"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

TWINS!!! December 10, 2007

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jer 29:11

There is no denying that God is in the details of this adoption and there is no way that we could have dreamed of how this story would unfold.
When we made the decision to adopt from Ethiopia, we discussed the possibilities of adopting siblings or even twins. After a lot of discussion and prayer we decided we wanted the ONE child that God meant for our family. We felt that if we were waiting on "our criteria" of siblings or twins we might possibly miss out on the ONE child God had intended for us. We filled out ALL of our paperwork for 1 boy 4 or under. We were very much at peace with our decision to adopt 1 - after all it made the most "sense". We wanted to give God plenty of room to work and not put Him into a box by having very specific criteria. We began praying for the "little boy" that God would make part of our family (Tom was specifically praying- NO BABY! TODDLER PLEASE!)
We sent in our application to Hope Adoption on November 5, 2007. All paperwork for the adoption agency, social worker, and homestudy agency stated that we were requesting 1 boy, 4 or under. We talked with the director of Hope to discuss the exact child that we were requesting. He let us know that he only did referrals after much prayer for guidance and wisdom to find the right family for the right child. We talked for quite awhile and let him know that we were very open to the child God had planned for us- that we were not requesting a specific age, just gender, and only 1 . It was an amazing feeling to be talking with the man who God would use to find our son. He felt that finding a little boy in that age range would be fairly easy, and that he thought we would have a referral by Feb.
19 days later on Saturday evening, November 24, 2007, the phone rang. "Are you sitting down? We have a possible referral". This sent shock waves through my system- WHAT?? The application was only sent in 19 days ago... No referral until Jan/Feb... The shock from that realization had only begun to fade when TWINS was mentioned. "It is a possible referral because it doesn't match the request- would we just pray about it". Shimeliss (the director of our agency) said he knew he had to ask us about them- even though they didn't match. God kept putting us together- in his thoughts and in our files. When he would be working on the boys paperwork he would think of us or he would get an email from me. He argued that "what if it was MORE than just a coincidence."
We agreed to pray about it. It was not an easy decision and one that we first said "no" to. We had convinced ourselves early on that God wanted us to adopt 1 boy- yet as we continued to pray we began to realize that maybe 1 boy was what WE had decided was best for our family, and just maybe, we were being handed the EXACT children God had intended for us and we were not able to see it. We began to pray for God to open our hearts if these boys were meant to be ours. Actually, I think our hearts always knew, it just took our brains a little longer to catch up.
On Tuesday, November 27th we got an email from our social worker - (she did our homestudy for Molly's adoption
and so our family has known her for several years- who BTW has no affiliation with our adoption agency). We had emailed her to ask if we would even be approved for 2. She said she had already gone ahead and approved us for 2- "just in case a set of twins popped up". I guess we had gotten our "sign" that we had been praying for!!!
On Wednesday, Nov 28 we said YES!!!

We witness a miracle every time a child enters into life. But those who make their journey home across time and miles, growing within the hearts of those who wait to love them, are carried on the wings of destiny and placed among us by God's very own hands. --Kristi Larson

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