Blogging has not been my thing so far, and I haven't seemed to have time for it. But I am very passionate about adoption, so I think that I will start throwing a few thoughts out there and hope for some discussion and some really great stories.
I will start with the beginning of my story:
I grew up in a very solid Christian home with 4 children and 2 parents. There was no abuse or dysfunction. In my memory, it was aan idyllic childhood and I have wonderful memories. We were by no means well off, but I never felt like we were poor either. Just in the middle - not a bad place to be.
There was never a doubt in my mind that I would be a mother, I never thought otherwise, but I will fill in the blanks later. I want to write about our first miracle.
We were married in 1976 and both finished school and got our lives 'started' and naturally started thinking about children.
I remember the specific place where I had a feeling that we would be adopting children. It was before we had even started trying to get pregnant and my thoughts were along the line of - "I don't really care whose body it comes from, I want to be a mother. Adoption would be just fine!" That was in our 5th year of marriage and then I didn't think much more about it until later.
In 1982 we started trying in earnest to have a baby. We started through a few tests and all seemed fine. It was when the doctor wanted me to have a laparoscopy that I decided that I would just wait and see what God wanted to do.
Child #1
One bit of advice I got when I started wanting to adopt was the very best and I still give it often. It was to tell everyone that you want to adopt. You never know where the connection for your child will come from.
So, we started praying. One day we got a call from a youth pastor that we know and he had an 18 year old young lady in his church youth group that was pregnant and wanted to reliquish her baby for adoption. We said a loud yes, and a few months later, had the most beautiful baby girl that was ever born! There are tons of details that are between the lines that I will try to fill in at another time. The main thing I often encourage people with is this: yes, adoption is expensive, but if God is in it, He will make a way.
Child #2
After our daughter was about 15 mos. old, we decided that we would start praying for another child. We wanted to space them out perfectly, so we thought 3 yrs. apart would be fine and that would give the Lord a whole year and a half to answer our prayer!
So, we quietly started praying for another child to adopt and told no one that we were. This was also the time that my husband was publishing his first book and was under a deadline. The personal computer was a very new thing in 1987, and we had just spent our entire savings on our first computer - one that he could format his book on. One week after we started this daily prayer, AND the MOMENT we walked in the door from purchasing our computer - our phone rang. It was the attorney that had helped us with our first adoption. He lived 1,800 miles away now, so we had no idea why he would be calling us, presumably out of the blue.
The first words out of his mouth were, "you wouldn't happen to want to adopt another baby would you?" With interest, I said something to the effect of him having been hiding in our house somewhere while we were praying. I also asked him why he didn't call two hours ago when we had money! He quickly told us not to worry about that part, it would work its way out.
He told us that he had been trying to find a family for a 23 year old very pregnant young woman. He had shown her 10 resumes and she read them all and asked him if he had ANYONE else. He pulled our old letter out that we had written to the first birthmother, and when she read it, she said that she wanted to meet us, that we were the right ones.
She called us the next day and we talked for over an hour. I loved her instantly and she said she would let us know in a few days what her decision was. She called in a few days and said "Congratulations!" Of course, I screamed and cried and thought we had another three or four weeks. My little man decided to come into the world two weeks ahead of time. Altogether, it was one month after we started praying for another child, that our baby boy was placed in our arms.
The money part is a story in itself. Suffice it to say, God provided every penny of all of the adoption expenses. Keep in mind, neither my husband nor myself have any rich uncles or grandparents. It all came right in the nick of time in many different ways!
Another miracle.
Child #3
I got pregnant and had a sweet baby boy. It was a wonderful experience overall and he has grown up to be amazing. But I do tell people who can't give birth that it is highly overrated anyway!
Yet...another miracle.
In between here, I got pregnant again and lost the baby at 5 months. It was sad and painful, yet I consider it God's provision that He took our son before he was born. There were indications that he had severe complications.
Children #4 & 5
We were very happy and satisfied with our little family of 3 children and two parents and were not looking to have any more additions. We were thankful for what God had given us.
One day we got a phone call from someone who had just spent the week helping at a camp for foster children, and she asked us to keep our ears to the ground in case we heard about anyone interested in adopting 2 little girls whose parents had just had their rights terminated. We said we would and afterwards, just looked at each other and both agreed that we had a feeling that we were supposed to adopt them! A few months later we had two more girls, at 7 and 9 years old.
Again, this is a very involved story, but we are now a family of 7.
There are many details and bits of life that I have obviously left out, our life has not been smooth sailing, but the story isn't over yet.
So, that's just a teeny tiny glimpse of my adoption story.
....what is yours? I would LOVE to hear it.
