It started with a dream, literally. Scott's dream. I found out about it in an email. From school no less.
Scott emailed me from school one day, and I do wish I had saved it, but I didn't. It was something like this: "Hey, last night I dreamed about adopting a baby girl, and God said 'YES', but it was JUST a dream." What?? Of course I had not even thought about the possibility of adopting a third time, we were perfectly content with our two boys who were busy and growing like weeds. But....I couldn't let it go. Doesn't God speak through dreams? He most certainly did in the Bible, but how about now? Scott informed me we were too old and he didn't think we would even be allowed to. I said, "I'll call the adoption agency and just see." I called and talked with the director, she said that we could since we already had children. I was so excited! I didn't know that we could afford it, but God had provided twice before, there was no reason not to trust Him again. We told our parents our plans, to which my mom replied, "You need another youngin' like you need another hole in your head!". My mom LOVED my boys, but I think she saw the chaos of two kids and two full-time jobs and what adding another one would do! Needless to say, we were not deterred, we moved forward. We started the process in February of 2010. We THOUGHT that there was a shortage of couples in the agency pool, but when we went to our first training in March, we found that was not the case...there were over 60 couples attending. I questioned God and His call, but we proceeded.
I need to backtrack a bit for the rest to make sense. When we started adoption process for the second time, I had been researching options. Silas' adoption had come about privately, with just an attorney, so I was not sure how it would happen the second time. I had felt God leading us to adopt an orphan, so I had researched Guatemala specifically. I had this idea in my mind of a little Hispanic girl with dark eyes and caramel skin. Scott, however, did not take to the idea of an international adoption. He wanted the process to be similar to our first experience, so we found Christian Adoption Services in Matthews, and wound up with our sweet Stephen just 9 months after starting the process.
In August of 2010 we went active with our agency. With two very open adoptions I thought we might get picked fairly quickly. We did specifically request a girl, so we assumed it would take longer than the last time, but we had no idea just how long it would be. I thought I would be a pro at the waiting part, but it just wasn't like I thought. Placements slowed down and there were all those couples who were waiting with us. That December 31, my mom went to the hospital really sick. A few days later, she was diagnosed with leukemia. Our world was suddenly turned upside down. She passed away March 2, leaving us all devastated, especially my Pop. In my grief I prayed for the Lord to send our baby girl to give us some hope during our dark days. They got darker. My Pop could not navigate life without my mom and he took his own life 58 days after her death. Life was never going to be the same.
God knew what was going to happen, nothing takes Him by surprise. That June, after 27 years at my job, I quit. I no longer had my mom to help with the kids, so I decided it was time. We pulled Silas out of school (we were tired of bullying) and started homeschooling. That's a story for another day. At that point, I was ready for a ray of sunshine to break through the clouds. As January of 2012 was approaching, our homestudy was going to expire. Scott did not want to renew, I did. He was feeling his age, I guess I was in denial! We were 43 and 48 by then, but I was still confident in God's call. We agreed to renew our homestudy, but he would only wait 6 more months, that was our compromise.
If you're still with me, hang on....I'll fast forward. From the time we started our wait, I had told Gretchen, the main pregnancy counselor at CAS, that if a Hispanic baby girl came along to send her our way! I still had visions of that dark-eyed Guatemalen little baby I had dreamed of. She said, "Don't tell me, I don't speak Spanish, tell Doris!" Doris is the agency director who is a native of El Salvador and speaks fluent Spanish. The last week of March I was having a pity party. I was riding the lawn mower, praying, crying out to God. If He had truly called us, why were we waiting so long? I begin to specifically ask why each baby girl that had been placed in the last few months had not come our way. I was mad. I felt hurt, confused, and broken over the wait of this adoption. I cried out to the Lord and I felt His answer deep in my soul. I was just finishing up a Beth Moore Bible study of the book of James and He had used it mightily over the previous weeks. I heard, "Dear child, from the beginning you have prayed for a Hispanic baby girl. All of those baby girls you just mentioned were all lily white. What do you want? You need to make up your mind." I cried and cried and begged the Lord to forgive me for my unbelief. That was on Thursday. On Tuesday, my friend Judith came through town from Raleigh to drop off her in-laws. We met at Chick-fil-A for lunch and told her about my "talk" with the Lord. I was prepared to wait for him to fulfill His promise and bring Scott's dream to fruition. That evening, I got a text from Doris at the agency to meet the next afternoon. I of course hoped there would be a baby, or a meeting with an expectant mom. I didn't think they did "surprise" placements anymore, but I took the car seat we had purchased months before out of the box and put in the trunk of my car. I had no intention of getting my hopes up and installing it.
The next afternoon Scott left school early and met me at the agency. We made small talk with Doris about adoption, open vs closed, just general stuff. I started getting curious and asking specific questions, if there was a mom interested in us? She told us to hold on, she would go get Gretchen who had been working with this mom. A few minutes passed and the door swung open slowly. Gretchen walked in carrying a pink blanket with a dark little head peeking out. God had delivered our miracle! Born in Charlotte to a young woman from Honduras, which just happens to share a border with Guatemala. God delivered Scott's dream and mine. We call her Sophie Joy.
 Go to April of 2012 in the archives to see her birth announcement! |
| "Our Hearts Whispered Your Name and God Answered" |
