Michael and Leslie
We were already the parents of three biological children, Brandi, Kegan, and Dawson, when we felt called to adopt. God placed this desire in our hearts after we attended two Right to Life benefit dinners that featured speakers who presented on God’s command to care for orphans in the Bible. We decided on transracial adoption, and shortly thereafter, we adopted our daughter, Esther, through an agency in Utah.
After Esther’s adoption, we wanted to adopt a fifth child, and we were thrilled when we received a surprise phone call. Esther’s birth mother was expecting again. Would we parent this child as well? Ecstatic, we said, “Yes!”
We spent the next seven months preparing for the baby, but our hearts were broken a short time later when Esther’s birth mother disappeared close to her due date. After this fall through, we switched to Adoption Associates, Inc. because they were a local agency and we had had a good experience with them through our home studies. We were soon linked with a birth mother, and our daughter, Isabelle, was born three and a half weeks early on August 25, 2006.
The weekend that Isabelle was born was very difficult and emotional for us. Isabelle had to go into host care for two weeks until she was legally ours. We immediately sent out e-mails and made phone calls to ask for specific prayer. We had people praying in 12 different states and in six different countries. God answered our prayers! He heard our pleas and answered above and beyond what we ever could have imagined.
We are overjoyed and feel so undeserving of so many of God’s blessings through this entire process. Isabelle’s adoption has been one of the most difficult things we’ve ever been through, but it has also had the most beautiful blessings woven into it. It has strengthened our faith, it has given us a bigger picture of God’s power and most of all his goodness. God has given us a perfectly healthy, beautiful, good-natured little miracle directly from His hands right to ours and it is amazing to receive a gift like that.
We named our daughter Isabelle Desirae, the meaning of which is very important to us. Isabelle is a Spanish form of Elizabeth meaning “dedicated to God,” and Desirae, which the birth mother picked, means “longed for child.” We had been waiting for her to fill the hole in our heart for three years. The Lord answered with a loud yes and with more love than we could have ever imagined.
The blessings we’ve experienced through our adoptions far outweigh the struggles we have had to deal with, and there were many. We would say that adoption is actually very addicting, and if we didn’t need money to adopt and to raise our children we would definitely continue pursuing adoption. It’s one of those things that you start out quite ignorant about with your own ideas of how things might go and what the end might look like, but overall, it will blow your mind to see how wonderful and amazing it is to be part of something so incredible.
We obviously love all of our children with the same amount of love, but the children that we have adopted have taught us things that no one else could have. We can understand a little bit better how our Lord God can adopt us as His own without us doing anything to make Him love us. It’s natural to love your own biological children, but it’s an amazing love to love someone else’s as your very own and realize that there is absolutely no difference. That is how much God loves us.
There are a lot of fears associated with adopting. We are here to tell you that most of those, though valid, are not based on any kind of truth. Please don’t let fear or some story that you heard keep you from experiencing one of the most amazing miracles in this world. Adoption Associates has been a wonderful agency to work with. They will answer ANY question you may have no matter how silly you think it is. We believe adoption is extremely misunderstood by most people, which could mean you! So, if you’re considering adoption, at least call and make an appointment to talk to someone. And if you happen to be a birth mother reading this, it could be the most loving heroic decision you’ve ever made.
