November 1, 2018 – written by Katie
Here I am at 1:15am typing my first blog about our adoption – par for the course, actually, LOL!
We were scared to tell people at first, not knowing how they’d react to the idea of us adopting but have been welcomed with open arms and supported with hugs and tears of joy that we’ll be growing our family yet again. Thinking this over and over in my head and talking to others who have adopted, I realize this all comes from a place of brokenness. Our hearts have been broken again and again with each pregnancy loss. This baby girl who will be entering our lives has been brought into this world in a broken situation – her mom and dad may not be together or just may not have the resources or feel equipped to raise a child at this point in their lives. We’re glad we get to be an aid in this situation and give a baby a home, give the mom (and maybe the dad) some extra support, counseling, and show them the love that God has for them through this tough situation. We realize this is not just about this tiny baby but we’re given a chance to be a part of the birth mom’s life and show her love in a way that we wouldn’t have gotten to otherwise.
As I work on paperwork and prioritizing my long list of to-dos before we can become “active” with our consulting agency (Faithful Adoption Consultants) to start presenting to birth moms, I continuously pray for God to guide us through this adventure and to show his love to this baby and to her mom and dad. I dream of the hugs we’ll share and of the many kisses Harrison will give her (he loves kissing babies!). I can’t express how blessed I feel to have three wonderful, loving boys that are just as excited to have a another baby in the house as I am. Shortly after we created our loose change and dollar adoption jar and put it out on our counter, Jackson took out $5 from his “save” envelope and put it in our nearly empty jar saying he wanted to help bring home his baby sister as soon as possible. To a child who works around the house and does extra chores when given the option of making some extra money and saves his money up diligently for the bigger toys, it’s a big deal to clean out that envelope and see that even that $5 gets us closer to meeting our baby. That is a gesture full of love and sacrifice – one that made me tear up as his mom, of course, and makes me so proud. He gets it. He might not understand fully how far a dollar can go but he knows their is a purpose bigger than his own desires.
As I head to bed in the wee hours this morning, I pray we all can find that kind of passion in our hearts for something God has called us to — not just financially but with our time and other resources, and give that “something” all we can.
“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”
Isaiah 41:10