One of my favorite things is asking families to tell their stories. This space is full of adoption stories and often, hopeful adoptive families will pore over each one, wondering how their own story will be written. Or looking for encouragement on their own journey which turned out longer than they anticipated. When I asked Becca to share the story of their son, she didn't hesitate. She knows good stories are meant to be shared...and celebrated.
I am so excited to have a story to share on Susan’s adoption blog! I read her blog late at night when I found out we’d yet again not even been presented to a birth mother. I loved how every adoption story came together so differently. God is creative, unchanging, and reliable all at the same time. Adoption was laid on my heart in my early twenties as I attended a church with a huge heart for adoption. The youth pastor and his wife had adopted from foster care and advocated heavily for little ones in similar situations, working hard to educate people on ways to get involved. When our first pregnancy ended in miscarriage I brought up the topic to my husband and he was fully on board. We started adoption classes in 2015, but quickly learned our life was not at all at a place where we were proper adoptive candidates. Several years later, we were settled into a house and raising two little ones. My husband and I were pretty set on adoption through the foster care system but kept hitting walls, sort of like a "square peg, round hole" situation. I had a local family friend who adopted domestically with the help of Christian Adoption Consultants and over time we realized that’s the direction God was steering us toward.
As 2022 began, we ramped up our efforts towards becoming home study ready and officially signed on with a handful of agencies. We chose three to four that we connected with on paper and felt peace about partnering with, but there was one agency that really stood out to me. We asked to be considered for probably twenty-plus situations before the agency we felt most drawn to called out of nowhere in October with a match! We happened to be on vacation and began driving to meet this sweet birth mama and baby. Things unexpectedly took a turn and twelve hours later, we heard she had decided to parent. Although I was genuinely happy for her and her baby, we were far from home and I felt so confused. It was then that Susan was able to provide some answers and address my doubts and concerns. The conversations we had in the next week kept me at peace with our hope to adopt and thankfully we stayed the course.
Just twenty days after our rapid heartache, the same agency called again with a match: a little baby who had been chosen for our family. And just a few hours after that, we were boarding a plane to cross the country. I was more than a little anxious and prayed the entire flight. We left the airport and got into our rental car to head to the town where this sweet baby was waiting. My whole family fell asleep in the car. It was a lovely ride with gorgeous scenery and lots of heaven-sent peace. I was still so nervous but the peace reigned. This is a drive I often look back on with such a happy heart. I didn’t know then what was ahead, but now I know it unfolded so beautifully.
We ran into some obstacles once we got to the hospital. Before we could meet the baby, official papers had to be signed and reviewed. It was three days before we met our son and I felt like I was about to bust the doors down - it couldn't come soon enough! We finally met him and settled into an Airbnb as a family of SIX! We loved where we were staying, appreciated every moment, and just hours later we received the call from ICPC we could travel home. We were shocked it was so quick! It was close to Thanksgiving and we were so grateful to be able to celebrate at home.
I look back on the days before we received "the" call, the hours of achingly waiting to see what would happen, and the early days of meeting our son with awe. Honestly, God blew us away. There were times during our journey, especially after we were foster licensed but felt zero peace, when I was so confused about this calling we felt. I was always on board to adopt but thought maybe I wasn’t cut out for it all. I am so, so grateful, for our journey, thankful we stayed the course. and absolutely adore the baby God brought into our family.
God was always there and always leading.
