Prayers needed

Ok, I am more writing this to get some thoughts off my heart than anything else. 

Adoption is NOT easy.  As far as I can tell, it is soooo much harder than being pregnant for 9 months, and it's definitely not without some serious pain and scars.  True, the pain and scars are emotional rather than physical, but sometimes it gets so bad that I physically hurt.  Those that say "oh, you're lucky" or "you took the easy road".... well, you've obviously never laid your heart out in the hands of someone else and waited for something to happen which you have NO control over.  You can't be there to make sure your baby is getting the correct nutrition, or be at every pre-natal visit, or ask all the scary questions you want to know answers to.  You can't feel a little heartbeat or see the ultrasound photo or talk to your baby.  All you know is that you are already desperately in love with a child that doesn't belong to you yet.

We are now approximately 7 1/2 weeks out from meeting our little guy.  But as of yesterday, we found that our adoption ran into not one, but two, bumps in the road.  And unfortunately, both of the upsetting information just happened to come on the same day... one gut punch, two gut punch.  I cannot go into details at this time, so I'm sorry for being vague.  We are going to be able to come up with a work-around one of the major bumps - though the solution is far from easy - but the other snag we have no control over and can't do anything about so it will just have to be committed to extreme prayer.  Once Baby gets here, if there are things we have to deal with, then so be it.

Until then, here is my prayer list.  I request that you join us in fervent prayer for these situations:

1. Julie's doctor report
2. That Julie's Medi-Cal goes through
3. Baby's health
4. For our upcoming fundraisers
5. That we'll be able to come up with all money needed in time
6. That our attorney(ies) with be able to come up with a workable solution for one of the "snags"
7. That Sam and I will be emotionally prepared for whatever comes our way in the following months
8. That Julie is able to heal from her past and move forward and make a better future for herself

That list is in no particular order.  It's just that my head is so jumbled right now that I can't actually put them in an order of "most important"... frankly, they are ALL most important right now.  That isn't even all of the items we pray for constantly, but those are the ones I can share.

On a lighter note, Sam and I are very close to finally picking out a name, though we aren't saying what it is at this time.  Eli kind of had his name picked for him (since it is derived from his birth name) so I don't remember it being difficult when choosing what it would be.  However, Baby's name has been a source of serious stress!!  A child is stuck with this name for life!  So much pressure!!! :)