Out in the States!

We're excited to share we've made it to the next step. Profile books: check, letters to potential birth parents: check, made a $10,000 payment: check!
We've made it to the point in our adoption journey where our profile books are going to be sent out! Yippee! The relief we feel to be at this place.
Our case worker will send out our books to some of the other Bethany Christian services offices to be viewed by potential birth mothers and birth fathers. Our case worker has gotten to know us deeply, which will help guide her in who our books are given to.
We have no idea as to the timeline, but were thankful The Lord has his perfect timing. We trust that under his perfect plans for our lives that it will happen. It could be a month, 6 months or 16. We know that our family and friends will be right alongside us as we enter this phase. Please continue to be praying for us, this time can be long, as well as mentally and emotionally draining. We want to thank you however for all the support and love we've felt thus far. It's amazing how this process has brought our family and community so close around us. Thank you.
Here we go, jumping in to whatever God has planned!

Blessings,
Emily

Give thanks to The Lord for he is good, his love endures forever.
Psalm 118


A photo of our profile book, sorry for the poor quality, it's a photo taken off the computer screen.

Profile Book ....

I have to confess the profile book out of this entire process has been the hardest thing for me. I don't really know if I can really put it into words, but its been this weight on my shoulders, continually on the back of my mind. Mentally exhausting right? ....Well I did it to myself. The thought of your protraying yourselves to an unknown audience, a birth mother and father who are choosing us to parent their child. We want to be honest in our profile book, sharing who we are, what we are about, hoping that through the book they will connect with us, Matt & Emily Imlach, hopeful parents. There is a lot of pressure on that book, and I pray that they feel the love that we will give that child, that they will be able to trust us. What a gift, what a selfless hero they are.

 My goal was to have the book finished by Thanksgiving, the reality of that was well, not a reality.
I talked with Matt and we came to the agreement that I would collect the photos, make the list of the themed pages and do some research on what company we would go with. From there, Matt would work on putting the book together, he is a perfectionist (not in a bad way) and I would rather him put his personal touch on it. While Matt was working on the book in his spare time, I would also be working on the paperwork for the loan were planning to apply for.  My wonderful mother in law stepped in to assist Matt in accomplishing the book, she too is very thorough which blessed us greatly in the book getting finished.

We have now ordered 1 profile book, to confirm that when we get it that there are no spelling errors making sure we like the way it looks when we are holding it in our hands. Things are so different from screen to paper. Once we get it (this week!) then we will order 8 more! Whoa! It would be a bummer to order all the books and have a mistake. Thankfully the Lord gave me a wise husband who decided we would just order 1 first.

But through it all, I think its caused me much unnecessary stress, anxiety and disagreements to say the least. The Lord continued to remind me that its all in his timing, and I have to trust in that.

Here are the different themed pages that are going into our profile book:
-Introduction: Matt introducing me and myself introducing Matt.
-Our wedding
-Future Grandparents: There is a special page devoted to my mother.
-Future Aunts & Uncles
-Us at work
-Our home
-Vacations
-Outdoor hiking adventures/trips
-Our interests: Matt: softball, biking, hiking, building/creating projects, gardening.
                       Emily: Running,swimming,hiking,cooking,crafts, gardening,coffee dates,walking pup.
-Fisher
-Friends
-Church
-Shanan

Then there is a closing page with a photo of us and we each have to write letters to the birth father and mother....that was a hard letter to write as well.

Keep on praying, our book will be out there in the world soon being viewed!

Blessings,
Emily