The Greatest Gift

A little over three years ago, we receive a call.

A call asking  us to bring a baby into our home,

a temporary, "emergency" placement.

We had usually said, "No" to any type

of  foster care placement in our home.

Jon and I both felt that the Lord was leading us

to adoption.  That day, we said, "Yes."

So began or journey.

One week became one month.

One month became two.

The county called us again.

They asked if we would take the baby's older brother.

I will never forget that call.

We didn't say, "Yes" not right away.

We prayed. 

Peyton moved in with us, the Friday

before Thanksgiving, three years ago.

I will never forget the night he entered our lives,

He was so small.  He was wise beyond his years.

His first words, "Brother, cuppy".

For one year, the boys were a part of our family.

We laughed with them, held them, comforted them when they cried.

For one year, we were a family of six.

We believed that adoption was the direction we were

meant to take as a family.

We prayed that we'd be able to adopt our boys.

We watched them grow and change.

We came to know their birth mother.

We believed that the Lord led us to adopt siblings,

who better than our two brothers.

They fit with our older two naturally.

During that year, we learned lessons that many foster parents

before us already know.  You open your home to children,

and in opening your home you open your heart.  You

open your heart to their pains, their joys, their birth families.

 With each day, each visit, each event,

we learned that a child has no voice.

Our boys endured visits, abuse, neglect,

pain that no child should have to endure.

Helplessly we watched our sons, our children,

suffer. It was a pain beyond comparison.

Two months before my Mom was diagnosed with cancer,

we made the decision to have our sons removed from our home.

It was the hardest decision of my life.

I remember my Mom saying to me,

"Sometimes you have to close your eyes and trust that God

will lead you through."

I closed my eyes and trusted.  I handed two

of my children back to Him.

I prayed daily for them, their future.

I told my older two children that God would bring

them back to us if we were the family they were meant to have.

Throughout my Mother's illness, we saw our boys.

We saw the changes in them.  Our hearts hurt for them.

They were no closer to a family than they had been when they

left us.

We prayed for them.  Our family was broken without them.

Each visit was like having them home.

Last fall, my Mom passed away.  Two months after she died

the county called. Our boys needed a home.

They came back to us.

We had no idea how long they would be with us.

They were our sons. We couldn't let them go to another home.

We couldn't.  We prayed that we would be able to adopt them.

We prayed that we would be able to say good-bye to them again.

Imagine our joy, in April, when their birth mother gave us the best gift

ever.  She believed that our family was the best place for her sons,

our sons.  She gave us something that we'd been praying for,

hoping for, trusting for.  She gave us back our family.

On Friday, November 19th, on National Adoption Day,

we will celebrate with so many others the greatest gift ever.

Adoption.