I guess I should probably explain how it is that we came to adopt Malachi. Growing up as a "foster sister" to newborns, I always knew I wanted to adopt eventually. At first we thought we would adopt after we I gave birth to a few kids, but God had different plans. I have polycystic ovarian syndrome, and having children wasn't really working. The doctors said we could try a bunch of other things, but we prayed about it and decided we wanted to at least start the adoption paperwork. Most of the people I know who adopted a child had to wait about 2 years, so we figured we'd better get started.
Around the middle of July we went to Bethany Christian Services to find out what this whole adoption thing was about. We started filling out paperwork, and all of a sudden, it seemed like things were moving really fast. We had to get background checks done and answer a bunch of questions about ourselves, but it was much less complicated than we had thought it would be. We did our homestudy in October (which is no big deal - the social worker comes over and makes sure you have screens in your windows, a working smoke detector, and no gross mold or something growing - I kind of think every family should have to do a homestudy before having a kid!), and we were officially approved at the end of October.
We found out a week later that our profile had been shown to a young mom who was due at the end of November, and she wanted to meet us. However, Aaron was taking classes in San Antonio, Texas, so it was just Audrey who got to go to the first meeting at the adoption agency with Ashley and her mother. They were awesome, and as nervous as I was, it went really well. I fell in love with Ashley immediately, and I had just walked through the door after the interview when my social worker called and said she had chosen us without even meeting Aaron! I was so excited I could hardly stand it!
Aaron got to meet her a week later, and he too fell in love. We talked about how she wanted us to be at the hospital when the baby was born, and we talked about how we are going to meet at least twice a year so she can visit. We'll also be sending pictures and letter to her at least 4 times a year (January, Mother's Day, August, and his birthday) until the age of 5 and at least twice a year until the age of 18. We talked about what we wanted to name him, and when we said Malachi, Ashley and her mother were so excited, because that was actually the name that they wanted! Ashley's mother told us that if Ashley had been a boy, she was going to name her Malachi, so it felt like God had given us this name for sure.
Malachi was due November 28th, but Ashley's mom said she was pretty sure he would come early. We were lying in bed wide awake at 5:00am on Saturday the 21st and couldn't figure out why until we got the call at 5:25 that Malachi had been born. We didn't get to be there for his birth because it happened so fast, but we got to see him within an hour of being born, so I think that's pretty good.
So, I guess that's our story. God brought us Malachi and he is our little miracle. My cousin Amanda emailed and said she was thinking about how tough it must be for Ashley to give Mac up, and how that is an amazing picture of how God gave up His Son Jesus for us. The whole adoption process has given us a better understanding of who God is and how much He loves us - what an awesome God who loves us enough to give up His son to die for us! Malachi means "Angel" or "Messenger of God", and it is our prayer that he will be a messenger of the Gospel of Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment