Cole Howard Thurman was born on September 18,2009 at 7:57 pm.
He weighted 6lbs and 14 ozs.
God is so very Good!!!

Already sucking his or her thumb

Dear Friends and Family,

Failed adoption
In June of 2008 it looked like we were facing a failed international adoption, something I never thought would happen when we began this adoption. On September 1, 2008 it was confirmed, as the deadline for referrals from Vietnam came and went without a referral. This was certainly no surprise and entirely what we had been expecting to happen since June.

No where to turn
Between spring and the deadline we looked at many other options, hoping one might be available to us so that we could grow our family. However it seemed that no matter where we looked there were roadblocks after roadblocks both in terms of finances and other resources. In short, after much prayer and investigation we felt there was absolutely nowhere for us to turn except to stay put and wait. Others in our agency were moving on, in fact most were, in one way or another but that was simply not an option for us. While I was incredibly grieved and sad about the situation I felt nothing to do but to wait on God to move. Little by little the grief over the loss began to subside yet it never really went away. I had resigned myself to the fact that we would be parents when God wanted us to be parents but that it may be much further out than what I had hoped for and wanted.

Surprise
In January 2009 we were struck with the surprise that I was pregnant. One think we were overjoyed but actually we were quite scared. We had run into so many roadblocks on this journey to parenthood that we wondered if more heartache was in store for us over the next few weeks or months. We waited week by week knowing that getting past the first trimester was a major hurdle in a successful pregnancy. Finally in the 13th week we learned that we indeed had a viable pregnancy. At that point we were overjoyed! Please continue to pray for our child and us as we wait for his/her arrival into our lives.

Detour
What we thought would be a journey to half way across the world to Vietnam to bring home our first child looks like it will be a much shorter trip over to Greensboro hospital. Thank you for all of your prayers over the years. It mean more than you know. Also, please continue to pray for us and our child as we look to complete the last part of this difficult and often surprising journey.

Ashley

P.S. We will keep this blog and periodically update it because it is an integral part of our journey to our child.