Some have asked to hear our story; its an amazing what God has done :) Our Adoption Story I guess it started with a conversation Edwin and I had before we were married. We were talking about our future and dreaming of how it would look. I knew that Edwin wanted children but I was shocked when he said he wanted to adopt. He told me he always had a special connection and a heart for children with downs syndrome. Wow! Fast forward 4 years from that conversation and we had Nate! Then 23 months from Nate’s birthday, our sweet Emily was born. Around that time, we started looking at having Nate tested for speech and sensory problems. Turns out he has autism and was diagnosed at 3 and a half. Rocked our world! Edwin set out to get extra jobs to pay for the therapy Nate needed; I focused on getting Nate through “the window”. There is a window, before 6 years old, that you can change behaviors easier. Nate was the hardest working kid around, going to all kinds of therapy. We had put adoption, and almost everything, on the back burner. Praise God we did, Nate is doing so well!! In the summer of 2012, God put adoption on my heart. I was knee deep in our Front Row (from Daniel’s Tears) ministry. I was hearing about children in our area that needed families from my friends at CASA by the Lakes. I knew God was telling me to pray about it, so I did. I didn’t tell Edwin, but I prayed that if adoption was right for our family that Edwin would bring it up to me. AND HE DID!! After a few weeks of praying that prayer, Edwin asked me what I thought about adopting a baby! We started our research, lots of options out there!! God led us to a specific agency; he closed doors to international adoption to. (Our thoughts were central America, baby or toddler but it wasn’t working out) The agency, God led us to, was starting a domestic adoption program; we started the process, home study, classes, lots of paperwork! One day I asked Edwin to mail part of the paperwork; he looked at me and asked if I was sure about adopting. I answered emphatically YES!! I knew this was from God. I asked if he felt the same, did he feel this was from God. His answer was a sad no. So I asked him to hold the paperwork until he was sure this what God wanted. That conversation was on a Friday, Sunday morning at church a man stood up and walked over to us during the service. He had a word from God for my sister and I and our husbands. He said a lot of things, the one thing that stood out to Edwin was “you (Edwin and my brother in law) need to listen to your wives, because the Holy Spirit is moving in them, they are right”. God gave Edwin a quick answer through Brother Gary Lamb within days! God works in so many ways! Gary didn’t know us well; Only a handful of people knew we were trying to adopt! Thanks to Gary Lamb for being faithful and listening to God. That word gave Edwin peace about the adoption. We were almost done with the paperwork part of the process in March 2013. It was around that time (I’m not good at remembering exact dates!) that I had my dream from God. God had given me a dream only one other time in my life so I was surprised at this dream. I dreamed I was pregnant and due in August. That was it; I knew it was from God! I told Edwin and a few close friends. I told Jan Cowan, a spiritual mentor, and she said “Well then, you will have a baby in August!”. In May of 2013 Edwin got a phone call from our adoption coordinator, she had told us it would be a while to process everything and technically we weren’t ready to start the matching process. BUT she had just met with a woman who wanted us to have her baby. Out of the families in the domestic adoption program, Edwin was the only Spanish speaking person. The woman had certain criteria and we were the family that met them all! She was firm in her decision that she wanted us to have her baby! They wanted us to fly to Virginia as soon as we could to meet her. Edwin called me, I was in my basement playroom with my sister and our kiddos playing. When I got his call, I was in shock! I wanted to know the baby’s due date….AUGUST 4!! Whoa! Thank you God for being faithful! At the end of May we flew to Virginia and met with the birthmother. She was set in her decision; we were grateful and thankful that she was trusting us with her precious baby. She knew she would have a C-section. So we waited for the call to tell us the date! We got the call on July 26 that the baby would be born July 30. So we packed up on July 29, my mom and sister and her kiddos followed us in their car and we caravanned to Virginia! We packed both girl and boy clothes because we had no idea which it would be. We got the call that the baby was born when we were on the road, a BIG BABY BOY!! 9 lbs 2 ounces, perfectly healthy, Praise GOD!! The birthmother asked that we not be at the hospital til the day after he was born, that’s why we were on the road when we got the call. I was afraid that if I was in Alexandria, Virginia when I got the call I wouldn’t be able to control myself and go to the hospital. On July 31, we got to meet our precious boy that we named Alexander. He was perfect! The hospital gave us a room and we were with him the whole day. Nate and Emily got to meet him and so did my mom and sister and kids. It was a great experience. The next morning August 1, we got custody of him! Got to take him home (or to the hotel actually)! Our sweet little gift from God! I can truly say that God gave me a supernatural peace about the whole adoption process. I know adoption is hard, I shed many tears for Alex and his birthmom. Adoption always comes from loss. I hope Alex always knows that it was God’s plan that he was placed in our family. Out of all the children in the world, God chose him. Out of all the families in the world, God chose us! Alex is now 18 months and so precious. I pray that God guides Edwin and I in raising him. Everything happens for a reason. God heard our plans of adopting a special needs child, and he gave us Nate(diagnosed with autism). He heard our desire to have a baby from central America, he gave us Alex (birthparents from Guatemala). God heard our plans and gave us more than we desired!
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 15:40:24 +0000
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