Saturday, November 10, 2012

Happy Adoption Day!

I Am Thankful For Adoption #10: I am thankful that one year ago today, the court recognized what God set apart from the beginning of time.  Benjamin is our son!

When we started the journey to adopt another baby, our world looked quite different.  Andrew and Annabelle were 2, I was still teaching.  My dad was still here.  We wanted our kids to be really close in age and we were grappling with how the wait of an Ethiopian adoption would effect that.  We started praying.  A few months later, my dad died.  Our whole world as we knew it came crashing down.  Andrew stopped talking, Annabelle started worrying about everything.  And that is just the kids...  We could not fathom how another adoption would work without our Pappy.  God had other plans.

So we continued to pray.  We prayed for more than 2 more years before God gave us a peace to start our process over again.

We prepared our dossier and as we did, God was changing our hearts.  We had always envisioned 5 Ethiopian babies in our family.  God stopped us in our tracks and reminded us we could trust him.  He had always been faithful before, we just needed to trust him.  So we did.  We let go of the dream of 5 Ethiopian babies and took hold of a dream that seemed much scarier.  Domestic adoption had so many risks.  What is the birth mom changed her mind?  What if, after all of this, we were left with empty arms?

So we kept praying.

As we proceeded, we had the most amazing peace.  As we had a need, God provided.  As we had doubts, God filled the worrisome place.  Four months after our first home study visit, we were meeting Benjamin.  He was just a few hours old and he grabbed our hearts so completely.  His birth mom was and is a treasure.  She made the greatest sacrifice in love so that God could have his way in all of our lives.

Nine months later, one year ago today, Benjamin became a Sanborn.  With our older kids, court was just a formality.   They were already ours in the eyes of Ethiopia, so we couldn't give them back:)  Benjamin's court hearing was different.  He was still Baby Boy P******.  After nine months of loving and bonding and caring for him, he was still not technically part of out family.

Of course I cried.  Our poor Lawyer didn't know what hit her!  I was hysterical, so was my mom.  Thank goodness Aunt Brenda was there to take pictures or we would have literally NO record of that amazing day!  Thank you to Aunt Shari, Gigi, Grandpa and Miss Erin for joining us on that special occasion!  Thank you Lord for the heap of blessing that is our son!  Your plan is always best, and for that, we are so thankful!
This is the judge with our family:)

This is our court appointed lawyer...  No, I have no idea what Annabelle is doing...

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Thankful for adoption #7

 I am so blessed to call so many amazing women my  friends.  I treasure so many of the women (some mommas and some not) in my life, as women can be hard to befriend. Not my girls!  They are awesome and funny and strong, and not at all competitive about kids talents or "stuff".   They love their kids and their husbands beyond words!  They aren't afraid to ask for help or to give a hand.   One friend I call and text often as she is going through a rough patch in her life right now and we live very far apart. I love her and wish I was closer to get my arms around her neck each day.  Some friends I share a neighborhood with and will watch my kids at a moments notice.  One such friend drove us to the airport when Benjamin's birth mom was in labor.   Then there are the moms adoption has brought into my life:)  Some I was friends with long before we became adoptive moms.  So we had a basis of friendship before the joys and challenges of being adoptive moms came into our lives.  Some I met through the process and will always treasure the friendship and encouragement I have benefited from.  Some have been brought to adoption by God's miracle of adoption in my family, and are now taking the leap too!  However these precious friendships came to be, I cannot express the gratitude I have for their loyalty and presence in my life.  They have talked me off the ledge about adoption issues, momma issues, husband issues...  They have prayed for each one of my children as if they were their own.  They have stood in the gap and helped when I was overwhelmed.  Most people are lucky if they have one friend like this.  I have many.  God has been so good to me, and knows my heart better than anyone could.  So he made these friendships possible.  He knew I would need other moms here and now to hold my hand.  Three of these super women I speak with almost everyday.  Does this give you a little hint about how exhausting it is to be my friend?!  Christy, Erin and Alyson I love you and your families like crazy!  Your children are precious gifts to me, the adopted ones and the bio ones:)   I am beyond blessed to be able to walk this journey with you!

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

November is National Adoption Month:)

Cool huh?  Guess what else...  November 19th is National Adoption Day and my birthday.  How I was not alerted to this before I became an adoptive mom is beyond me!  I should have known...  Since November is a great time to be thankful, I started listing the reasons I am thankful for adoption on Facebook.  We are now up to reason #6...  So far I have been thankful for adoption in general, Baby #1, Baby #2 and Baby #3, all three of their birth moms and for the "ripples" adoption makes and the families it changes.  Starting tomorrow, I will put a little remark on FB and explain WHY here.  I want to get into the habit of blogging a little more and being thankful for the miracle of adoption seems like as good a reason as any:)  Stay tuned...