The Weston Family

Our story starts like so many others that I have heard.  We were married and, despite some hormonal problems that I had, thought we would have our big happy family in no time.  Five years later and too many fertility treatments to count we were left with no money, no peace and no trace of the hope we had for our big happy family.  We spent months grieving the child we were sure we were supposed to have.  Then God started to nudge us in the direction of adoption.  We were somewhat resistant at first, not wanting to put our hope in anything again, but God continued to put adoption in our path and in the end we knew it was the right thing to do.  Thus our journey began.

I won’t lie and say that the whole adoption experience was peaceful and happy.  The wait was horrible and painful.  It was made bad by delays and ambiguity, made awful by friend’s and family’s new baby births and then made the worst by my attitude at times.  I can only say that it was all worth it.  Every minute.  Not only for the beautiful child that we were blessed with, but also for the work that God did in our family and especially me during those years as we waited.  He taught us about patience, and grace, and His providence in all situations (all lessons which I have used as a new mom).  At the end of it all, we received John.

I received our referral phone one Friday while I was at work.  I was taking care of 6 children at the time (I was a nanny).  I could hardly believe what I was hearing.  I cried for 10 minutes before I could even call my husband, Dan.  I just kept saying over and over, we have a son, we have a son.

Dan came over and we left my work (with all 6 kids) to meet with Nichole at the CHI office and receive John’s information and picture.  Juan Camilo Jose Gonzales Arias was born January 2, 2006 weighing in at 7 ½ lbs and just over 20 inches long.  He had had kind of a rough start.  He was surrendered at birth only to be reclaimed by his mother several months later, only to be taken by ICBF several weeks later for neglect.  He was returned to his original foster mom after that and stayed there until we met him months later. I cried some more.  So did Dan.  We signed the acceptance papers on the spot and started the mad dash to get to Colombia and back before they shut down for the holiday season. 

(The following are excerpts from our caringbridge page we wrote to while we were in Colombia.  I included the complete first entry and highlights from the remaining so you can get an idea of John’s behaviors, food, legal matters, scenery etc.)

Monday, November 20 -

 We finally have him!!! He is beautiful and wonderful. He was sleeping at the hand off, and woke about an hour later to this strange lady holding him, but didn’t seem to mind. He gave me a little smile and as long as one of us is holding him he is happy. He has FIVE teeth already, which we got to count as we saw his first BIG smile already when we tossed him in the air.

Tuesday, November 21-

What a fabulous day we have had. John is smiling, laughing, crying and playing, playing, playing. All the things we were praying for. We are only on day two, but he seems to have adjusted very well. He smiles when daddy smiles at him and smiles BIG when mommy smiles at him. He loves to ¨jump¨ on mommy’s lap and scrunches his fingers through daddy’s beard. He even slept through the night!

Wednesday, November 22-

The weather is beautiful, the people are very nice and understanding of our lack of Spanish, and there are soo many flowers everywhere!! John Camilo (as he is now called) is crawling everywhere and pulling up on anything strong enough to hold him. He loves to cuddle and smile and bang on anything that makes noise. He is starting to really coo and babble too. He makes this cock-a-doodle-doo sound whenever he likes something and it is cracking us up. The ladies at the B&B here are fantastic. They do everything for you. It is nice to just spend time getting to know our baby.  We signed some papers yesterday so that our lawyer could officially be our lawyer and then on Monday we go in for our ¨intergracion¨ at which time the official adoption will start. Hector, our attorney, says it should take about a week and a half or so to complete. Then we will fly to Bogotá to finish up a few things. We will be there for a few days then we will be home.

Thursday November 23-

John Camilo had kind of a rough night last night.  Late to bed and then lots of waking, and then he was up by 6am. We aren’t sure if he has a tummy ache? Teething? Grieving over his foster mom? Or something entirely different? We just hold him and rock him until he is asleep, which he is thankfully now. He also has a pretty bad cough, but you only hear it when he cries. He isn’t running a fever or anything and he has had the cough since we picked him up. Unless it gets worse, we will just wait until we get home to take him to the doctor.

~~~~~~~

We did indeed come home on the 8th of December.  John is now 16 months old, wonderful and thriving.  He is a very typical toddler and into everything.  He had some problems sleeping when we first brought him home and was kind of withdrawn from life for while, but is doing much better now.  He is wonderful and truly a blessing.

Several things I wanted to tell you about not included in the journal regarding God’s providence in this situation.   John’s name had been picked out years ago, long before we considered adoption.  It has been tradition in our family to name the first born son after the mother’s father. When we decided to adopt however, we chose not to name him (or her) until we knew his (or her) birth name.  God saw fit to provide us with a Juan, which is Spanish for John.  During the wait, we prayed consistently for three things: a healthy baby (which he is), a child home before his or her first Christmas (December 8th we arrived), and home before his or her first birthday (John’s is January 2nd).  We got our referral on Friday November 3rd.  If we had gotten it the following Monday, we would not have been able to travel to get John until after the New Year.  God’s timing was indeed perfect.  If that is not enough to convince you, also note that John has dark brown hair like my father, dark brown-close set eyes and ears that come out at top and bottom like Dan’s father, curly hair like Dan, feet like me and a personality that fits perfectly in our home.

If you are waiting for your child, despite what you see in front of you, or hear around you, trust God.  Trust that the child He has chosen for you will be in your arms at just the right moment and they will fit your family perfectly just how God designed it.

~~~Tina Weston