Our Adoption Journey Began Five Years Ago Today

Five years ago today we signed our application for adoption and met with our social worker at AAI. I remember sitting in her office looking at her walls filled with pictures from her travels around the world, photos of little children in China, souvenirs that she had picked up on one of her many trips to the country that our daughter would be from. We were filled with so much excitement and a sense of certainty, we had waited many years for God to give us another child, we knew this was the right decision for us. As we signed our life away we immediately felt that we had cast a red thread to China. We didn't know any of the who, what or where's but we knew that in the end we would be bringing home a little raven haired girl into our world. At that point Karen has expected that by November we would be traveling, it was only a 6 month wait at that time. We never imagined that it would turn into 18 months. I know it is nothing compared to what families are waiting now but at the time it was excruciating to us. I went out and bought some crib bedding at Target that night. I could not wait to nest and prepare a room for our little Myah. I could not get enough information on China, I must have watched Lost Daughters of China about 100 times. We quickly spread the word to our family and they were so excited for us. Dayton was very anxious to meet his little sister. We kept him included in every aspect of our adoption. Five years ago tonight I went to sleep and prayed about the little girl who may or may not have been born yet in China. She was in my heart already, I knew that as soon as I signed my name on the dotted line.

I am so thankful that God placed Myah in our lives. She tells everyone that "Jesus picked me out for my mommy and daddy". She knows how much she was wanted and how excited we were to go and get her in China. We are blessed beyond words.

I wanted to re-post our decision to adopt today because this was truly what brought us to that decision. Here is my original post from my baby jelly beans site:

For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me what I ask of him. I Samuel 1:27
Once we decided to adopt, there was no looking back for us. Adding to our family was something that we had prayed about for years. After having Dayton in 1995 we struggled for many years trying to have another child. After much testing we learned that Dayton was our miracle baby. We have never felt slighted at all that he was our only child, he is such a blessing to us. As the years went by he never had any interest in a sibling, but that would change. In August of 2004 my sister Melanie and her husband Chris adopted a little baby girl from Florida , Annabelle Claire. Dayton fell completely in love with her and has such a special bond with her. I believe that Dayton really never knew what he was missing until she came into our family. He then decided that maybe a little sister might not be such a bad thing after all. This was our first sign that adoption might be for us. Then in December of 2004 we were in Traverse City over Christmas break and we happened to turn on the tv and see the coverage of the devastating Tsunami in Thailand . I was riveted and could not believe what I was seeing. That night I could not sleep, I literally tossed and turned thinking about all of those children who became orphans instantly. I kept thinking that we have a nice loving home and maybe we should look into saving one of those children. I could not get the thought out of my mind. We came home and I started searching on the internet for some information on these children and how could I help. My search ended when I learned that the officials were trying to locate family members first so that the children may go live with them. God wasn’t about to leave this one alone for me. That following Sunday we were in church and our new Pastor Kelly was giving his first sermon since being hired. He and his family had just arrived home on Christmas Eve with their adopted daughter from China, Whitney. As fate would have it, his sermon was about adoption. I sat there listening to his message and telling us about his journey to bring Whitney home. I started thinking about what adoption has brought to our family, the joy that Annabelle has given us, and also that Mark’s Grandpa S had been adopted. How wonderful their lives were because of the love of others. I started to cry and I mean the ugly cry. I told Mark that I really needed to leave but I really wanted to hear the rest of the message. Pastor Kelly shared with us how Whitney was found in a park, and that thousands of little Chinese girls are abandoned every year due to their one child only policy. That would be perfect for us, we really would love a little girl! Then he turned on a music video by Steven Curtis Chapman, it was a song that he had wrote about his adoption of three Chinese daughters (this is the song playing). I had lost it at this point, I was so embarrassed! But I knew right there, this was the answer to my prayers! Now, I need to convince Mark!! I told Mark that afternoon that I would love to adopt a little girl too. I cried most of the day. Over the next few days everywhere and I mean everywhere I went I ran into Kelly, Linda and Whitney. At Target and baseball sign ups there they were, was God’s message getting through to me or what?! Then on Tuesday night Mark walked in the door after work, I could tell that he had been crying. He couldn’t even speak to me, I sat him down at the table and was worried that something bad had happened at work ( you never know!). He then looked up at me and said “I want a Whitney too”. I knew that right then and there that we had to do this!! God put this desire in our hearts and was going to fulfill it . Well, let me tell you, Kelly was at our house the next weekend answering our questions, we went to an information meeting at the adoption agency the next week and we were on our way to record speed of getting our documents together! How could we wait? We have already waited 10 years! You just know when something is right, and this truly felt right. This was our answer.