The Journey to Six - Part II

"Jesus said, 'Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.'" Mark 5:19 NKJV

Cue the roller coaster.

Situation #1: We were presented to an expectant mom on June 13th and found out we were not selected on June 20th.

Situation #2: We started pursuing on June 27th and it was cut short due to a match on July 1st.

Situation #3: We found out about the situation on July 10th. We knew that it was a baby boy in Tennessee due on August 20th. On July 11th we decided that we wanted to move forward and got all of our paperwork sent in that afternoon. (A Friday of course. If you check the above dates they are ALL Fridays.)

On Saturday morning I got up to make breakfast as is our routine. I turned on my Pandora and the very first song that played was "Nashville" by Jenny & Tyler. Right then I knew. I knew that this would be our baby and that he would be born in Nashville, TN.

once upon a time I met you
didn't know it then but we would
journey to a land so far away
hadn't even said I do's yet
didn't quite know just what love meant
I packed my bags and I got on a plane

I was so scared to make my mind up
but God said it was time for
me to make my way in the world
this little girl

I found love in Tennessee
I learned that love is good for me
I learned to love in Tennessee
Nashville Tennessee

every night a different venue
every fight I knew I loved you
more than I had the night before

I found love in Tennessee
I learned that love is good for me
I learned to love in Tennessee
Nashville Tennessee

he's perfect for me 

We were supposed to be presented to the expectant mom on Monday, July 14th. For whatever reason we were not and were told that "maybe it would happen Tuesday ... or Wednesday". Bob had already suggested that we go camping Tuesday and Wednesday. At that point I really did not want to be away from Internet and phone service while there was a strong possibility that the expectant mom would be contacted and we would be far away from technology. But some friends suggested it would be a very good trip for me and for our family. So we loaded up Tuesday morning and went camping. We had spotty cell service so I did know that the agency worker had not contacted us. We got home Wednesday late afternoon and I immediately got on my email AND ....

nothing.

Nothing at all. Talk about anti-climactic.

So I texted the agency worker. A few minutes later she called me and said, "Didn't you get my email?" Between checking my email and texting her she had sent me an email that said we had been selected by the expectant mom to be this baby's family! All very exciting news. The next step was to complete even more paper work and round up the money needed to pay the agency fees.

Thursday morning (the 17th, our 10-year wedding anniversary) I headed down to our local State Farm office to find out about money we had saved up through our Roth IRA retirement accounts. We got everything taken care of and the money would be available on Monday the 21st. Just when we needed it. Then Bob, Etta & I had eye appointments and Etta had a play date for the afternoon.

At 5:13 p.m. we got The Call. It was the agency worker. "N had her baby today! This afternoon!! How soon can you get to Nashville?"

Nashville. Tennessee.

Uh, what? Not August 20th?!

My devotional from Thursday morning was:

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9

Then the chaos started. The money that we needed to complete the adoption would be needed by Friday. The very next day. Our money was out in the Internet, unavailable to us. I frantically made phones calls to see if any. one. we. knew. had a liquid $20,000 just "laying around" that we could "borrow" until our funds came through on Monday. Door after door was shut in my face.

But I knew that God was working. That this was the baby that He had in mind for us. So I tried to be faithful and step by step follow His commands. I booked flights for Friday afternoon.

Not knowing if we were even going to be able to go and adopt this baby.

I rented a car.

Not knowing if we were even going to be able to go and adopt this baby.

I went to bed.

Not knowing if we were even going to be able to go and adopt this baby.

I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and knew that there would be no more sleeping for me. So I got up, did my daily devotional and prayer, did our monthly banking (it was payday) and ate a tiny bit of breakfast. Those four hours until the bank opened were the longest four hours of my life. Friends came over, phone calls were made, I waited, waited, waited. The kids were pretty subdued knowing that the baby had been born but not really understanding what that meant.

At about 9:30 I went to our local bank to see if the needed funds had appeared in our account over night.

They had not.

And the hope inside of me died.

This was it. God had gotten us this far and then He was shutting the door. There was nothing the any man could do that could get us to this baby.

Thankfully God is not a man.

He is good. He is God. He can do all things.

As I was explaining the story to the branch manager and what avenues of financing I had desperately tried to come up with myself, her wheels were turning and she presented me with the solution. I am not going to share all of the details here but I will say that I walked out of that bank with $8,000 in cash. Exactly the amount that I needed to complete the requirements of the day.

Exactly the amount that we needed.

She also figured out how I could complete the transaction without wiring the money and incurring a wire fee. She is amazing.

With the money portion taken care of I went home to pack for two + weeks away from home and to prepare myself from being away from my three children for that same amount of time.

Meanwhile, from Thursday afternoon to Friday afternoon, Amanda was making calls and finding connections in Tennessee. (Please keep in mind that at this point she is not our legal counsel. She is "just" a fellow adoptive mom with some real kick butt connections and extreme knowledge of both adoption law and the adoption process.) Overnight she is able to find us a place to stay just outside of Nashville. The parents of a friend that she went to law school with.

People who had just moved into a new house about a month before.

A house with a studio apartment over their garage.

That they were hoping to be able to use for ministry purposes.

Um, thank you God. Thank you for a beautiful space that would not cost $100+ a night for at least 13 nights. For people who were willing to open their home and hearts to strangers from across the country. To accept us as family and do everything in their power to help us during this time. Well, there was one drawback. We would have to sleep on a hide-a-bed couch. For us that was not a deal breaker of course. And we were pleasantly (to put it mildly) surprised to find out that they purchased and had delivered a king size bed for us that Saturday the 19th. To say that this is a true blessing does not do the situation justice.

Another glitch that we ran in to was the fact that we did not have an infant car seat that was not "expired". (Car seats go bad, did you know that?) I decided that they best thing to do would be to just buy one when we got to Nashville. But again, we were blown away when Amanda's friend had an infant car seat that we could use. She and her husband went - on Saturday - and bought a new carseat for their little girl who just turned one. The blessings kept on rolling in.

Friday afternoon at 3:50 p.m. we got on a plane in Lewiston, ID and flew to Boise. And then to Seattle, WA. And then to Charlotte, NC. And finally landing in Nashville, TN on Saturday morning at 8:20 a.m.

When the situation first arose the expectant mom did not want to meet or even talk to the family that her baby was going to grow up with. She felt that the forever family was going to be just that. The forever family. I prayed that she would at least want to meet with us initially.

When we were in the Seattle airport we got a call from the agency worker that N wanted to meet with us before we went to see the baby.

She wanted to meet with us. Talk to us. Know who her baby was going to be with forever.

I had not gotten her a little gift because I did not think we would ever see her. But I went into one of the airport shops and found a mug with two little birds and a heart that proclaimed:

"You are loved"

Because she is loved and will be loved forever for the ultimate sacrifice that she was making for our family.

After we touched down and got our bag we went straight to the car rental counter. Bob had printed off our receipt for the online agreement that I had made through Costco.com so I laid it down on the counter not knowing what else to do. We have never rented a car before. The man took it (coincidentally, on Monday we saw this same man at the Nashville public library in downtown Nashville!), put the numbers into the computer and promptly told us that it would be over $800 to rent the car for 13 days. But .... Costco had quoted me $588. Since it was a difference of almost $300 he sent us out to the manager. He also put the numbers in and came up with ... $800+ dollars. After doing some looking he discovered that Costco.com had MADE A MISTAKE. The Internet had MADE A MISTAKE. In our favor. He worked some manager magic, on a secret screen that the worker next to him had never even seen, and rented us a car for $581.

Thank you God. 

From there we went straight to the hospital. When we first got to the hospital a huge billboard on the side proclaimed:

"For nothing will be impossible with God." Luke 1:37

I was a nervous wreck by this time. It was around 10:30 a.m. and we had not eaten anything since our small dinner in Seattle the night before. We freshened up as much as we could in the hospital bathrooms and headed to the seventh floor to meet the mother of our baby.

The meeting was indescribable. There were tears, laughter, hugging, advice, questions, answers. What do you say to someone who is giving you a baby? A son? Letting go of a person that grew in her body for nine months? We felt a connection with her. She seemed to love us and essentially gave us her blessing. She was to be discharged soon and was raring to get out of there. She knew that we would need hospital bracelets to see and hold the baby and was adamant that we get them right away. As she absentmindedly picked at her own I felt like she wanted to take it off and give it to me as my own. While I presented her with the gift we had brought she noticed the camera that I handed to Bob. "Do you want to get a picture?" she asked. Bob was able to get two pictures of, in her words, "The two new mamas". This is a gift from her that I will cherish forever. 

After a final hug it was time. Time to meet the little man.

The Journey to Six - Part I

The Journey to Six - Part III
The Journey to Six - Part IV
The Journey to Six - Part V
The Journey to Six - Part VI