What a Roller Coaster Ride

 

The instant I saw her face, I knew. I asked Mark if I could request more information. As soon as he said sure, I sent the email I had already written. 

 

I held the photos of our sweet girl for 2 weeks. I had prayed and talked at length with Mark. We weren’t ready to fully sign on just yet. In the time it took us to commit, another family had put her on hold and was filling out an application. Although I was happy for her, I would be lying not to say I was devastated. I knew that He had a plan. I knew there was a child for us. I knew that I should be thrilled she had a family (and I was thankful for that). Still, it looked like the end of our story.

 

But God. Three weeks later everything changed.

 

I searched every couple days to make sure the post of the little girl that grabbed my heart was changed to “found a family”. When it hadn’t changed after 3 weeks, I decided to reach out to the agency again. I found out that the family wasn’t sure they were ready to continue. They had one week left of the month-long hold to complete their application. I let the case worker know that we were definitely still interested if they decided not to proceed. That was the moment I started to hold my breath.

 

It was May 1, 2020 that I received the message that they decided not to move forward and that sweet face was once again available. This began the longest week of my life began, while I waited for Mark to catch up and get on board with the path I just knew we would take. Running to our precious girl!

After a week, I approached Mark looking for a “yes”. I had presented options of how we could finance another adoption. We had poured over videos and the little medical info we had in order to assess where this sweet girl was at, what her future might hold, and possible limitations. I had been praying for over a month. So, knowing the next day was Friday and we had officially been looking at her file for a week, it was time to move. 

He told me he needed a week to pray about it...

 

I was, ummm, a little miffed. To be honest, I was quite upset and didn’t hide it. Another week??? What had he been doing? I had presented all of the information I had. I had made a very good case. We had decided we would adopt another child. But, how does one argue with “I’ll pray about it”? So, I gave him the quiet treatment (to let him pray ), probably closed a few doors and cupboards with a little extra force, and cried in the bathroom more than once that evening. Fairly certain I was pretty miserable to be around.

 

I wasn't aware that he was actually planning the biggest surprise ever in just 2 days. Mark worked frantically in the 2.5 hours that I was downstairs that Friday afternoon to put it all together. He videoed each of the children telling me something they wanted to thank me for and a reason they loved me. He called our agency, put our sweet daughter on hold, started all the paperwork, and got it all sent to his church email (since we share everything and there are no secrets in this marriage).

 

Then, Sunday morning before the online service he sat all of us down (the kids were giddy with excitement) and played the video. There they all were and I watched through tears. However, the best part was the end when he came on and told me there was one more that wanted to say something... then I saw her precious face. 

 

I spent the rest of that evening with him, filling out the remaining paperwork and emailing about a Homestudy to get started on our journey!