new blog...new journey

Not sure if anyone out there even follows this blog anymore, but if you are a person who checks in periodically I am starting a new blog called "a faith filled life with my priceless gifts"....that's right I said gifts!  I know I haven't posted for an eternity, and when I last blogged, we were all paper ready and waiting for God's call to move towards our second child.  Back in early October, God spoke to me and told me that our second child was going to join our family in a different way than Caleb did and that we should take some of our adoption fund to pay off some debt.  It took me a few days or maybe weeks (I can't really remember) to even talk to Zach about this, and he of course was hesitant, but in the end believed what I had heard and we paid off the debt leaving us with very little money in terms of an infant adoption in our adoption fund. 
So we continued just going about our lives, as normal, still not feeling any push or call.  Then on November 1st we went to visit K, Caleb's birthmom, and we were secretly presented with the most random request, that only God put together.  Without getting too into crazy details, the short of the story is that Caleb's bio great grandma approached me and told me that she had temporary custody of Caleb's bio cousins (again) and said reunification wasn't looking promising at that point.  She told me they had permanent placements for the older 3 kids, but were still looking for "family" with whom to place Chloe.  I was shocked for a few reasons: 1.) we had no idea Great Grandma had custody again 2.) Chloe is 35 days younger than Caleb and 3.) this was exactly what God had spoken to me about and I was freaking out!!!  As soon as we got in the car to leave, Zach and I began to talk about the possibility of Chloe becoming a part of our family, and to be honest our thoughts and emotions were all over the place.  We spoke to the case worker and were in touch with great grandma regularly over the next few weeks, and really went from absolute "yes we are doing this" to "no way in a million years can we risk this for our family" (because it was going to be similar to fostering with risks that Chloe could still be reunited with her bio parents) and back to "yes" again.  After a whole lot of prayer and discussion with pretty much anyone who would listen, Zach and I decided that if Chloe was returned to her bio parents, we would be fine because God would take care of us, just as he did in the past.  However we knew if we didn't take this risk there wasn't a home for this sweet girl and we weren't sure what was going to happen to her.  So we decided to pursue legal custody followed by adoption (which we are still in the middle of).  It has been a crazy road that continues to be scary at times, but she is such a part of our family that it's all worth it! 
Here is a picture of our sweet family, just a couple of months after Chloe joined our family. 

She has grown and changed so much and so have we.  I never imagined having a 21 month old child join our family would present so many challenges, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.  She really is thriving with us and loves her brother Caleb.  We are so excited to give them a daily biological connection as they grow. 
Anyhow I guess that's all for now.  Hop on over to my new blog in the meantime to follow what's happening with these two little boogers.  When God places adoption on our hearts again, I will be back here blogging that adventure.
Much love,
S&Z&C&C