Today, January 29, 2014, has been a day of absolute
awe. Sitting in a courtroom,
realizing, that our God is so much bigger than anything we could ever ask or
imagine. Looking around at the
faces that surround me and wondering why God would have allowed me to be a part
of something this miraculous. It
all started on February 12th, when our little boys life was put in
the balance as far as the worlds standards. It all began when our sweet boy was taken from the only home
he had known for two and a half years and taken to Laura Dester shelter in
Tulsa, OK. I cannot imagine the
pain and fear that he possessed when a stranger pulled up in a car, loaded a
black suitcase with his belongings in it, and took him to a place he had never
been to before. No more grandma,
grandpa, sister or brother, just all alone in a place that could never be
home. Now let me introduce you to
the miracle that God performed through all of this…
For five years, I have felt in my heart that the Lord had
called me to adoption. At first, I
thought it would be international, then I got involved as a mentor at Crisis
Pregnancy Outreach and realized how many children needed adopting here in the
US and thought we would adopt a baby domestically. On February 22nd , 2013, I was praying and I told
the Lord that I still didn’t have any direction as to what to do with this
feeling in my spirit. And He spoke
to me, plain as day, to begin volunteering at the shelter that very week. On Friday, February 24th , I went to the shelter to love on the
kiddos in the little house. I was greeted in the gymnasium by about 25 kids,
all 8 and under. They were all
fighting, sometimes literally, for my attention and begging me to play. I need at least 5 more of me that
day….that’s another blog post in itselfJ. But there was something unique about
one little boy in particular. He
had hearing aids in both ears and the way he spoke melted my heart. He and I played basketball, jumped
rope, and built a fort with big foam blocks. After about an hour, a worker came in and asked if Justin
was ready to go home. He
immediately stopped, dead in his tracks.
He looked up at me with his beautiful brown eyes and said, “ I not want
to go home.” Fear filled his eyes
and he began to shake. I bent
down, placed my hands on his cheeks and said, “Buddy, you don’t have to stay
here anymore. You get to go
home.” He wrapped his arms around
my neck and whispered the four words I will never forget, “But, I just want
you.” Sweet Jesus! What was I to do with that? It took four workers to pry him off of
me and as they were walking out he was saying over and over again, “But, I just
want her, I just want her!”
The day continued and I had lunch in the little house with
the other children, read them books, and tucked them in for their naps. As I looked across the room, I saw an
empty black bed with the name “Justin” written on duct tape and taped to
it. I prayed, Lord please cover
him in your peace and protection.
I left the shelter that day, and my dear friend Brenda called
to ask how things went. I told her
about a beautiful bi-racial little boy with hearing aids and told her the story
of what had happened. She agreed
with me to pray for him, and our conversation ended. About two hours later, I get a call from her. She says she was sending me a
picture. As I look down, I see his
face. It’s him! The little boy from the shelter. I proceed in asking 100 questions, but
mainly wanting to know how she got the picture. She told me that her friend, who was starting the process to
adopt from Haiti, had decided to foster and he was her first foster child. Moreover, she told me that he was
available for adoption due to all parental rights being terminated. I immediately thought to myself that
maybe her friend would adopt him.
She said she would keep me updated and I was so excited to know that he
was safe and at peace.
The next week, Brenda calls me to tell me that her friend is
unable to adopt him because he is native American and is required to be adopted
into a native family. She proceeds
to tell her friend about us and that she wasn’t sure, but she thought we might
consider adopting him. Her friend
told her that she was sure we were great, but my name had been on her heart
since she left the shelter. She
didn’t even realize that they were talking about the same person. Now the hard part, getting Kraig on
board. It’s not that he was
opposed to adoption, but just wasn’t feeling the calling like I had. I think in his eyes, and the girls
eyes, I would take any child no matter what the circumstance, that was how open
I was to what God wanted to do.
Mind you, I had just told my friend Jennifer that I would never adopt a
child over the age of 3….we still laugh about how funny that must have been to
God. He knew He was about to rock
my world!
Kraig agreed to meet Justin and more or less had laid out a
list of things God needed to reveal in the meeting. I had no idea.
Justin had not engaged his foster dad and was clearly not really into
men as a whole. I prepared Kraig for
that and he understood. Long story
short, we were there and Justin remembered me from the shelter and we began to
play baseball. Out of nowhere, he
throws the ball to Kraig and says he wants to play with him. I left the room so that they could have
some time and before long he is asking if he can go outside and have Kraig
throw him on the trampoline.
We all go outside and are playing and laughing with him
while he jumps. I look over at
Kraig and he has tears coming down his face. He looks at me and says, “He is my son.” And the journey begins…
We turn in our preliminary paperwork and register for our
umpteen hours of required classes on foster parenting. The day of our first class, Justin’s
foster mother gets a call that DHS has found an aunt in Seminole that wants to
take Justin. She calls me, on the
verge of tears and tells me. Kraig
and I agree that we will proceed forward with the process because we knew in
our heart that God had brought Justin to us. For over two weeks, we could not get an answer out of DHS as
to if the aunt still was interested.
At this point, we have had Justin every weekend and have fallen in love
with him. Finally, we talked to
his worker and she said that the aunt had decided not to take him because she
just received her own grandchildren to foster. However, his file is going to state staffing within two
weeks. We still had classes to
take! The day before his file was
to go to state staffing, I called his adoption worker to see if there was any
way our file would be considered.
She told me that she did not show where we had Indian cards so therefore
they had dismissed our file. I
told her we did have Indian cards and emailed them to her on the spot. She told me that they would not proceed
with state staffing and that they would move forward with the adoption with us
as the chosen family! WOW! God brought the aunt into the picture
to stop state staffing, so that we could get our paperwork and classes
finished, and so that we would be “seen” at DHS.
We continued to keep Justin on the weekends and planned to
make the transition to our home when the foster family went on their annual
mission trip at the end of May. We
made the transition, and Justin was legally placed in our home on June 5,
2013.
Through all of this, God has shown me exactly who He
is. He does this in all of our
lives, but demonstrated it first hand with our precious son. One day, after I picked Justin up from
the bus stop, he asked me the first question that I had to fully rely on God
for the answer on. I was playing,
Believe by Natalie Grant, and he started crying and asked me to turn it
off. When I asked him why, he said
that he had heard that in the shelter.
I quickly turned it off and he looked at me and said, “Mom, why did I
have to go to the shelter?” Right
then, I prayed and told God I was ready to answer that question. At that very moment, I knew the answer. I said, “Buddy, Jesus took you to the
shelter so that mom could find you.”
He instantly quit crying and smiled and said, “Jesus take me to the
shelter to find you mom? So I can be an Arthur now?” I answered him yes and immediately closed my make up
mirror. With tears streaming down
my face, I turned on the song “Give me Faith, to trust what you say…that you’re
good and your love is GREAT!” That
answer was not from me, but from the Holy Spirit who showed me once again that
God is who He says He is. That our
steps are ordered of Him and that all we need to do is look to him.
He told me to go to the shelter, even or just a short time,
to meet my son. And every step after that, He did. Not me.
Him. HIM! I have to tell you that I do not feel
deserving of this most days. I
feel totally inadequate, but totally humbled that something in our family, made
God want to place this beautiful child with us. Praise you Lord.
Oh how I love you, and Oh, how I want your glory to be revealed in this
young boys’ life.
I’m just going to preach for one minute, but I want to ask
you….Do you have faith, to trust what He says? Do you know that He truly is leading you where He needs you
to be? To be a witness to the
people that need to see and experience His love and grace? What is that thing that He is asking
you to do? Step out. There are literally lives hanging in
the balance waiting on your obedience.
I always tell Justin’s foster mother, thank you for your obedience. She knew that she was supposed to
foster him after meeting him at the shelter herself. Had she not, I’m not sure how all of this would have turned
out.
Today, January 29, 2014, Justin Kade Arthur became a part of
our family. Tonight as I put him
to bed, he said, “Mom, I love family.
I never been in a family before.”
We prayed together and he told me he wanted Jesus to live in his heart
forever. I told him that we would
talk about what that meant this weekend.
My heart is overflowing and as I look back and see that almost a year to
the day that his father’s rights were terminated, Justin became a part of a
forever family. God did not leave
him where he was at. God moved
quickly on his behalf and expected obedience from those involved.
Today, I want to say thank you to so many people. First of all the Hale’s, without their
obedience, Kade wouldn’t be snuggled in his forever home warm and cozy. Secondly to our family, for their love
and unwavering support during this time.
And to my great friend Brenda for being such a huge part of putting
these puzzle pieces together.
Thank you all for your support and for your love for our son. He is so special and God is going to
use him in mighty ways.
So now, Trust Him.
Listen to His calling and follow His lead. He will not leave you where you are at. You have places to go and people’s
lives to impact. He is good, and
His love for you is endless. God
Bless you all and please continue to pray for us as we seek God daily to impart
into our children what He would have us impart. And always remember, all children are gifts from God,
carefully hand picked and placed into families no matter what way they
come. God has given us so much
responsibility, but what great joy it brings!
