An Adoption Story: Chapter 1 "I Am Sending You a Son"

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November is National Adoption Month, and Sunday, November 6, is Orphan Sunday.  God tells us we are to care for orphans.  He set an amazing example:  He adopted us.  Certainly not everyone is called to adopt, but probably most of us should ask the question. In honor of National Adoption Month, I am telling our story of adoption—in weekly installments through November.  This is the first chapter.

I heard it clearly.  Not audibly, but just as real: “I’m sending you a son.  And you don’t need to do anything about it.”

The speaker? God. The context? That’s a story.

I married at 31.  I wanted children, but I was absorbed in my work as a magazine editor and writer—I loved what I was doing.  I didn’t think I could keep doing the job at the level I was and be a mom at the level I wanted. So the decision to have children meant I turned over my 7-year-old magazine baby to a new editor.

And Debbie was born.  She was bright and beautiful.  But she always cried and rarely slept.  What had I gotten myself into?

Soon Michelle came.  Adorable and contented, Michelle slept much of her first year.  I was grateful.  But exhausted.

I spent the next year rediscovering myself.  No longer an editor, and not a very good mother, who was I?  God clarified some things for me: My identity was not in my writing and editing gifts, nor in being a mom.  My identity was in Him.

This truth would become especially important in the years to come.

Then I was pregnant again, at age 40.  At first I was angry.  Then I was excited.  Then I miscarried.  Again I was angry.  It felt like God was toying with me.  And I was astounded at the depth of my grief.

Slowly my heart began to heal.  Peace and contentment settled over me.

And then the announcement from God: “I’m sending you a son and you don’t need to do anything about it.”

I didn’t get pregnant again.  My husband asked if we should look into adopting.  No, we should wait on God.

Time passed.  My girls grew.  I liked my life: parenting, writing, speaking.  I found myself saying, “You know, Lord, we could forget about the boy.  I’m happy with these two wonderful girls.”

“No,” he said.  “I’m sending you a son.  Wait.”

A year later we were preparing to move from California to Florida.  In the midst of packing, I heard Him clearly again: “When you get to Florida, someone will ask if you can take a boy.” Really?  Well, if that happened, I would have more confidence this wasn’t just my imagination.

We moved.  We met a new friend, Carol.  As Carol and I parted one day, she said, “By the way, do you know someone who could take an 8-year-old boy?”

Next week:  The Road to Adoption

So how did your adoption story begin?  Tell us about it in Comments. c 2011 Judy Douglass