Thoughts of Abraham, 1 year later

From our adoption journal:
My dear child,                                                         November 4, 2009
We sent in the application to adopt you today.  We are adopting with Holt.  We really love Holt's commitment to keeping birth families intact whenever possible and their heart for the communities they serve.  We are on a bit of a high, knowing that the ball is rolling.  You exist, probably in your first mommy's belly, somewhere in Ethiopia.  You are loved.

Photo Credit: Riann Schell

Little did I know how close to being home he was, a year ago today.  His process went so much faster than it should have, so much faster than we were told to expect.  And God has been faithful to give us so many markers to know that His hand was upon Abraham's placement in our family.  On this one-year anniversary of our adoption process, I thought I would chronicle some of those here:

*In early December, after hearing horror stories about social workers and homestudies, we prayed that God would grant us favor with our social worker and that she would be able to see our heart.  Of all the social workers here in Austin, God sent a woman from our church.  She understood us immediately and has been close to our heart ever since.

*December 19, a day that I wrote a special letter to our future child in our adoption journal, also happened to be the birthdate we were given for Abraham.

*January 22, the day that Abraham's first father held him for the last time, is Daddy's birthday.

*Another birthday gift: Abraham's referral just days before my own birthday in late March.

*After months of deliberating about how to best name our child and deciding to change his/her name so that s/he would fit in well with our other children, we opened our child referral file and found that our son's Ethiopian name, Abreham, was a perfect fit just as it was.  An old testament name, just like each of our boys' names, and also one that we had considered as an option anyway. 

*Speaking of the name Abraham...ABRAHAM!  Our patriarch in the faith was called by God out of his homeland, and was given a new heritage.  This similarity struck me right away.  I pray that our Abraham would walk by the same faith of his biblical namesake.

*Parallels in Abraham's birth family and ours; it was clear to us that God was redeeming what had been taken away so early in little Abraham's life.

*Money!  The costs of adoption can be overwhelming to plan for, but God always provided just what we needed, sometimes even the day that we needed it.  Help came in all sorts of ways.  We had extra money showing up in our budget.  Six people gave us money toward our adoption costs.  At the end, a no-interest loan through ABBA Fund carried that last bit of expense.  Beyond the financial, we had the support of so many people who offered to help either by writing recommendation letters for us, babysitting the kids while I chased papers, or praying for our family.  I made a record of every single name.  In our journal, there are 25 family  names that will be there to show Abraham how the collective efforts of our community brought him home.

*God gave me this verse in my quiet time one day in late May:

Do not be afraid, for I am with you;

I will bring your children from the east
and gather you from the west.
I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’
Bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the ends of the earth—
everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”
Isaiah 43:5-7

It was as if He was giving us a glimpse of the way He had paved to bring Abraham to our family.  The next day we got the (unexpected!) news that our travel approval had been granted and we were to leave for Ethiopia right away.

*The day that we first met Abraham in person and held him in our arms was my aunt Aldeen's birthday, May 29, a day later than Holt had scheduled us, due to flight craziness.  Aunt Aldeen was one in a million.  Or a billion.  She adopted kids before it was mainstream, and she did it well.  She was the first person I spoke to about my desire to adopt.  She was a friend to everyone, and like a second mom to me when I was little.  Of all the days of the year, we finally got to Abraham on her birthday. Coincidence?  I think not. 

Photo Credit: Riann Schell

There are so many special days to celebrate in adoption...the day we saw his face, the day he took our name, the day we first held him, the day we brought him home. 

Today we celebrate the first step in our journey to Abraham.