compass...He didn't want us to adopt and he was trying to tell us to turn around and head South, or home. I wish we would have been observant enough to pick up on it, but we were not. But I do think the next time my compass seems to be on the fritz, I will head the direction it is saying...God might be giving me directions!