As a social worker I have had the privilege of working with Antioch Adoptions to help find loving adoptive homes for children from the foster care system, but I have an adoption story of my own.
It began when my husband and I had come to a place of complete brokenness… after years of infertility treatments we were worn down physically, emotionally, financially, and spiritually. Completely heartbroken over our inability to produce a family. God had been whispering to our hearts that we might adopt one day, but it wasn’t until we gave up our own efforts that we started to hear him more clearly.
A friend called to share a dream she had the night before. In her dream, she opened the front door to find a baby in a basket on the porch. She picked up the baby and ran inside to tell her roommate, who said, “This baby is for *Ken and *Carol.” (*pseudonyms) It was just a few weeks later that we were called about a baby boy who had been voluntarily relinquished and placed in foster care… they asked if my husband and I would be interested in being considered for this baby. We took several days to pray and received a clear “yes” from the Lord; three months later we brought our little guy home.
A few years passed by and we started talking about adopting another child. As before, the Lord had gone ahead of us. I was running a support for teen moms and their babies. One evening I received a call from someone who helped lead the group. “Carol, I don’t know why, but I just had to call and tell you this. Last night I had a very vivid dream. In it, we were sitting in a circle at support group. You had a darling baby girl in your arms. And you were telling the teen moms that you had to leave the program. You loved them, but you needed to be home to take care of your new baby.”
Two weeks later I received another call from the adoption agency. They let me know a baby girl was about to be born to a young mom, who planned to place the baby in foster care. They once again wanted us to consider taking this baby in! We again took time to pray about it with our trusted prayer partners and again we knew we should say “yes.” A few weeks later I was sitting in support group with my teen moms, holding a beautiful baby girl in my arms as I said goodbye. . .
My adopted children are now young adults. It is a delight to watch them growing into the people God created them to be. I have a close relationship with both of them and love them dearly. However, while they were growing up we dealt with all sorts of disorders and disabilities. Add to this the challenges of navigating birth parent relationships, and helping our adult children cope with the disturbing situations that led to them being placed for adoption.
We ended up doing both homeschool and private school. We worked our way through a host of psychiatrists, counselors, doctors, neuropsychologists, and vocational rehab services… there were some very rough and confusing years. There were times when I simply wanted to escape it all. But then I would remember those prophetic dreams given to us by our loving Father. These kids were chosen for us; they were meant to be with us. God would give us the grace to raise them and to love them. And He did!
October is Double Impact Month at Antioch Adoptions so all donations will be doubled up to $70,000 – please help us reach our goal and help children find forever families right here in our own backyard!
