Adoptive Parent Story - God of Wonders
Adoptive Parents
The adoption process can be daunting, but God is in control!
I’ve never been the “doubting Thomas” type, who needs scientific proof for matters of faith. Of course, I am logical and left-brain oriented in a lot of things, but when faith comes in, prayer often provides answers when reason doesn’t. I found myself in an unfamiliar place - completely out of control - when we started the road to adoption. It seems almost every part of the process besides mountains of paperwork and background checks was controlled by someone else. The process can be daunting!
We were first miraculously matched to a birth mom whom a priest friend of introduced us to. She lived in another state with her family and was a young, unmarried woman who prayerfully decided to place her child for adoption. She wanted her baby to grow up in a Catholic family. After speaking with her at length on the phone the day after Christmas, she asked us to adopt her baby. We experienced immeasurable joy as we shared the news with family and friends. The baby was due in March. During the time from December 26 until he was born on March 19, the Feast of St. Joseph, we prayed unceasingly for the birth mom and baby’s health and that God would hear our prayers and allow us to welcome him into our family. When the baby was born, we got the call that the birth mom decided to parent. While we knew the birth mom made the decision in love and freedom, our hearts were broken - very much a spiritual loss we felt in the depths of our souls. In my head, I knew this was God’s plan, but my heart hurt. In a moment of weakness, I cried out in my prayers, “God, if you want us on this path, if you want us to adopt, please give me a sign. St. Therese’ sends roses…can you send a bunny?!” I know what you’re thinking - why a bunny of all things?! The only thing I could think of was to pick something you don’t see often in the natural world. Bunnies it was. There was no logic to the selection and I knew in an instant I shouldn’t have to ask God for a sign.
A few weeks later, on a sunny afternoon, I was driving to an appointment and a friend of mine called while I was in the car. The conversation turned to something important, so I pulled into a subdivision so I could park and concentrate on the call. My friend was asking how the adoption process was going. Just as I started to tell her the birth mom decided to parent and that I wasn’t sure what was next for us, SEVEN bunnies came out of the bushes from across the cul-de-sac, walked in front of my parked car, stopped to look at me, and then darted off into the bushes. I was astonished and speechless but had my answer. I knew that God wanted us to continue the adoption process and to trust Him. There were more bumps in the road and many more times God would step in and let us know He was in control. Less than six months later, we adopted our first child.