An Adoption Story: Part 1

 This is the first part to a three part adoption story for Norah Jane Michaela Rice. I want to document every detail and memory in here and therefore I know I am not going to get it out in one post. Hope you enjoy!

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Some might call it coincidence, some might call it fate or luck. I call this story a miracle.

mir·a·cle

[mir-uh-kuhl]

noun

1.

an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.

2.

such an effect or event manifesting or considered as a work of God.

 

After 2 years and 4 months of going through adoption hoops, almost 20 months of waiting, 2 failed adoptions and countless potential adoption opportunities that fell through, we got the call that changed our life. We were having special revival services at our church that week of September 1st. The evangelist called his series of sermons, "Your Life is About to Change." Little did we know how much that was true until the evening of Monday, September 2nd at about 8:30pm. Church was finishing up and I was up on the stage singing the worship song for the end of the service while people have time to pray. I noticed that my phone was buzzing loudly on the front row and was slightly embarrassed that someone was calling me right then. I thought it must be my other sister calling, forgetting that we had church that night. 

 

As soon as the final prayer was said and our service was dismissed, I slipped down off the stage and checked my phone. I knew immediately by the number that it was a missed call from our adoption agency. At first I didn't really think any thing of it. We received many calls from our adoption agency. Even ones late at night asking in an emergency situation if they could show our book to a birth mom. We were used to the ups and downs of these calls and quite frankly after almost 2 years, I was starting to get sick of them. I jogged back to the nursery where my MIL was watching Baby K and i told her I had just got a call from Catholic Charities and I was gonna run outside and call them back. She was used to the frequent calls also and at first didn't think any thing of it. My sister had overheard me say that to her and immediately came to my MIL and asked her if she remembered what had happened that about 2 weeks before? She reminded her that I had asked the agency not to call us anymore if they just wanted to show our book; only to call us if a birth mom wanted a match meeting with us. Instantly they were both excited.

 

I stepped outside and returned the call. An on-call social worker from our agency answered whom I had never spoke with before. She told me that a baby girl had been born that afternoon. The birth mom had contacted the agency and specifically asked for the longest waiting couple to adopt her baby. The baby had yet to be named and the on-call worker said she believed we would be able to name her. She was 4 lbs 9 oz at birth and was currently in the NICU up in Portland being monitored since they believed she was a preemie. She wanted us to come tomorrow to meet her. The on-call worker checked in with the agency and found out that we were the longest waiting couple. The last 2 longest waiting couples happened to be the last two adoptions they had just done, so we were it! 

 

At this point every excited feeling was welling up in my body and I wanted to scream with joy, but I was still on the phone. My brother in law, Johnny, happened to come outside of the church and notice me on the phone looking rather shocked and excited. I motioned excitedly for him to come here and then just locked him in a bear hug (this is totally unlike me) while still keeping one hand on my cell phone and half listening to the social worker. He kept whispering, "what?? what? A baby??" and I kept furiously nodding. Finally BIL went and told my sister, "I think you better go outside, your sister needs you." My sister came running out and then I see my MIL frantically pulling up the blinds in  the nursery so she can look outside at me. I hardly could press the end button fast enough on my phone before shrieks of joy came out and I was yelling, "It's a girl!!!! We have a daughter!!!!!" My husband came running outside wondering what on earth was going on and I was just shouting, "we have a daughter!!!" And suddenly we were all hugging. My husband, my sister, possibly a few other people, I don't really know. All I remember was sobbing, crying all at the same time, but no tears were coming, only relief and joy. I ran into the church yelling, telling everyone that we have a daughter, born today and we get to meet her tomorrow. I ran up to the evangelist and shook his hand and said, "You weren't kidding when you said your life is about to change!!" He had just preached an amazing sermon the Sunday morning before about how "by this time tomorrow..." everything could be different because God said.

 

"The man of God had said to the king, 'By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, five quarts of choice flour will cost one piece of silver, and ten quarts of barley grain will cost one piece of silver.'" 2 Kings 7:18

 

He talked a lot about how if God said something why couldn't we just believe it. Why can't we just LET GO of the worries that we are holding onto. I cried when he encouraged firmly to "let go" of your worries. Just believe because, "God said." I told him after the sermon that my biggest worry was this adoption. Everything was resolved with Baby K, but now I just held onto this adoption and constantly worried about it. Worried especially that our home study would expire and we would have to pay more fees to renew or that we wouldn't get a baby at all. But as I told the evangelist this, I told him that I had made the decision during that sermon that I was gonna let go of it starting right then and give it to God.

 

We had been planning on having a bunch of people over that night for a game night and snacks, but they happily agreed to reschedule because suddenly we had a ton to do. I remember thinking I needed a car seat, preemie clothes, to pack the diaper bag, diapers, and a million other things! After church I went to my MIL's for a bit to borrow some preemie outfits and celebrate for a bit and talk anxiously about every detail. I called my mom and dad and my best friend to tell them the news. It was such a shock to everyone that this was finally happening. As soon as I got home, Jason and I began to talk about names. I was going back and forth between Annie and Norah but he had already picked out the middle name. I snuggled down under our covers in his arms and asked him what it was and he said, Jane. All it took was one minute on my phone looking up the meaning of the name and I knew that it was perfect. It meant, "gift from God." I didn't decide on Norah officially til the next morning, but we were pretty sure that that was the perfect name for her. It mean woman of honor. I spent until 2 in the morning in the attic pulling out baby girl clothes bins and sorting darling little outfits for her to pack. I found myself humming a Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran song call, "Everything has changed." I sang, I just wanna know you better, know you better, know you better now..." over and over. And that night as I drifted off,  I dreamed of meeting my little girl.

 

To be continued.