Some of my biggest blessings and gains arise from the hardest, darkest and least familiar places.
The places where the circumstances at first appear to not make sense. Where I inadvertently find myself and wonder if things will ever improve. The places where I don't want to go, yet God gently pushes me towards. The places where Faith is tested. The places where I am so out of my comfort zones that we have no choice but to fully rely on God.
Late 2015 my husband David and I were feeling God push us towards a new call, full of unknowns and uncertainty. A call that we felt completely unequipped to answer. A call that would require major sacrifice and changes in our life.
A call to ADOPT!
In order to understand how blindsided we were by this call, you must understand that we were not intending to grow our family. Our children were 13 and almost 10. We were at the stage of parenthood where our children had finally gained a level of independence that allowed us some independence of our own. And the countdown to an empty nest was on the brink of starting.
Yet, when my church held an adoption information session one Sunday in November, I felt unexplainably drawn to go. I arrived late and snuck out early, but couldn't stop thinking about adoption. God was gently putting a burden on our hearts for a child, a child that he intended us to parent.
We could not ignore it, but were not ready to accept it.
My husband and I prayed about it...
Tried to negotiate with God about it...
Tried to reason it to be something other than what it was, anything other this call that would completely change our lives...
And when we tried all of the above and still felt God saying "this is for you", we said Yes.
Yes to taking the first step. Still unsure of what lies ahead, and perfectly content if God would have shut the door on it, we obediently followed.
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11 NIV
As Christians, it is so easy to claim Jeremiah 29:11 to our lives when we are feeling prosperity, when our lives seem to be falling into place. Dave and I found ourselves claiming that truth as a means of hope in uncertainty. Claiming it because we truly had no idea how this would turn out and all we could do is Trust Gods plan over ours.
We knew NOTHING about adoption when we said Yes. We didn't know the cost, the timing, the agencies, the education needed, the process. We had our preconceptions, all of which turned out to be misconceptions.
We forged on, following God on this unforeseen path for our lives. The months that followed would be filled with much discussion, education, consideration, preparation and most of all prayer. We would obediently follow with a 'Yes' at each step along the way
We said YES to an adoption type (domestic foster care)
We said YES to an agency here in Delaware
We said YES to filling our Saturdays with pre-adoptive training
We said YES to the piles of paperwork that required us to share many details of our lives
We said YES to the home study
We said YES to the wait that was to come…
August 2016 we said YES to our SONS, that is not a typo, that is plural.
Along the way our hearts had started to open to the idea of adoption, and we arranged our dreams to include a little one. We soon learned about the sibling groups in foster care adoptions, and we handed over our willingness to adopt 1 to a willingness to adopt whoever God intends.
We met the most precious, amazing and loving two little boys, brothers, who immediately stole our hearts. We left our first visit with them over the moon in love. The reluctant Yes response that had taken place 8 months earlier turned into a pleading with God to allow us the opportunity to be parents to these boys. We prayed that God would said Yes. That they would be ours. And He did!
But the blessing did not end there. Along the way in our journey, my brother and sister in law joined us. Adoption had been something they considered throughout their marriage, but it always seemed harder, bigger and further off than they realized. Last spring, they made the decision of adoption for their family.
Our boys are part of a birth sibling group of 5. Within days of Dave and I saying ‘Yes’ to our boys, my brother and sister in law said ‘Yes’ to their two brothers.
In Late August, two boys became part of our household.
In our hearts they became an immediate part of our family.
Soon after, our love for them could not deny that they would be our sons.
Today, March 31, 2017 we officially welcome Marcus and Caden as our sons. Today we officially welcome our nephews Landen and Keyshawn into our extended family.
This is Yes.
Our family photoshoot in Fall 2016
We are blessed beyond measure with the addition of these two boys to our family. We are humbled that God would choose us for this task. And yes, we are exhausted and life is crazy, but we wouldn't have it any other way.
“A child born to another woman calls me mom. The depth of the tragedy and the magnitude of the privilege are not lost on me.” -Jody Landers