Adoption was written in my story all along.
As a young girl I remember writing short chapter books with my best friend. The stories were really about us, but we were grown up, and had changed our names (since most everyone goes through a stage where they hate their name as a kid). My name was Nicole and I was 23, single, and had an adopted African American daughter named, Susan. In the books we were constantly on adventure and running away from evil villains.
I think it's funny to think that I was writing books about a topic that is not exactly something a typical ten year old writes or even thinks about. It was almost as if God was preparing my heart for adoption later on in life. As I got a little older, I heard about Steven Curtis Chapman's family adopting a daughter from China and my heart was stirred even more for adoption. That was my dream: to adopt from China someday. I remember I would spend hours on their Show Hope website and think about the future.
In May of 2006, I had a boyfriend (who is now my husband), a job, I was finishing up my junior year of high school and I had college plans and hopes for marriage after that. I had minor laparoscopy surgery scheduled for one morning and when I awoke from the anesthesia, I was stopped dead in my "life" tracks, so to speak. The pictures that they had taken inside me, revealed that I would never conceive. I remember being so afraid of what my boyfriend would think. Would he even want to marry me anymore? We had so many plans, but I didn't remember if we had ever talked about adoption. We had only been dating for about a month, after all.
I wish I could go back and read the text messages that we exchanged on my old bar phone with the rainbow case. Just a few days after the news, Jason called to tell me three little words that would change my life, our life, our destiny. I love you. We talked about adoption and I told him my dream of adopting from China and he happily agreed and shared that dream with me.
Since then we have made a few turns in our plan and a few stops along the way. Their names are Koa and Norah; foster care and domestic adoption. But I would never change it. The path that we travel is so very unique. Not everyone gets to adopt. Many people want to and have that dream, but not everyone will have this dream come true, like us. We know our hope and dream is still to adopt internationally. We don't know when it will happen or what other stops might happen on the way, but we do know that God has placed this dream in our hearts long before it ever became a reality.
Sometimes looking back at the past surprises me, but then again I don't know why I ever am surprised when God does something so... perfect. Adoption was written in my story all along.
I think it's funny to think that I was writing books about a topic that is not exactly something a typical ten year old writes or even thinks about. It was almost as if God was preparing my heart for adoption later on in life. As I got a little older, I heard about Steven Curtis Chapman's family adopting a daughter from China and my heart was stirred even more for adoption. That was my dream: to adopt from China someday. I remember I would spend hours on their Show Hope website and think about the future.
In May of 2006, I had a boyfriend (who is now my husband), a job, I was finishing up my junior year of high school and I had college plans and hopes for marriage after that. I had minor laparoscopy surgery scheduled for one morning and when I awoke from the anesthesia, I was stopped dead in my "life" tracks, so to speak. The pictures that they had taken inside me, revealed that I would never conceive. I remember being so afraid of what my boyfriend would think. Would he even want to marry me anymore? We had so many plans, but I didn't remember if we had ever talked about adoption. We had only been dating for about a month, after all.
I wish I could go back and read the text messages that we exchanged on my old bar phone with the rainbow case. Just a few days after the news, Jason called to tell me three little words that would change my life, our life, our destiny. I love you. We talked about adoption and I told him my dream of adopting from China and he happily agreed and shared that dream with me.
Since then we have made a few turns in our plan and a few stops along the way. Their names are Koa and Norah; foster care and domestic adoption. But I would never change it. The path that we travel is so very unique. Not everyone gets to adopt. Many people want to and have that dream, but not everyone will have this dream come true, like us. We know our hope and dream is still to adopt internationally. We don't know when it will happen or what other stops might happen on the way, but we do know that God has placed this dream in our hearts long before it ever became a reality.
Sometimes looking back at the past surprises me, but then again I don't know why I ever am surprised when God does something so... perfect. Adoption was written in my story all along.
Comments
Bless you, all
xoxo
cathy