It's has been a full year since I've written here. Mostly that time has been busy with family time and just the necessary tasks that go with raising four kids. We definitely took time to grieve last year's adoption loss and we looked forward to pursuing another infant adoption sometime in the future.
God, as always, had other plans.
On Thursday, April 14, Anna's birthmom had a baby. We had no idea that she was pregnant and/or making an adoption plan and neither did the agency.
On Friday, April 15, our case worker called us out of the blue. We had just spoken to an adoption orientation group on Tuesday about our adoption story, so I assumed it was a follow up phone call for that. However, she used the words "Are you sitting down?" Those words mean that there's a baby/child for us. We weren't in an adoption program or waiting in any way shape or form so this came as a complete shock. As she explained that it was Anna's birth sibling, a little girl, we fell in love immediately. We said yes, with no hesitation and our lives changed immediately.
We began preparing for a baby. We picked a name, we cleaned the house. did laundry, pulled out baby clothes and cloth diapers, and we excitedly fielded a zillion question from our kids. We moved into overdrive as we thought we'd be picking her up from the hospital on Sunday.
Again, God had other plans. Sweet Josephine Katharine was discharged on Saturday at noon. We found out at 10am and rushed to secure childcare and head to the hospital.
We picked our sweet daughter up and went shopping. We were low on baby supplies... It had been a while!
That's the short version of how Josie came to be a member of our family. Many of the details are part of her story and are hers to share someday. We are actually still waiting on surrenders at this point. It's primarily a logistics issue and we're not concerned about birthmom changing her mind. She was very firm in her decision. Please pray for her, this cannot be easy.
We are totally in love with our Josephine. She is a delight to have in our home and has brought so much joy to our family. The kids love her, Anna in particular and it has been truly wonderful to see them be big brother and sisters to her.
We did get to name our sweet girl. It was a quick decision, as was her entire journey to our home. We named her Josephine after St. Josephine Bakhita. Look her up, she is a truly awesome Saint and such a wonderful example to live by. Her middle name is from St. Katharine Drexel. We have a relic of hers in our home from a friend who prayed for us at her tomb. St. Katharine Drexel spent her life working for education and rights for African-American and Native American children. She's been a great intercessor for our family and we wanted to honor her for that!
3 comments:
Congratulations! What a sweet sweet surprise, and a lovely name! I've missed your writing here and was so happy to see a new post pop up in my blog feed - I sometimes spot your great hairstyles in the adoption haircare group we're both part of on facebook. Our third was also an out of the blue surprise (from not adopting to "hey, there's this baby in the NICU who needs adoptive parents" in three days) - the very best kind of surprise!
Congratulations! What a great blessing for your family and such a beautiful name!
Yeah! Congratulations! I was just thinking about your family the other day and hoped that you would return to posting. I thought you just had your hands full. I guess I was right!
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