our missing piece

A little over a year ago I made my last post on this blog.  We had decided to jump back into the foster care world.  If you've known us long, you may know that we were approved foster parents a few years back. And we had a failed adoption placement---of course, it all turned out for the best---but the grief was real and it was hard.  So we stepped back. 

When I wrote my last blog, in September of 2014, we were in the midst of getting our home approved again.  What I didn't mention in the in the blog was that there was a boy.  With a name.  And chubby cheeks and to-die-for curly hair.  And a story.  He needed a family.  We were hoping it would be us.

Lots had changed since we had started our foster-to-adopt journey a couple years before.  Millie had been born for one.  But even more had changed in our hearts.  As a family, we had grown to love and respect and pray for the birth families of the kids that we were going to come into contact with.  We weren't just looking for kids that needed families.  We wanted to help kids go back to their original families if they could...and if we could give them a little glimpse of love and family while they were with us (however long) then that was great.

September 6, 2014

Tonya walked by me at church and we said hello. I had hung back because I was helping out with an information booth about “The Heart Gallery of GA”. We wanted to get the word out about this new organization helping foster kids in GA get adopted... We did the normal chit chat. How is your family? Mine is good. Then my life changed. She said that she needed us to pray for a family for her foster placement (we had met him months before when he first moved in and had seen him around at events and such) He was moving towards the date of getting parental rights terminated. *Yes there is a story here.  No, I'm not going to share it because its not our story to share.  In order for adoption to happen, brokenness must be first.  It stinks.* —Here I was standing in the church having a casual conversation about our concern for a little boy---but in my head, I was thinking, “really, God? How can this be? Are you telling me something?”

I got in the car and told hubs about our conversation. I didn't say anything further. I had not stopped thinking about him. My mind was spinning with possibility and I was so excited but to be completely honest, I was thinking if I take this any further with a "lets talk about this conversation"---my understanding and loving husband would have every right to run out the door.  We had 3 kids...an 18 month old at that.  And this would mean bringing in another 18 month old (they are 9 days apart).  Twins.  4 kids.  Later that night, he brought it up again. I'll never forget his words... “I can't say that the thought of Aiden joining our family doesn't make me smile.” What?! OK, God. Here we go. Lets have this conversation. Lets talk about how fantastic it would be to have a little brother, to add another boy, to complete our family with a sweet son, to have countless dreams and prayers answered so unexpectedly. We talked. We laughed. We dreamed. I cried. (Big surprise.)

 We started the paperwork that following Monday. Lots of prayers. For direction, for guidance, for His will to be done. LOTS of prayers for the birth family. I couldn't imagine what they were feeling. At this point, I had no idea who they were or what their story was...but I knew something along the way had broken and only God could fix it. I prayed a lot for them and for him....

But, really, I had been praying for him for 15 years. Of course, I didn't know his name, or his story, or know that he'd be so darn cute and funny. But we had dreamed of him for that long. We had searched for him. We had prayed for God to bring us together and to make that road as smooth as possible. Was this really happening? Were we finally at this part of the journey that we know his name and his face? It didn't seem real.

Over the next several weeks, while we finished up our Home Studies, we had play dates with all the kiddos.  My head was constant in asking "is this us?  Could we do this forever?"

I could fill many pages with all the ways that doors were opened and miracles happened along this journey to get approved.  In a nutshell, the first time around it took over a year.  This time, within 6 weeks he was in our house.  All along the road we were reminded that this had nothing to do with us.  This was God's plan and He had everything covered...everything.

 

Our home was approved very quickly. After submitting our Home Study, less than 24 hours later...(we were told it could take up to 2 weeks.) He  spent his first night in our home that Saturday, December 6, 2014. He was home.

Adoption Day was May 19^th 2015. Our family was complete.

*It sounds all neat and tidy...he moved in, we were in love, we adopted.  The End.  

Nope.  It wasn't all tied up with a bow.  Nothing in life ever is, right?  Even though it was absolutely God's plan for Aiden to be part of Team Davis, its been tough.  Way tougher than I ever dreamed.  I hope to share more about that in the coming months because in my midst of struggle it was so helpful to find blogs by adoptive moms that were real and talked about how hard it was---and is.  I hope to be helpful to others. But I always remind myself of how far we've come and what a miracle it all is.