Our adoption journey actually began in December of 2004. Roger and I had never EVER talked about adopting a child. As I said before, we were happy and VERY BUSY with our boys. However, I think God was definitely working in our hearts about adoption, even though it had never entered our minds.
Roger was the principal at the Mayfield/Graves County Area Technology Center. We decided to have a Christmas party at our house for all of his faculty, staff, and substitute teachers. It was a great evening with lots of food, fun, and fellowship. As we were all sitting around conversing, one of Roger's substitute teachers, Ricky Frick, started talking about mission trips that he took every year to Russia. I was very interested in what he was saying, because I had envisioned that when Roger and I both retired, we might get to do some mission work---something I had always dreamed of doing. Well, as the conversation went on, Ricky began telling about the children in Russia and how his mission team visited numerous orphanages each year, and how needy those children were. I assume it was at that very moment that the little adoption seed that God had planted deep within me MUST have sprouted----I'm talking about BIG TIME sprouting!!!! I looked at Roger and said, in front of EVERYONE, "HONEY...THAT'S WHAT WE NEED TO DO....WE NEED TO ADOPT INTERNATIONALLY!!!"
Poor Roger! What else could he say, but, "Well, if you think that's what GOD is telling us to do...." I knew in my heart at that very moment, it WAS what HE was telling us to do. SO began our jouney......
Ricky gave me the email address of a lady in Russia whom he said could get me information on adoption. I emailed her, and she sent me the name and contact information for a family in Owenboro who had adopted two children from Russia. I immediately called and talked to the happy mother and I was SO touched by her story---one of infertility, and numerous attempts to have a child through invetro fertilization with no luck, and then the blessing of a beautiful daughter adopted from Russia, and a wonderful son adopted a year later. But when she shared the process they went through and the cost---possible multiple trips to Russia, with stays sometimes as long as a month, and a cost of $30,000+, I knew that was where our adoption journey to Russia ended. I guess I was a little disappointed, but then, we had our sons, we were happy, I was 46 years old (I forgot to mention that earlier), everything was really okay with our life the way it was. So, that was the END of the adoption story...or WAS it?
A couple of months later I ran into a local minister who had just gotten back from a mission trip to Romania, and guess what was there????----orphanages with children who desperately needed homes. That little seed inside of me apparently sprouted a little more, because I began researching the adoption process and cost for that country. Not only did Romanian adoption also involve long stays and astronomical costs, but Roger and I were actually TOO OLD to adopt from there. HMMMMMMM....... Again, I was truly okay with it and just decided that we really weren't supposed to adopt after all, but........
Some months later I was at Wal-Mart doing one of my mega-midnight shopping sprees. (I LOVE to go shop there late at night when the only inhabitants there to challenge me are the buffers!) Anyway, by the time I got ready to check out, it was around 1:30 A.M. I proceeded to the one checking line that was open, and I encountered the only other shopper in the store I had seen, in front of me, with her cart piled halfway to the ceiling. As we were standing there, we began talking. It wasn't long before she shared with me that she was leaving in a couple of days to adopt a baby girl from Guatemala. She told me all about her adoption, and THEN proceeded to tell me that her parents were already in Guatemala because they were adopting a little boy from there. I asked her how old her parents were, and when she said her mom was 52 and her dad was 55.....WELL, that little seed inside of me sprouted again....Was God telling me we needed to check on adoption in Guatemala??? SO began my research on adoption from there, but the story again resulted in a dead end. We just couldn't think about making the trips it would involve, nor did we have the money it required. For the third time, I as really okay. We had our three boys---the best three boys in the world, and they really were all we needed...so, that was the end of our adoption story AGAIN, or was it?????
One Friday night---the last Friday night in January of 2006, Roger and I went out to eat, and then I decided to go back to school and work on my lesson plans for the following week. It was 6:30 P.M., and as I was walking through the door, one of my teacher friends, Mandy, was walking out. We stopped and started talking---we were laughing about never really seeing each other at school to talk. Then she asked me if I knew her cousin, Melinda. I told her I did---that our sons had played baseball together one summer, and we had gotten to know each other quite well. It was THEN that Mandy dropped the bomb when she told me that Melinda and her family were on their way home from China with a baby girl. I looked at her and said, "Why are you telling me this?" You see, she had NO IDEA that Roger and I had looked into adoption. With this being the FOURTH time I had unexpectingly run into someone involved with adoption, I just KNEW God was trying to tell me something. Adoption from CHINA had never crossed my mind. Mandy told me she would email me the pictures of Melinda's baby.
I went home and told Roger all about what had happened. Bless his heart---I'm sure everytime he thought I was over this CRAZY idea, I'd pop back in with another possible avenue. Every time he would just say, "If you think that's what God is telling us to do....." THEN, on Monday when I got to school and opened my email, THERE was the pictures of 10 month old Sophie Elizabeth. There was no more sprouting of that seed inside of me----it FULLY BLOOMED! I KNEW GOD WAS TELLING US THAT WE WERE SUPPOSED TO ADOPT, AND OUR DESTINATION WAS CHINA!!!! I forwarded the pictures to our home email, and when Roger saw them, his response THIS time was, "Why don't you call Melinda and ask her about the process." A few days later I made the call. I found out the process for adopting from China was very different from all the others I had looked in to. It only involved ONE trip to China, and the cost was almost HALF of what it was everywhere else. I got all of the information I needed from Melinda. Roger and I talked about it, and we decided to send an application to CCAI---Chinese Children Adoption International. This was the agency Melinda had used, and she and her husband had been very pleased with everything. I called the agency and talked to representative, and we received an application a few days later. It was quite a lengthy application, but I finally finished it, and mailed it to CCAI on Friday, February 10, 2006. On the following Tuesday, February 14---Valentine's Day---we received our call from CCAI telling us that we had been approved to adopt!!!!
WHEW!!!! I'm am SURE you are tired of this LONG, DRAWN OUT story. But that is how our journey to Molly Kate began----a journey that we were told would take approximately 14 - 16 months to complete. YES, I said 14 to 16 months......SO, what happened? I think the question is more, "What DIDN'T happen?---and that's ANOTHER story......
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