It was a warm day in 1997. Nathan and I were not yet engaged, but both secure in our hearts that we were "the one" for the other. We were lying on a quilt at our favorite park in Louisville chatting as those who are love struck often do about what we thought would be our desired family picture. We both had a desire for a larger than average family and we both realized we had in our hearts a desire to adopt a child. This conversation was the first of a million of conversations we have had about our family since, but the desire has always been there for us to adopt.
We married in August 1998 and put ourselves on the five year plan for a family. Nathan was still in school, had just procured a preaching position and we were happily living on a wing and a prayer. On February 2 , 1999, I came to realize in a very real way that my plans were not to be. I, after a few weeks of denial, took a pregnancy test which confirmed my suspicions of being pregnant. On that day, I could not decide if I would laugh or cry, be excited or be scared, or if these emotions were so linked together I could not tell the emotion or the reaction from the other. I waited a day to tell Nathan. The look on his face seemed to be a mirror of what mine must have been the day before. How could fear, surprise, and excitement be expressed in one face that is forever etched in my mind? In September, we welcomed Noah into the world. We were never more happy, never more ready to see what the Lord had in store for us. Or so we thought.
When Noah was nine months old, and Nate and I were a year and a half into our marriage, we decided to take a trip to NYC, leaving Noah behind with his grandparents for the first time. It was a great, much needed reconnecting trip. And it brought with it a great souvenir, Macy. The day Noah turned 18 months old, he was given the title of BIG BROTHER, and we rejoiced in the beautiful dark haired baby girl. Again, our plans were thwarted...but we sure were glad!
A boy and a girl, 18 months apart born before our 3rd anniversary! Having Noah and Macy so close together caused us to wonder about future children, would we keep having children in such rapid succession, (we were attempting to prevent both times--praise God for His timing!). We both agreed we did not like the idea of the two being so close and there being a large gap in the ages of future children. On Macy's first birthday we resolved to just see what would happen. Two weeks later, we were expecting our Molly. I turned 28 the October before Molly was born and our little family was living quite happily in a 900 square foot cape cod. We realized our five year plan was to give birth to all our natural born children in the first five years of marriage...we had the timing right, we just missed the outcome!
More than six years have gone by since Molly made our family a populous of 5. In the past six years, I have had a tubal ligation which did not prevent pregnancies, had miscarriages that broke our hearts, and have developed endometrial abnormalities and fibroid tumors which will disallow a viable pregnancy.
After our second miscarriage, the desire to adopt was firmly placed on my heart. Nathan, the more practical half of our team, felt the timing just was not right. He, I am sure was feeling the overwhelming burden of heading up our brood, while gracing me with the opportunity to be at home. "Let's pray on this a year." And so the praying and the listening commenced.
Bringing this long story to a conclusion, the year passed, the desire to adopt was now secure in both our hearts and we began on this journey. On April 16, 2009 we began the parent training classes required by the state of Kentucky to adopt a ward of the state. We have opted to foster adopt and are very excited to be working toward our goal of extending our love and resources to a new Jones. Thanks for coming on this journey with us. Please be praying with us and for us as we navigate this journey of faith.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment