My birthday

I chose to give my family's story since it was my birthday today.  I love adoption stories.

My family's adoption story

I have posted on a friend's adoption story.  Now it is time to tell my family's story of adoption.

I feel very fortunate to have been born in the month of November.  As many people know, November is the National Adoption Month. 

When I was nine years old, almost ten, my aunt and uncle (my mom’s sister) received a precious 5 day old baby girl.  This baby girl was born in the month of October.  They used the Edna Gladney Center for Adoption to receive this precious bundle of joy.  After the baby was six months old, the adoption was finalized in the courts in Fort Worth.

Once we were done in the court, we were able to go on a tour of the Center.  The only thing I can remember of that tour is the lovely little room where my aunt and uncle got to see my cousin for the first time.  The room had a lovely shade of blue.  This would place in my heart the desire to one day adopt a child who needed a family.  It also placed in my heart that should I ever had gotten pregnant as a teenager that I would place my baby up for adoption.

Just days after my thirteenth birthday, my aunt and uncle received another precious bundle of joy from the Center.  This time around resulted in a baby boy, and he was born at the beginning of December.  Even though it had only been a couple of years since my aunt and uncle had adopted their first child, there was some conflicting schedules, and I was unable to go to the hearing that finalized his adoption.

He is also considered my birthday present as his birthday is only a few days behind mine.  It seems to be a family thing.  I was born on my paternal grandmother’s birthday and the day before my birthday is another set of people’s birthdays (namely one of my cousins and an uncle).

I have always loved and considered my adopted cousins part of the family even though they are not blood related.  They are just my cousins.  I feel blessed that my birthday lands between their two birthdays even if they are younger than me.  They are also fortunate that their adoptions are at least semi open in that they are allowed to receive gifts and letters from their birth moms through the Gladney Center.  My aunt has even sent letters through the Gladney Center to update their birth moms on what they are doing.

The song, “Everything to me” by Mark Schultz, really brought tears to my eyes even though I have never had to go through the pain that these girls have gone through.  I know that there are birth parents out there that did not have problems giving up their children, but I feel that most birth parents go through the pain that was described in the music video.  I hope that should I ever be placed in a position to help a birth mom who is scared about making the right choice for her child, that I will able to tell her my story and share the song.

I take the James 1:27 verse very seriously.  I was taught to help where I can, and any way that was feasible and good.  I have a heart for the orphans.  I wish that I had enough money and space to give these children the home that they deserve, and the love and acceptance that God wants us to have for everyone.  The Bible states that we are to “fix our thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” (Philippians 4:8).  Helping others is a perfect way to put this into action.

Kaleigh's Story

My friend Kaleigh and I have never met in person, but have gotten to know each other well just the last few months.  Like me, her family has been blessed by adoption.  We have a special friend who has adopted as well as lost a child after a 31 day fight for her life in PICU (Pediatric ICU).  We are part of a group on Facebook, and it was not until later this year when our mutual friend had another daughter go into the hospital for surgery to reconstruct her head due to Hydrocephalus, and Kaleigh started a prayer chain.  This is Kaleigh's story:

Our adoption story began soon after New Year’s 2002 with an email.

Who knew that a simple email could change your life so completely?

It was about a baby girl.

The baby was teensy tiny having been born very prematurely. She was legally blind and had been abandoned soon after birth.

God in His goodness though had brought this baby to an absolutely INCREDIBLE orphanage. A Christian ministry called For His Children.

Soon after being taken to For His Children the baby began living with our friend’s pastor’s family as a foster baby.

And that was where our friend and the email came in. She said Every time she saw the baby “I think of you”.

My parents had a heart for adoption, but before that they had somehow never considered acting on it.

It is easy to understand, easy to have a heart for something yet never consider that maybe YOU should DO something about it.

But that one baby girl changed everything for us. We all knew immediately that we were called to DO something this time.

God clearly showed us that bringing her home to our family was His plan and purpose for us. (Jer. 29:11)

We started the adoption process right away. We didn’t have one cent of the extra thousands that it would cost. We knew NOTHING of how to adopt or even what all it entailed to bring a hurting special needs little one into our lives. We just knew He said it was His plan.

 Immediately when we got started we found out that Ecuador adoption was closing for a time. God worked a miracle and allowed us to completely finish the adoption process, travel and come back home in less than FOUR MONTHS!

For any of you who are familiar with adoption, you know how unheard of that is. God knew that our daughter and sister, Karissa needed to be home quickly!

Over the next years our Ecuadorian Princess taught us volumes about life and love and adoption. Through her my life is forever changed to KNOW what an incredible God-thing adoption is.

Never in my wildest dreams can I imagine what my life would be like without my only sister. The fact that she is adopted is special, the fact that she has special needs is a non-issue, but none of those “labels” that we could attach to her are a burden or a true part of WHO she is.

She is a 10 year old who loves her family, the color orange, reading (in Braille). She has a beautiful voice and gorgeous hair..

Through her story our family’s story has changed. It has become one of more love, more redemption, more ADOPTION.

That is a huge part of why our family is currently pursuing the adoption of two little girl’s in Ecuador.

Last year I felt called to visit Ecuador again (we all traveled as a family when Karissa was adopted). While I was there volunteering at an orphanage that has stolen my heart, God tapped me on the shoulder. He pointed to a little girl standing at an orphanage bedroom window and He whispered. “That’s your sister”.

Despite the months of unsurety that followed, with the knowledge that yet again we don’t have the ability financially, despite the process.

Despite ANYTHING we don’t understand, God said GO, so we are.

We are stepping out in faith to bring home two more siblings who both need a family to call their own. 

National Adoption Month

As you all know, November is National Adoption Month.  Please support a family going through the process regardless of where they are at.  Pray for them, and if you can help in some small way please do.  I will be presenting an adoption from my own family around my birthday, but in my next post I will be celebrating another family's adoption process.