Daniel and Faith
It was October of 2018 when we first came into the office. It had been about five years previously off and on that God kept changing my (Faith) heart toward adoption. But Daniel wasn’t there yet. But a year before we met with Ray, God worked in his heart, and we decided to follow what God had called us to do. We decided we would let God shut the doors.
From there, the paperwork was smooth-sailing. In December of 2018, we received our first match. Everything was going well until the end of January, when the expectant mom stopped responding to our messages. She just dropped off completely, and no one could get ahold of her. She was due April 9, so at the beginning of March, Ray said that it was officially disrupted.
We went through a 30-day waiting period before going back on the matching list. It was devastating for our family. Our world was tipped upside down, and our kids were really, really low. It was definitely a stretching time for our family.
From March to July, there was nothing going on. We tried self-matching, to no avail. Then in July, we went to Ohio on a business trip and got a call that an expectant mom was on her way to the hospital. We were ready to leave Ohio and travel straight to her. But it turned out she wasn’t in labor after all. We came home and started talking to her. She seemed nervous but committed to an adoption plan. She had a week left until her due date. We have a friend who is a pilot, and he was ready to fly us to her at a moment’s notice. Her due date came and went, and we hadn’t heard from her. But we still didn’t see any red flags. Then on Tuesday, her lawyer called us with the bad news—she had delivered on Saturday and changed her mind.
The second disruption took the wind out of our sails. We were done with the emotional roller coaster. Maybe God was just testing us. I felt like that time, our kids were so strong. I was so low and emotionally exhausted. I was especially worried about our oldest son, who was struggling a lot. But he spent a long time reading his Bible, and the kids started writing notes to Daniel and me to remind us of God’s faithfulness. Then they started talking about being matching again. We couldn’t quit.
So, we called Ray and asked him if we could go ahead and be considered for another match. Two weeks later, we received a call about another baby. This expectant mom was two weeks away from her due date. We had prayed for a baby who would fit our family, but we didn’t know anything about this baby or expectant mom because she wanted a closed adoption. This time, we had no contact with her beforehand. She was due August 26.
Sunday was August 25. We were in the middle of having our Sunday school class pray for us, and I just kept having this feeling that we needed to go home and pack. In the middle of the prayer, I received the text from Flossie (our caseworker) that we needed to be packed and on the road in an hour. And now we have our baby boy.
If our son’s birth mom called us again, we would consider going through the process again. But right now, we don’t necessarily feel that God is calling us to adopt again. Thankfully, we have since been able to connect with the birth mom and hear from her about once a month.
It was a hard process, but we really enjoyed working with Ray. We very much trust the experience. I get terribly excited when I hear that people want to adopt, but I also want them to know that it isn’t something magical. It’s a hard process and journey. But our lives changed completely. God is so faithful and amazing.
disclaimer to the bottom of each story – Disclaimer pursuant to Rule 7.1 South Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct: This is a testimonial by a former client of Godwin & Horst, Attorneys at Law The result achieved on behalf of one client does not necessarily indicate similar results can be obtained for other clients.