HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN ME, LORD?
Written by Al & Judy
July 2003
Have you forgotten me, Lord?
I asked myself this question as I was taking a shower before work in May of 1999. It was the Friday before Mother's Day and I had just received a call from my sister-in-law the night before telling me she was pregnant. I was happy for them but so tired of everyone else getting to be pregnant, except me! As I stood crying in the shower, I asked God, "Have you forgotten me, Lord?" I finished showering and crying and went to the kitchen to have my breakfast. I always keep a daily prayer calendar in the kitchen to read a verse every day. As I turned the calendar to the verse for the day, I read:
I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.
Isaiah 49:15, 16
Wow! what a quick answer! I cried again and asked for forgiveness for my lack of trust in God. This same day, as I was dismissing my Kindergarten students, a lady came into school with her twin girls. She said, "I'm still praying that you'll get a baby soon. I haven't forgotten you." I cried again! Five minutes later, a Kindergarten parent came up to me and told me that a family from their church had a daughter who was pregnant and wanted to place her baby. Were we interested? "YES!" The lady was going to tell the family about us and they would contact us. God is so good! And His timing was perfect! All of a sudden, Mother's Day, didn't seem to be quite as hard for me.
We met Elizabeth's birthmother the following week. She told us she wanted us to adopt her baby. Her parents were about our age and they even had a Cocker Spaniel like ours! She was 5 months pregnant, no prenatal care, and baby would be Bi-racial (Puerto Rican/C). Baby Elizabeth was born 1 month early because her birthmom had some complications: cord around baby's neck, leaking amniotic fluid, and breech baby. They did a C-section and Elizabeth Marie was born! Thus began a month of trials and attacks from Satan, but we finally adopted Elizabeth. She's had some medical problems and still needs speech and occupational therapy. We love her dearly and she is the sweetest!
Fast forward to August 2001, and God was preparing my heart for another baby. Al and I prayed and asked God to guide us. We didn't want to go into debt with an adoption agency. One night in September, I was searching the web and tried a new search engine. I typed in Christian Adoption and voila, up popped the CA web site. I read the web site for weeks and thought, "Could this be legit?" I did my homework, inquired with references and all said such wonderful things about CA. I called Deborah and talked to her, but she didn't sway or try to convince me to come online. She said, "Pray about it and study the web site". We did and came online in November 2001. We "matched" a week later with a birthmom in Detroit and went through 7 months of worry about her high risk pregnancy. This was her 8th pregnancy, but she only had 2 children and they both had different fathers, as did this baby. She sounded fully committed and we visited her 3 or 4 x's. She delivered a healthy baby boy in June and I stayed in the hospital with her for a week.
She wanted to breast feed, against everyone's judgment and advice. We took baby boy E. to our hotel for 4 days with birthmom seeing him every day to nurse, until I told her no more, she would have to pump. 2 days later she called and said she wanted him back and she'd already called the sw. By then, Al and I were a mess and fed up with her demands and requests. Sw said there was nothing we could do but give him back, because in MI you have to wait 30 days before a court date for the birthmom to fully terminate her rights. We gave E. back and came home devastated. The CA family prayed for us and they were hurting also. We felt the prayers and made it through the days ahead.
Have You Forgotten Me Again, Lord? Why did that adoption fail? What do you have for us? What do we do now? Are we too old? Why? Why? Why?
Fast forward to August 2002, when we received a call from an agency in TX about some birth parents due in spring 2003. Although we were interested, we were in the process of selling a home and buying a farm. We moved in October and in late December we contacted the agency again. I put together a Life Book and they showed it to the birth parents in January, They has seen and read our profile on the CA web site in August! What a God thing! The birthmom called us, we talked and answered questions about what they were looking for: people who travel (that's us with Al being a pilot), stay at home Mom (yep); athletic parents (not me, but definitely Al), non-denominational Christians (yes, again). She liked the idea that I might home school and that I was a teacher.
Deborah called us the same day about a 2 1/2 yr. old girl in Detroit (oh no!). Her family wanted to place her for adoption but wanted to transfer guardianship immediately. We prayed and said "Yes!" Within a month, Kassy was in our home. We brought Kassy home on March 13th and our baby Emily was born in TX on the 18th!
We all traveled to TX for Emily's birth, but waited until the following day to see her. We met her birth parents for the 1st time and loved them. Things were going well until 1 week later when ICPC lady would not approve our clearance. She wanted to know where Kassy came from and told Al that we could not gather up children off the Internet. And, what had happened with the failed adoption? We could not bring Emily home until we had another home study done. Emily went into custodial foster care with a wonderful grandmother. We returned home to fight this battle along with all the prayer warriors in CA.
For 3 weeks we were on the phone every day with 6 different decision making and life changing people. Al's stress level was high, but I was fine because God had told me in TX that this is what would have to happen in order for us to adopt Kassy. I called Deborah regularly to give her updates for the CA family. One day I had a breakdown with her on the phone to tell her the news that we could not bring Emily home. After I hung up the phone, in my mind I screamed: WHY GOD WHY? God gave me His answer--to get Kassy in our home. We got our home study updated in 1 week! Then our battle began with ICPC and Al had to get tough with the ICPC lady on many occasions. She'd back down, until the next call. Finally, after a month of phone calls between 3 states, we got the call--we could go get Emily! Only prayer got the ICPC lady to change her mind. We still don't know why it took so long or why all of a sudden we were cleared. We all boarded a plane and went to get baby Emily!
So, now, here we are with our 3 girls and are a living testimony of God's grace and mercy!
Without the prayers of the CA family, we would not have Kassy and Emily. Adoptions can be stressful, and they are all different, but they are so worth the wait!
Those of you who have adopted, understand.
Those who are waiting, you know that CA is the place to be so you can be covered in prayer.
Did God forget me? Never! He was right there all along and had the perfect plan for our family. His timing was and is always perfect!
Love,
Judy
For more information please
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Year.
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adoption@christianadoption.com
A non-profit Christian and Internet
service ministry. We're helping others in the adoption
process.
1.800.277.7006 620.251.4405
Deborah S. Hill P.O. Box 243 Coffeyville, KS 67337
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