Sweet P's Adoption Story

It's another long one. Enjoy ~

Sweet P's story starts a little over a year ago. I was visiting with DH's dad one afternoon at their apartment between his hospital stays (they were living here in McKinney during his cancer battle/treatments). He said, "I had a dream last night that y'all had two daughters." I said, "Lord, no! That's never gonna happen." I decided (in my need to bring peace & spiritual light to the terrible situation) that the two girls were the two babies we lost to miscarriage visiting him so he would know who they were when he got to Heaven.

I really tho't we were done, after all we're getting close to 40 & all. But sometime after FIL passed away, DH said, "I think we should adopt another child." I promptly said NO! And then God spoke to my heart. I was completely preoccupied about this possibility of another child. So on Thanksgiving, I asked DH if he was serious, and before the end of the year we had contacted the same agency that bro't us P2.

We had finished all the paperwork by February, and then settled in to wait. We stated a preference for a boy because we had all boy stuff - clothes, bedding, toys, etc., but I told one of my cousins, "Obviously, if God sends us a girl, we're not going to say no."

A bunch of random details that led to Sweet P's arrival - In late April, we started thinking about buying a house with more yard. I actually fell in love with one, but DH said, "We can't afford an adoption & a move in the same year." I didn't know it then, but DH prayed that he needed to know if we were going to get a baby, preferably sooner rather than later. On May 3, the boys were having one of their days when their "male-ness" was all over the place. Having my fill of testosterone, I said, "That's it, I'm calling the agency & requesting a girl," and we all laughed. On May 5, a friend (mother of 3 boys) & I went out for coffee mostly to bemoan - I mean celebrate our status as mother of boys, sharing story after story of the boys we are trying to grow into godly men.

On May 6 at 4:30pm, the agency called. The conversation went like this:
Hello.
Oh! I'm so glad you answered the phone.
What's going on?
You put down on your application that you were willing to take a multi-racial child.
What kind of multi-racial did you mean?
Why? What have you got?
A little girl was born this morning. She's half Korean and half African American.
Healthy. But you are the only family we have willing to take a multi-racial child.
(Did she say born this morning?) Okay, let me call DH.
The birthmom's about 80% sure she's going to place. I'll call you after I meet with her.
Okay. Sounds good.

I'm sure more was said, but that's the jist. We talked with the agency that evening. The brithmother wanted to sleep on it, so did DH for that matter. We didn't say anything to the boys. I alerted a few of my prayer warrior friends, and that was all we told. The agent sent us a picture taken with her cell phone. Even on that poor quality picture, it was obvious she was gorgeous.

The next morning, we sent P1 to school like everything was normal and DH left for work. At 8:30am, the agency called, "Okay, she's decided to place. She wants to meet you between 1 & 2pm." So exciting! I called DH and started to get myself presentable and arranged to take P2 to my folks.

A little after 9am, the agency called back, "If the baby has a healthy, she's going home today." Excuse me?! This is a whole different thing. It's one thing to get myself ready to meet the birthmom & baby. It's another thing to be ready to bring a baby home. I sprang into action: found the cradle & bedding (she'd just have to live with blue bumper pads); found the infant car seat, cleaned it & installed it; called a friend who had a little girl looking for clothes - the child didn't need to come home naked; talked sister into coming to clean my house, knowing people would be coming by; went & got P1 from school; stopped at the mall to get a gift for the birthmom; dropped the boys at my folks; and met DH at the hospital by 2:15pm.

We met the birthmother & got to visit with her for over an hour. She already had children from 2 previous marriages and said she always knew God wanted her to place this child, that her mistake would bless someone else. She had been adopted from Korea by an American couple when she was a baby.

Sweet P was released from the hospital about 6:30pm. We just showed up at my folks without telling them what was going on, although they had their suspicions. Again by the time we got home, there were balloons & signs, diapers & clothes. By the end of the next day, there was more pink in my house that I ever would have imagined possible.

We are so blessed with these 3 beautiful children that God has given us to raise.

P2's Adoption Story

I've had some requests recently for our younger kids' adoption stories. Here's P2's story, it's a long one, sorry:

After 2 miscarriages (Nov 03 and Mar 04) & too many rounds of fertility drugs, I couldn't ride that hormonal roller coaster any more. After much prayer, we decided to apply to adopt through a small, Christian agency in Dallas. We turned all the paperwork & home study stuff by Jun 05 and waited.

On Mar 11, 2006, we were having P1's birthday party with family. DH's mom asked if I would loan some of my baby equipment to one of their cousins (19 yrs old, hubby in army, no money) who was due early April. I, very begrudgingly, gave away my baby swing, stroller, exersaucer, bouncy seat, etc. Not the absolutely necessary pieces, just all the extras. They smoked, so I told DH's mom I didn't want any of it back. She said, "Well, when you get a baby, it'll probably be our last grandkid, so I'll want to buy you lots of new stuff."

On Mar 12, we (DH, P1 & I) left to go on a mission trip to do some hurricane clean up at a Baptist camp in East Texas with some friends & their parents & a bunch of couples their parents' age.

On Mar 13, the men were all working hard on building repairs & tree clean up. The other mom & I took the boys on a walk thru the camp grounds to pick up all the trash. In the afternoon, we had a small party for P1 since it was his actual birthday. That evening we were in our cabin, playing with some of P1's birthday stuff, winding down for an early bedtime, when our friend's mom knocked on the door. "You've got to call DH's mom immediately. It's an emergency."

We panicked, and DH used her phone to call home. All I could hear was his mom yelling into the phone, "You've got to call Andrea now about a baby!" And that was it - P2 had been born that morning, on P1's 5th birthday - all 5 1/2 pounds of him. Of course, the annoying thing was that everyone knew we had a baby before we did. But, that's really small compared to the greatness of the moment.

After lots of phone calls and very little sleep, we left for the hospital (south of Fort Worth) early the next morning. Because God has a way of making some things almost too easy. P2 was born in the town where my cousin & fam live. We could stay with them until P2 was ready to come home. P1 could stay & play with his cousins rather than sit up at the hospital. And they had an infant car seat and preemie-size boy clothes that we could borrow (their twins are a few months younger than P1).

So like I said, almost too easy. P2's birth mother walked out of the hospital AMA before we arrived and dropped off the radar. Because she tested positive for speed, she was told she had to place the child for adoption or he would go into foster care. She chose adoption. The hospital connected her with our agency. They brought her two family profile books. She chose us because we lived in Texas (the other family lived in OK). She signed a contract with the agency identifying us as her choice of families, but she couldn't sign the papers to relinquish her rights until 48 hours after giving birth. She had an appointment to come do that & didn't show up. She wouldn't answer her phone. The CPS caseworker went to her house & she wouldn't come to the door.

We couldn't take P2 home until those papers were signed. The nurses in the nursery made up reasons to keep him one more day, but he was going to be discharged Thursday no matter what. If she didn't sign the papers, he would go into foster care. We prayed & cried & held on to that baby, knowing he was ours. With 2 hours to go before he was to be discharged, we got a call that the police had been called to the home for a domestic disturbance. CPS was called because there were children in the home. She knew we needed her signature on the paperwork and convinced the police to hold them there at the home until our agency caseworker could get there. Andrea said that was the first time she'd had the relinquishing papers signed on the back of a police car. As soon as they were signed, they called and told us he was ours officially.

The amazing thing was even though P2 was tiny, he never showed any signs of being a drug baby. The nurses said he acted like a preemie but not like a drug baby. He is a very healthy kid.

So that's P2's amazing story - the best birthday present P1 ever got.