I want to take you back to March 16th, 2012. After a couple of years of hard work and discipline, Amber and I were debt free and had just made the final deposit to get us to our long-term goal of a 6 month emergency fund. We celebrated with a nice dinner and didn’t think much else of it.
Four days later, right as I’m about to go to bed, I get a message from a lady in our church asking if I could call her in the morning. She said she had something pretty important she wanted to talk to me about. So, the next morning, I called her and her question stopped me in my tracks. She said, “Shawn, have you and Amber ever thought about adoption?”
She knew some of our pregnancy struggles and that we were foster parents, and she told me about her niece who was 17 and pregnant, but knew she wouldn’t be able to raise this child. We had talked about adoption, but weren’t pursuing it, but Amber and I immediately knew this is what we wanted to do.
Four days after that, on the afternoon of March 25th, 2012, we sat in a Starbucks with this young lady and another family member, and at the end of the conversation, she said, “I want you to give this child a home that I can’t.”
We were elated! The catch is, she was already 6 months pregnant! There’s a reason God gives you 9 months to prepare for a baby! But, what we’d later realize is that, God had been preparing us for this, even though we didn’t know it at the time.
So, we got the adoption process started and felt like we were making good headway when we got the call that birth mom had gone into labor. And this little girl, who we expected around late June, came early. On May 12th, 2012, our daughter, Adalyn, was born. We were at the hospital and got to be the first ones to hold her.
Being 7 weeks premature, she spent some time in the NICU. We stayed in the hospital so we could feed her and hold her. Adalyn was doing great, even as a preemie, but Amber wasn’t feeling so hot. A week after Addi was born, I walked in and Amber said, “You won’t believe this, but I’m pregnant!” It takes a lot to leave me speechless, but I had no words.
We were finally able to bring Addi home in late June and continued the adoption process from there. Finally, on December 12th, 2012, 7 months after she was born, we stood in front of the judge and made it official. Adalyn became our daughter. I’ll never forget, the judge looked down at us holding this tiny little thing, with Amber 8 months pregnant and about to pop, and he said, “You ready for this?” We said, “Nope! But we’re going to do our best!”
On January 16th, 2013, 8 months and 4 days after Adalyn. We were all so excited, except for maybe Adalyn, she didn’t know what to think!
When the dust settled and all the bills were added up and came due for the adoption and attorney fees and hospital bills for Norah...when the final tally came in, wouldn’t you know that the amount was almost to the dollar of the goal we met on March 16th, 2012. We had no idea what God was about to do in our little family. All of the sudden, we saw a greater purpose for that 6 month emergency fund we’d put back. It wasn’t for us, it was for them. And it made our story all worthwhile.