Becoming a family, part 2

In August of 2007, we attended the first of many visits to the cities to begin our first adoption process. During this time we were introduced to all of the different adoption choices that we had. At that time, two programs stood out to us as good options...domestic and Ethiopian. In the end we decided to do a domestic adoption because we wanted to experience having an infant.

Over the next 4-5 months we jumped through every hoop, completed mounds of paperwork, and created a birth parent profile for birth parents to look at when they are choosing families.

On January 8, 2008 we officially entered the waiting families book that birth parents looked through to choose who was going to parent their child. A few weeks into the wait I was really struggling and was praying to God that somehow I just needed a sign that domestic adoption was right for us and that someday we would be parents.  It was four days later when the phone rang and we were told about a little boy that was born just four days earlier (the night that I was begging God for a sign)! 

We met Nezarah 3 days later and we believed that Adam was going to be our son.  Nezarah was insistent that in her culture there were NO unwed mothers and NO biracial children.  She was certain that Adam and her would be shunned from their friends and family if she were to try to raise him.  I can remember promising her that we would keep their culture alive in his life and how she really seemed to like us.  Walking out that night, we hoped and prayed that this little boy we were going to name Isaiah would be coming home with us soon.  Nezarah went to the foster home that night with her social worker and told Adam all about us and how wonderful we were.  When we heard that, we were certain that this little boy was going to be ours.  Nezarah wanted to come to our home and see where Adam was going to live.  The appointment was made for one week later...they never came.  The night before they were to arrive, the social worker called and said that Nezarah had changed her mind and had decided to parent Adam.  We were devastated, but at the same time I knew that God had something planned. 

To be continued...