Welcome Daniel Allder Vaughan!

Time to share.

First I need to start by saying I am overwhelmed with gratitude and can hardly type through tears so bear with me while I share how we came to be the parents of Daniel.

Last Spring Justin and I felt called to be open to children here in the US that needed homes.  We have been working with a Christian Adoption Consultant, Tracie Loux, since March.  We decieded to go with her because she understood our heart and she loves the Lord with all her heart.  Our biggest fear with domestic adoption was stepping in front of couples with infertility, ect.  We wanted to open our home up to those that needed homes.  We have had many situations come up but never felt the Holy Spirits leading, until now.

Before I left for Africa we were told about a situation of a young woman here in the U.S., pregnant and needing to give her baby up through adoption.  There was a family in place but when they found out it was a boy, they backed out.  We heard about it, prayed about it and submitted our info., trusting God.  I left for Africa, lead a 13 day mission trip to take the gospel and love on the orphaned of Uganda.

Wednesday after arriving home I received a phone call from the agency trying to place the baby.  Birth mom loved our info (which was a letter with the gospel message in it and a pic of our family).  She is not a Christian but was very drawn to our family!  Justin and I nearly hit the floor - whoa - now what?  They explained the outrageous fees and we both started backing away.  How could we do that in 2 weeks?  God had given Justin a verse earlier in the day and it left him confused, Daniel 3:7 "Therefore, as soon as they heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp and all kinds of music, all the nations and peoples of every language fell down and worshiped the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up." It didn't make sense at first so he thought... "well maybe it was Daniel 3:10 "- they are basically the same verse!  As we sat talking about how horrid the fees are, how sad that was and that, was when Daniel 3:7 came to light for us.  That we were not to bow to the "golden image" of finances that is so common in our culture.  We are to stand, trust God - no matter what.  We left the conversation agreeing to pray and seek God through this.  That night a friend was thanking me for encouraging her to go to bible study (that started while I was gone) and she said she was learning how our culture is so much like Babylon and we are all bowing to the golden image.  I just stared at her.....I could not believe what had just come out of her mouth.  I never talk to anyone about the book of Daniel - like ever!  So we called our pastor and asked him to pray and he had just studied the passage in Mark 14 where the woman poured the oil worth a year of wages over Jesus head making everyone mad because "that could have gone to the poor" - Jesus rebuked them.  This spoke so deaply to my heart coming from Africa and knowing where "that kind of money" can go.  We choose to move forward knowing that God would have to do a TON to make this happen!

We had several amazing God-fearing friends and family praying for us at this point [thank you!]!

Our social worker was already scheduled to be here on Sunday (an appt in the making since March of '10 but she came 4 days later!- ONLY GOD!).  The kids 1 year check ups were scheduled months ago for that Tuesday and all of our paper work will be completely updated - ONLY GOD!

God began, through many cirumstances, to to show us that He would provide for this adoption and we are to be obedient.  Even in the face of time and money, trust God, not just say it but do it.  God has got our back and even more, he has Daniel's.

Here we sit.  We flew all day, drove straight to the foster moms house (who is awesome and I love her) and now we have our latest treasure, a gift, straight from heaven.  Seriously.  Praise God, He is worthy!

[oh and you may be wondering how the other 5 feel?  ask them.  each of them beam.  they have been praying, they love adoption and they love love love having a big family!]