It IS a Wonderful Life.

About 9 years ago, I saw the Jimmy Stewart film, "It's a Wonderful Life" for the first time. It is a favorite of my husband's. We had been married a couple years and were having dinner and a movie at a friend's house. For most of the film, I was trying to suppress a massive anxiety attack as I had realized, I was indeed married to George Bailey. My husband constantly put others' dreams and needs before his own and struggled with fear that no matter how hard he worked at at it, he just wasn't enough to make my world and the world around us a better place. He was (and still is) George Bailey.

Now please remember, I hadn't seen the film before, so I didn't know the happy ending that was coming, so I was terrified. But the ending came and I had to try to hold back the sobs. There have been multiple occasions where we were in need and our community of friends came forward with unbelievable support. And we have felt like the Bailey's do in the end: massively rich, because we have amazing friends.

Right now, I am living in that moment at the end of the film when people come to the Baileys with money in their hands cause they heard George needed it.

Last December when we submitted our adoption application to our agency, we thought we might get matched with a birthmother by summer at the earliest. I mean, we had funds to raise and I was teaching full-time; we thought summer was taking an optimistic view of how long it would take to be matched. On our application, we said we were open to any race, but we were praying for a Haitian-American child because my younger brother is Haitian. The agency would tell us later that they laughed when they read that detail because they never served a Haitian birthmother before and they thought it was oddly specific. A few weeks later, a Haitian-American woman at 33 weeks pregnant walked in the door!

Our agency called us and asked if we would like to expedite our adoption and get a profile ready immediately to show this birthmother. We expressed our concerns about how we were not financially ready to pay for an adoption and they said they would work out a payment plan. So we rushed and got our profile ready and the agency began our home-study. They showed the birthmother our profile along with a few other couples and she picked us not knowing we were praying for a Haitian child. Talk about meant to be!

Usually in most domestic adoptions, you finalize 90 days after the child is placed. He was placed in our home March 12th. Well, after long delays, we finally received our finalization date for early December...right before our son turns 9 months old. About a week and a half ago, our agency informed us that they had just learned from our lawyer that the agreed-upon payment plan that we're due to complete in April will not be approved by the judge and if we want the judge to finalize our adoption, then we have to have to pay-off the remaining $5,000 by November 23rd. Our budget is tight as it is with our payment plan. So, we began to pray. God has brought us this far, this quickly, right?

Then a wonderful thing happened. Our friends began to spread the news and money began to come in. This was not expected or requested, but their generosity has humbled us greatly. As of this moment, we still have $3,916 to raise. We continue placing things up on eBay and I am finishing a new collection of handmade Christmas ornaments this week on Etsy. I know, we don't have much time. But, we are keeping faith that God will provide all our needs.

I want to say a big thank you to all of you who have supported us and to all who have been praying for us!

with much gratitude and love,

--Libby