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Answering God’s Call to Adopt

Adoption is a big deal. It’s life altering.  But it’s also completely normal if you are called to do it.  We can’t imagine our lives if we had never heeded the call.  We had known for a while that we would like to adopt, but hadn’t pursued it until we learned about a little girl at our church.  She didn’t turn out to be our daughter, but her story lit the fire under us to begin the process.

In November 2011, we completed our first home study and we were officially on the waiting list. Many involved thought that our wait would be relatively brief given our situation, but God had a very different idea.  In fact, our wait turned out to be nearly four years.

There were times during that four years that we wondered whether we had really heard from God. It gave us plenty of time to question whether we’d be able to love an adopted child the way we loved our biological children. At times, we almost obsessed over that thought.  But when you truly know what God has called you to do, you know that all you need to do is just wait on His timing.

It wasn’t easy and was emotional at times, but we knew He had something really amazing in the works if it was taking this long.  Although there was time to question things, the four years also gave our family time to be where we needed to be to be ready for a baby.  In hind sight we can see that.  Our biological children grew up a bit; 11 and 14 at the time of the adoption and very capable helpers.  We also got an opportunity to visit my sister and her family in Colorado (just two months before Caleb was born) which gave us time to bond as four before adding a baby.

We didn’t hear about Caleb until four days before he came into our family. We didn’t know he was ours until 23 hours before we met him. We have not met his birth parents; his birth mom has chosen a closed adoption.  This is hard for us.  We would love to meet her to thank her for loving Caleb enough to give him life and for making the best decision she could for him.  She is a brave woman.  We want so much to know that she has peace with her decision.

Caleb is crazy adorable, very active, and has facial expressions that will have you rolling on the floor. He is part of our family and is just perfect for our family, too.  He was meant to be with us…our family, church family, neighbors, and friends all agree.  Oh, and are we able to love him as much as we love our older children? Absolutely! We are eternally grateful we answered God’s call to adopt.