Adoption Story... Part One

It was exactly one year ago, the day after Palm Sunday, when God began to reveal the more specific details of our adoption story.  Our official adoption process had begun about eight months prior, consisting of mountains of paperwork, fundraising efforts and long periods of waiting for the much anticipated phone call from our agency...the call to let us know that our new children had been found, if we would choose to accept the referral. We had specified that we were hoping for two girls, somewhere between the ages of 3 and 5, but would be open to consider other possibilities, as we knew full well that God was doing the "choosing"...we would know when it was time.  With four biological sons and two biological daughters already, it seemed that two more girls made the most sense...even the ranks. ( whatever is that supposed to mean?!)

I woke up early on the morning of April 2nd from a dream that still remains clear in my mind to this day.  In it, we received a call from our agency with a "referral" for 4 year old twins.  We were sent pictures of their beautiful Ethiopian faces. I remember their dark eyes shining at us with anticipation, almost as if they were begging to be chosen.  We oo-ed and aw-ed over the perfectness of their smiles as the picture in my mind changed to show their little bodies.  These perfect little children were missing all their fingers and all their toes...

I remember telling Shawn about my dream right after waking up.  We laid there in bed talking about how neat it would be if God would somehow choose to bless us with twins.  Kind of the icing on the cake...and 4 year-olds...how PERFECT! We talked about the strangeness of the fingers and toes part...where in the world did that come from? But dreams are like that much of the time...

The details of the dream lingered in my mind through the remainder of the week.  I shared it with my friends and family, even co-workers at work, and each time I did it was almost as if God was asking me to believe Him for it.  The desire to mother twins was not a new one for me, but it wasn't a "necessary request"...God didn't owe me that desire....that would be "extra".  I would be just as thrilled with 3 and 5 year old siblings... but still, He seemed to desire that I ask. We had not specified that we would take children with disabilities.  Was He asking us to?  We were not really opposed to the idea...just didn't really feel like He had given us that direction.

That Friday evening, Good Friday... I was sitting in my car in the Target parking lot at around 5:30 pm.  As I was getting out, I heard my phone ring, and noticed that it was our agency's number.  My heart would always skip a beat when they called, but since it was after regular business hours I thought maybe I had just pushed a wrong button and accidentally called them.

It was one of our agency's social workers.  She was not the one who normally handled our case and asked if I had a minute to talk. She stated that she realized she was kind of going out on a limb by making this call, but after a previous conversation she had had with me earlier in the week, felt confident that we were totally aware that God was the one adding to our family and that we would trust Him to lead in this conversation as well.  She then started asking questions.

Would we consider taking two boys or did we want at least one of the two to be a girl?  I replied that we were willing to take one boy but, as a family,  had all felt strongly, that at least one of our new children would be a girl.

As soon as the words were out of my mouth I started to doubt.  Really?  Who does that?  Who tells someone they wouldn't take two boys?  Of course we would!  I already had four...what difference did it make if God gave us two more?  I started to justify our reasons to her, simply because saying no seemed so ridiculously selfish.

She then began to tell me the reason for the call.  They had a sibling set of two brothers, 6 and 2, that had recently come in to the orphanage and they were trying to find placement for them. We were the closest family on the waiting list to those ages...most families were waiting for younger children.  My heart sank even deeper as I felt like I had just passed over giving these two precious boys a home...all because I was stuck on a girl.  I started to tell her that we would talk about it and pray about it...thinking to myself that maybe we had heard God incorrectly, but before I could even finish she said there was another part of their file that she had not yet mentioned.

In between these two boys, was a set of....4-year old twins!!  The tears gushed, even before my words could..."Those are my babies!  I know it with everything in me!"  If only it were that simple...

(to be continued....)