Adopt
An Amazing Journey!
As we write this, we are just days from celebrating our year anniversary of our son’s adoption. It has been an amazing journey that God has taken us filled with grace, love, and lots of prayers.
This journey began for me (Amber) almost nine years ago when God planted in me a heart for adoption. Then as my husband and I met and married we began discuss the blessing of adoption. After a few years, my husband said “Let’s adopt! After all, adoption was God’s idea to begin with and we will get to experience an earthly taste of what God has done for us.” So now the question became when and where? Originally, we thought our first child would be through pregnancy and then adoption but after a miscarriage, we believed this was the time to pursue what God had already placed in both our hearts in previous years.
We began our process of researching the different avenues of adoption. One day my husband talked to his friend from Memphis who told him about Life Choices. We checked them out and were drawn by their vision and mission. We began the application process and in few months, we were approved. Yeah!!! A couple of weeks later, the joyful day came when we were chosen by a birthmother. Now the wait, waiting to find out if our baby would be a girl or boy, waiting for the birth. The joy was amplified the day he was born as we were glued to that first picture of him, wishing we could hold that precious boy. Well, just when we thought the waiting was almost ove, we had an unexpected 9 week wait until placement due to some legal issues. Waiting can be a stressful, worrisome time or it can be a beautiful time as you wait on the Lord. For us, there was a little bit of both, but ultimately God’s strength and grace carried us through and helped us praise Him for his perfect timing. During the wait, we felt God blessed us with such a loving Cradle Care family. The precious family who took care of our son would regularly send us pictures and let us call as often as we wanted. Phone calls were filled with such personal details on our son’s development, likes/dislikes, his personality, even down to the outfit he was wearing that day. She put me at such ease during the waiting period. It was a huge hug from the Lord because she made us feel like I was right there with my baby.
Finally, the phone call we had been longing for came with the announcement, ”you can come pick up your baby.” The next day we couldn’t board the plane fast enough to Memphis to see our son. Our dream was becoming a reality. A swirl of emotion; excitement, nervousness, and relief just broke when we drove up and saw the silhouette of the Cradle Care mother standing in the doorway holding our baby. Let me tell you it’s nearly impossible to hold your composure when Niagara Falls is bursting through your eyes. So Travis beaming with joy and I crying for joy got out of the car. As we approached the house, the Cradle Care mom walked out and said to us with a huge smile, “Here’s your baby.” We spent the next hour just taking it all in - holding, cuddling, and feeding him. Returning the next day, Judy from Life Choices, who had been by our side during the whole time, gave such a special, memorable adoption ceremony including a devotional and time of prayer. It was a symphony of joy with the greatest crescendo when they placed our son in our arms.
Now a year later and we still stand amazed as we look into our son’s face. We just think, “WOW GOD!, You orchestrated all this.” You knew he was going to be part of our family. Every good and perfect gift comes from You. He is our perfect gift. God be praised, but we also thank Life Choices for being the avenue that God used not only to give us encouragement and support along the way but to make it possible to have our baby come home.
Travis and Amber