On May 28th, 2005 the love of my life and I were married on a quiet beach in Florida. We later adopted our fist foster child April in April of 2006. We closed our home for a while and began taking in more foster children in late 2006. We had numerous children come in our home, but that forever connection we felt with April was never felt. Then one night in November of 2007, I seemed to be surrounded by pregnant women. I was happy for them, but also devastated. We had been trying and trying to have a baby with no luck and no reasoning on the lack of conceiving. I had listened to the soon to be mothers complain about being pregnant all I could and that night broke down at the altar. I prayed for a very long time. Not a simple prayer, one of those prayers where you can feel that you have touched the hem of the Master's garment. As I got up from that altar, exhausted and tired yet feeling a peace I had never felt before in the area of wanting a baby. I thought "Yes! God has heard me and is going to answer my prayers.
Well my friends, I will tell you be careful what you pray for and specifics are a great thing to pray :). See the next night as we were returning from the grocery store, I received a phone call. It was the agency we fostered through and they had been contacted by our local DCS about 3 small children. These children were in dire need of a home that would be able to provide them shelter, medical attention, nourishment and most of all LOVE. We were told it may be a few weeks, months or even a longer you never know. I talked to Michael and we agreed yes we needed to accept this placement. I called back and said yes, we would love to have the kids. I hung up and waited to see if it would be accepted by DCS and if we were indeed getting the placement. Of course, you can tell the call came. Reality hit as I hung up the phone. We were about to go from being parents of one 10 year old little girl to parents of 4! Ages 10, 4, 2, and 1!!!! I kicked into super speed and found beds to get us through the night thanks to my best friend and went to Wal-mart not knowing what size diapers to get or anything. As I was going through the store asking people how old their children were and what size diapers they wore, Michael called and said HURRY they are here!
I left Wal-mart in a flash with a variety of diapers :) and headed home. As I entered I saw a sight I never imagined experiencing. Two little bitty boys asleep in car seats neither one of the looking a day over 2 and a little baby girl who looked more like a 4-6 month old than someone who had three days earlier celebrated her first birthday. As I tried to contain my shock, the DCS worker informed me that the little lady whimpering in her arms had been that way all afternoon and evening. She wouldn't let my husband take her, so i attempted. The moment I took her in my arms, she laid her head on my shoulder and won my heart. The next days were quite overwhelming, but we quickly adjusted. We realized, both boys were non-verbal and our new baby girl was developmentally about 3 months old. God had given us our baby three times over.
The next week we were in our first meeting with the biological parents and to our surprise the mom was evidently pregnant, 6 months to be exact! I looked at Michael and I said these kids are not leaving anytime soon right? He agreed. Sure enough 4 months later we welcome our first newborn baby home. She was (and still is) perfect!
By the end of 2009, parental rights were terminated and we were preparing to adopt. We were so excited. Then we learned both parents had appealed the judges ruling and waited for the appeal court's decision. Over and over we were told no worries we've only had one case over turned in appeal with this judge. Then in Sept. of 2010 we received a call, the ruling was over turned and we had to start all over. The kids had to be reintroduced to a "mom and dad" they had had no contact with for over a year in mid- 2011.
My heart broke as my babies cried, vomited, had accidents on themselves and began to become completely different children for a period of time every other week when they knew there was a phone call about to take place. I contacted congressmen and women, everyone I could and it was pointless. The biological parents had more rights than the children who were suffering. Fortunately, after much prayer God gave me the words to say and I spoke with the biological mother and she agreed she wanted what was best for the children and surrender her rights, BECAUSE she loved them enough to do so. The bio-dad on the other hand was another story.
We again had to return to court and his right were terminated again. He appealed again, but this time the judge's decision was upheld and after much anguish, prayers and testing of our faith, the end or should I say beginning is finally here.
Tomorrow we will stand before a judge and become a FOREVER FAMILY! While I have left many details out of this story, you can see what a long heartbreaking yet joyous road it has been. There may have been fear at times, and family members who did not accept our children as true family, but I can say I have always known these were my babies!
This story is just an example of why I am so blessed and definitely believing God has a major plan for our family. One day we will change the world..... however today we are just thankful for a chance of a "normal" life and receiving full custody :)
Good night all we have a BIG day we have been waiting 5 years, 7 months and 20 days in the making!!!
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