We received a call on Wed, June 17th, from Kandi Cox at Abba Adoptions (a private Christian adoption agency in Benton) asking how close we were to finishing our application and asking if she could share a story with us. Kandi proceeded to tell us about a birth mother that has been with Abba since February and is due September 21 with a little girl that needed a family. It needed to be an Arkansas family because of some legal custody hoops that we'd have to jump through. Abba was out of Arkansas families, but knew that we were very close to applying with them.
After talking with Abba and praying we told them on Friday, the 19th, that we were interested in being the family for this baby girl. We submitted our application. Then we wrote a letter to the birth mom as well as sent some pictures of us and our family.
The Abba case worker met with the birth mom and birth dad at lunch on Tuesday, the 23rd, to share our letter and pictures with them and see if they felt good about us being the family to receive their baby girl. The birth mom got there before the birth father. The case worker showed her the pictures of us, and the birth mom started crying. She said that she knew us. The case worker was confused and inquired how she knew us. The birth mom told her that she had a dream right before she found out she was pregnant where she saw Chris and me in the dream. She said it was very vivid and stood out more than other dreams. She woke up crying and told the birth father about it. She just knew that we would be important in her life, but she had no clue what that meant.
Apparently the pictures and letter were more than enough confirmation for the birth mom to feel at peace that we were the right family. She liked the fact that I was a stay at home mom. The birth father likes to trout fish and got excited that one of the pics of Chris had a brown trout in it.
So, at 1:50pm that day we received a call that birth parents picked us to be the parents of their baby girl due on September 21... 90 days away! We are so excited and a little shell shocked. We waited to tell the kids until after we heard that they had picked us, and they could not have been more excited to get the news! :) We got to meet the birth parents and our caseworker, Amy, last Thursday for the first time. It went very well, and the birth mom even invited me to come to her OB appointments. She told me that she is so glad that we will be able to give her baby the life that she knows she can't give her, and that she just hopes that some day when she grows up, she will thank her for it. Wow, such a loving, selfless decision! I have so much respect for her.
One of the cool things is that we have been praying and looking forward to adopting kiddo #3 since we were in the hospital on bed rest for preterm labor with Emmaline. We knew we wanted to adopt in birth order (a child younger than Emmaline), but we really didn't have any preference about race, sex, or place of origin. We were praying, but waiting on God's leading in regards to the timing of when and where to take steps of obedience. Anticipating and preparing for growing our family through adoption was a big reason as to why we bought and renovated the foreclosure last summer allowing us to have more space and another bedroom.
Right around the start of January 2015, I told Chris that I was ready and thought we should attend the adoption informational meeting for The CALL. That was the start of us taking active steps of obedience to God's call to adopt. The long story made short was the last 6 months have been a crazy roller coaster of exploring avenues for adoption. We looked overseas, and God answered prayers through closed doors (I'm pretty sure he actually slammed those doors closed), we looked into various domestic options until we came across Abba Adoptions. Right away we were blown away by Abba's pro-life ministry and focus. It became clear that going through Abba was more than participating in adoption, but partnering in a pro-life ministry. 85% of the birth mothers that work with Abba walk in their doors abortion-minded. So back to my prompting by the Lord to begin taking steps in January that lead us on the winding road of where we are today... a baby due Sept. 21 would have been conceived right at around the first of January, in fact The Call meeting was January 18, the same day that the birth mom told us she found out she was pregnant! It's almost as if there was a sovereign God guiding us right to this little girl. :) The last cool thing is that since the beginning of us talking/praying about adoption, Crosby has wanted to adopt a 5 year old boy to share his bunk bed and toys with, and Emmaline (our little mama) has wanted to adopt a baby girl (at times it has been twin babies named Mary and Joseph). Well, a few weeks before we got the call from Abba, Crosby told me out of the blue that he changed his mind and thought we should adopt a baby girl! God was so gracious to even allow Crosby's heart to change and align with His plan for our family.
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| Here we are with Kandi Cox the day we signed the adoption papers at our house and made it official. |
Please continue praying with us! Here are some specific things to pray for:
- That the birth parents would come to know the Lord if they don't already (we don't think they do, but the case worker is going to ask some more direct questions around this topic)
- Baby girl would grow healthy and strong.
- Financial provision... this is going to cost a huge sum of money... (around $37,000), so we will need to do some major fundraising. We fully believe that going through Abba is funding a pro life ministry, not just an adoption.
- Completion of our home study
- All the stuff that logistically goes into getting a nursery and home ready for a baby in about 70 days
- Crosby and Emmaline's continued excitement.
- That the Lord would prepare our hearts for welcoming this sweet baby girl into our family.
I will keep you posted!
P.S. If would like to donate you can give to our account through AdoptTogether.org and your donation will be tax deductible. You can donate at www.adopttogether.org/kear.
