Assorted Things About This Adoption

Joseph.

Abigail.

Those are the two choices.  It matters not to me.  My children, on the other hand, have some strong opinions.  Elisabeth would love another sister.  She has been asking for years.  The boys think another boy would be grand.  So does LK...because our not-so-girly-girl is always on the lookout for another rough and tumble partner to play with.  Noah says that Gabriel needs a boy his age to be his buddy also.




After looking at our calendars, and Jas thinking through the reports he has due soon (today is quarter-end, after all)....we agree that Thursday would be a great day for Baby J/A to arrive.  I would like for us to get a call at about, oh....6:30 a.m. to say that labor has begun.  That way, Jas would still be here at the house, it wouldn't be too crazy early to wake up the children...and then we can all hit it! And Jas already has off Friday, for Independence day.  Perfect.

Yes, Thursday would be a good day.





Elisabeth would very much like to go with us when the time comes.  And we've contemplated taking G with us.  But...we're thinking it should just be the two of us...so we can concentrate on whatever the Lord has for us (and my mind wants to explode thinking about all that the Lord could have for us....breathe, Joli!).

So the plan is for the children to stay with my mom (either here, or at her house a few minutes away), with help from my dad, I'm sure.  But if mom is not feeling well, my sweet friend Arica has offered to be here with "bells and whistles and lots of kisses"!  So thankful for loving help when we need it!



Our agency's normal protocol is for the adoptive parents to meet the baby...and then to leave without the baby.  Upon discharge from the hospital, the baby stays in a "caring home" for 10 days, until the time window when the mom can rescind her decision has lapsed. (Our agency has several of these "caring homes" around our state...special families who are dedicated to loving on and taking care of babies during that 10-day window.)

Once that 10-day window has lapsed, then the adoptive family takes home their new child.  The agency has this procedure in place in order to guard the hearts of the adoptive families....because birth moms can and do change their minds sometimes.  The adoption workers I've talked with who've walked through that with families almost seem traumatized themselves at the memory of those situations.

But we would like to bring baby J/A straight home from the hospital.

Upon telling our program director our desire, she strongly urged us to think and pray through this...but that they would support whatever decision we made.

After talking with the Lord, and each other, and our children, we feel peace about bringing the baby straight home from the hospital.

We appreciate that the agency has these procedures in place to try to protect adoptive families, and we know and fully understand the chance we are taking by doing this.

We also know that there is a 100% "chance" that all of this will unfold according to the Lord's will. 

If the baby does indeed turn out to be our child, we will not have missed any of those first precious days.  And if, on the other hand, we have a baby for 10 days and take care of it and love on it lavishly, and it turns out not to be our child, we won't regret having spent time and love on that child.

Our director has warned us to "guard our hearts".  My spirit rebels against that.  Just no.  We're all in.  This child - whether ours or not - deserves our whole hearts, not guarded hearts.  

I type that out and I know that it is so easy to think and feel that right now...and would be much harder to walk through.  But we feel a peace - that "peace that transcends all understanding" -  that this is the way we're supposed to do it.  Not because we know how it will turn out...just because we know that come what may, He's right here with us.