Adoption Story: Adam and Dani

Although this is Adam and Dani's adoption story, and their daughter's story, it won't take you long to learn that it's really God's story.

This is what happens when God honors a "yes." And not just one "yes," but dozens, even hundreds of them.

The first yes is always a big one. Adam and Dani decided to start their family expedition to adoption last summer and began with Christian Adoption Consultants. And then comes dozens of what seemed like mundane yeses: yes to filling out paperwork and getting physicals and fingerprints. Yes to small home improvements and meeting with social workers and prepping a nursery. Then there were bigger ones like writing words expectant mothers will read about who they are and how they want to raise a child.

By late fall their home study and profile were complete. They were ready to pore over possible situations and say yes to being presented. Each yes was telling an expectant family they were willing to parent their little one; saying yes to life and affirming their brave choice for adoption.

Admittedly this was a hard an painful process as these "yeses" were often met with "nos."

I want our story to encourage anyone who feels like they aren't good enough to be a parent, or that there must be something "wrong" with them or their story. We presented somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 times (to be honest we lost count after about 15), and I started to wonder if we were just not likable. "Maybe there's something about us that makes us 'not parent material'"... I thought in the dead of night, when you think those things. 

Dani called this process their continuous yes; "yes to hope, to faithfulness, to obedience." 

In the midst of all of this mundane, and sometimes arduous task of keeping their yes on the table, Adam and Dani looked forward to a weekend filled with friends visiting for the 4th of July. A chance to take a break from the strain of the wait, relax, and enjoy a few days of celebration.

But one phone call would forever change the 4th of July holiday for this couple.

An expectant mother. A little girl due any day. Could they say yes?

God honored our yes. We said yes so many times in this journey and were met with no - but God was softening our hearts and preparing us for the hardest yes of all. We said yes to Adelay because we agreed that we didn't have a reason to say no - and so even in our fear and uncertainty and discomfort (and did I say fear!?), God worked. 

Those friends that were visiting got to see some of Adam and Dani's miracles happen first-hand. Dani would say God didn't even give her the option of explaining Him away because they had witnesses there to remind them of His goodness and watch His plan unfold. 

We got encouragement at every step of the way, right when we thought we couldn't do any more last-minute changes or uncertainty...he made his will known from the moment she appeared in our hearts, on fourth of July morning. 

Their daughter was born just three days after they learned of her. And in that moment God took all of their "yeses:" the hard ones, the mundane ones, the little ones, the scary ones, and honored every single one. In that moment, Adelay was born and it was God's abundant "YES!" to their family.

God walked with us through every step of Adelay's story - of our story. Through a miraculous last-minute (first-class!) flight given to us by a generous friend, to the birth father showing up of his own accord to sign paperwork, to the birthparents deciding at the last minute to meet us and give us a beautiful story to tell our daughter someday. The birthparents thanked US for parenting Adelay, told us that they knew we were the perfect parents for her right when we felt like our legs might give way and our hearts might fail. At the hotel we stayed in we had the front desk clerk and executive housekeeper checking on us, encouraging us and loving us so well that even though we were lonely in a strange town we felt loved. Our ICPC paperwork moved with record time, right at the moment we prayed for it. That's the other miracle - we hadn't finished fundraising but we were able to pay all the necessary fees IN FULL at the hospital. God provided TO THE PENNY what we needed for this adoption, right at the moment we needed it. He gave Manna for today and asks us to trust him for tomorrow. After all he's done and given to us, how can we not trust him? 

[It] makes me cry to...remember saying yes... saying yes... saying yes... God honored it and will continue to do so.