THE LEAP
It was a normal day in
September, 2003. The phone rang and my husband asked me to do something
for him....”I want you to get on the internet and find us a baby to adopt.”
Although we had talked about adoption in the past, it is not something we had
seriously discussed in recent days. But I could tell by the tone of his
voice that he was serious. As a good worrying wife should, I began to ask
all of the hard questions.....How will we pay for it? Does this mean we
aren’t going to HAVE (conceive/birth) another baby? What will everyone
think? Etc. His answer was this: “I’ve asked God every question
there is to ask right here at work this morning and he’s answered every one of
them. He told me that He has access to all the money in the world so how
could we question his ability to provide money. He told me that we can
either walk in faith or walk in fear. God told me that these are HIS
children and he is calling us to help him in ‘caring for the widows and
orphans’. I just know that we are responsible for the next generation...to
raise a generation for Christ.” He was crying so hard he could hardly
talk. I told Richard how much I loved him and that I was totally ready to
be obedient and take the leap of faith. I processed it this way……this life
is just a temporary assignment. If we can bring children into our home and
make their lives richer (and ours) and tell them about a God who created them
and loves them AND be obedient to God in the process, we are the most blessed
people on earth. What an exciting opportunity! I am so
glad God chose us.
And so began our
journey........the most incredible journey of trust we have been on
yet. I went to Steven Curtis Chapman’s website
www.shaohannahshope.org. There he listed several adoption
agencies he recommended. I randomly chose Children’s Hope
International. The next day we were at my husband’s
grandparents’ house. I picked up the newspaper and in the
announcement section it read, “Interested in adopting?
Children’s Hope International Adoption Agency will be holding an
informational meeting at the Benton Library next Saturday.”
What are the chances?You might just say we are hard-headed and God
has to speak to us VERY clearly! We went to the meeting and by
the time we left, we had decided on three things......YES, we were
going to adopt, FROM Colombia, a little BOY.
THE PAPERWORK
AND THE WAIT
As most of you reading this
know, next came the mounds of paperwork. Because of a couple of delays, it
took us almost a whole year to complete the paperwork and send our dossier to
Colombia in June of 04. Once we were approved in December of 04, we had a
LONG wait. During the next year and 5 months, we became discouraged
because it was taking SO long. We knew without a doubt that God was
working this whole process according to HIS time, but it was still hard to wait.
One encouragement along the way was the $3000 grant we received from
Shaohannah’s Hope. Because it was now March of 06 and our youngest child
was 5, we decided it would probably be best for our family if we got 2 children
instead of one (we were on a waiting list for a child 1 year old or younger).
When we asked Julie (our contact at Children’s Hope) about that, she said that
the waiting list for 2 children was even longer and it would take us a LONG time
to get two. We were sad about this because the age gap between our 5 year
old and the adopted baby would be so huge.
THE
CALL
FINALLY, on the day after
Mother’s Day, 2006, we got a call from Julie asking if we would be interested in
brothers, 2 & 3 years old. OF COURSE WE WOULD!!!!!! Julie went on to
say that this was a special case and there was only a chance we could get them.
Julie went on to explain that the boys were taken from their mom and her
boyfriend when they were 1 and 2 years old. When they were taken, they
were malnourished and had been terribly neglected and severely abused.
Reid, the 1 year old, couldn’t even roll over. The muscles of his arms and
legs were atrophied and somewhat contracted. The brothers were put into a
foster home where the mother worked with Reid’s muscles and had him rolling over
at 13 months and walking by 23 months. But his motor skills and language
were still delayed. Julie said there was no reason to believe he wouldn’t
catch up, but there was no guarantee. Well, my first thought was, “God, we
did not ask for or agree to a special needs child. That is a WHOLE
different ballgame.” Over the next hour, God took us on a spiritual
journey. He assured us that THESE were OUR children and that He would give
us the strength and love and whatever else we would need to take care of them.
He didn’t promise it would be easy, but He promised he would provide. So
we took another leap of faith and before that hour was over, we faxed a letter
to Colombia requesting the boys. We were so excited! We didn’t care
what they had been through or how far behind they were, we just knew that WE
wanted to be the ones to love and take care of them.
MORE WAITING
The next 6 weeks were
grueling. We had to wait for our request to go through the main office in
Bogota and the regional office in Medellin.
THE FINAL
CALL
Finally on June 30, we got our
official child offer. YES, we could have the boys. Come and get
them!!! We started the frantic gathering of last minute paperwork and
began getting ready for our trip.
THE TRIP
4 weeks later, on July 30, we
flew to Bogota. The following morning, we flew on to Medellin where we
would get the boys and spend the next three weeks. The rest of our story
is a real life fairy tale. Ross and Reid immediately climbed in our laps,
hugged us, and began calling us Ma and Bah.
MEDELLIN
I dare say Medellin is one of
the most welcoming cities in the world. We had an incredible stay
there. We were prepared to be in one of the most dangerous cities in the
world because of Medellin’s reputation. Boy, were we taken by surprise!
The people were unbelievably kind, gracious, and accommodating. Our hotel
was TOP notch, our interpreter-Alfonso, was as kind and helpful a man as you’ll
meet, and our lawyer-Gilma, was so efficient and passionate about her work.
We could not have had a more perfect experience. Julie had us SO prepared.
All of the paperwork on our end was in perfect order, as well as on their end.
Alfonso and Gilma worked SO hard for us every day to get our case through the
courts and get us back home. One of the highlights of our trip was meeting
the judge in charge of our case. His words touched our hearts. He
said that he wanted to thank us on behalf of Colombia and Ross and Reid and all
of the needy children in the country. The kindness and sincerity in his
eyes made us realize that the people of Medellin truly care about their own and
want the best for them. We were so thankful to be in that city and it will
always hold such a special place in our hearts.
THE
END OF THE STORY
For those of you who have
stuck with me and are still reading, I want to wrap up our story by telling you
how things are going at home (we’ve been back for almost 16 weeks). Did I
mention we have two biological sons, Richard who is 8 and Rhett who is 6?
Well, Richard was recently asked, “Boy, I bet things have changed around your
house, huh?” His reply sums up our feelings, “The only thing that’s
changed around our house is that the fun level has gone up.” Ross and Reid
have added so much MORE love and joy to an already very happy household. They
are flourishing. Reid, our 2 year old, who could only say three words when
we got him, is now saying at least 30 words. Developmentally he is
catching up SO quickly. He runs, jumps, and flips. He is a perfect
little boy who could not possibly be classified as special needs! Ross,
our 3 year old, is learning lots of English. He is always on blessing
patrol.....if we sit down to eat and forget to say the blessing, he reaches for
our hands and says, “thank you Jesus.” He loves Buzz Lightyear and the
movie CARS. We did nothing to deserve these precious blessings but we are
so glad God chose to give them to us anyway.
LESSONS LEARNED
-
God
is perfect. Everything about him is perfect.
His timing is perfect (Reid wasn’t even born when we
started the adoption process in September of 2003)
-
TRUST. God always wants to give us His best.
We just have to trust that He knows what that is even
when we don’t. Ross and Reid are the PERFECT
children for our family.
-
God
provides and keeps His promises. We wanted two
children, but the wait was going to be too long.
God handled it and got us two children. We didn’t
have the money to adopt, but God promised He would
provide the money...and He did. My husband is a
painter who also builds houses. About one month
before we left for Colombia, he was contracted to build
a home for a couple. When the house is completed
next month, we will have exactly enough money to pay off
the adoption loan.
