Our Adoption Story . . . the saga!

This is a long story (15 years at least) (actually God knew about it before the creation of the world, but we'll stick with the bits we saw!)  I guess the simplest way to present our story is via a timeline, so here goes . . .

1985 -- Paul & Karen got engaged in April and married in November.  Some time during the course of the year (we're a little foggy as to the exact month :)) we talked about wanting to adopt children "one day."

1990s -- We were blessed to bring four biological children into the world, three boys and one girl.

early 1997 -- God spoke to us regarding two girls we would have one day (during Karen's pregnancy with our first daughter).  He gave us two girls' names, and gave us the impression they would be twins.  We tucked that away in our hearts, wondering when that would happen.  This kind of information was unusual, but God had given us our other daughter's name in a miraculous way, too, so we felt sure it was going to happen "one day."

February 2000 -- Unbeknownst to us, two precious twin girls were born in Bucharest, Romania (but nothing is hidden from God!)

March 2000 -- Although Karen had been "ready" for *years* ;) Paul gave the go-ahead to begin the adoption process.  As you can see, he obviously was the one hearing from God because the girls had only just come into the world a couple of weeks before!  Our "one day" was starting to become a reality!

April 2000 -- We announced to our friends and family that we intended to adopt the twin girls we knew God had for us.  In our search for adoption agencies, we had many negative encounters such as "you have too many kids to be able to adopt", "you'll never find twin girls", etc, etc.  But we hung on, *knowing* God would keep his promise to us.

June 2000 -- We finished our paperwork with our first adoption agency, Bethany Christian Services.  It often takes 6 months or more to do this, but we were so excited about everything we wanted to get that part of the process over and done with quickly.

August 2000 -- A friend of ours from another state called to say that her friend had just been offered twin girls to adopt; her friend was planning on turning down the offer since they prayed and felt that God had another single girl for them and another family for the twins; and were we interested?  Were we interested??????  Wahoooooooooooooooooo!!!  We *knew* at that moment that these were our girls.  At the point of decision, we hadn't seen any pictures or medical records.  We had 7 days to decide legally.  During those 7 days, we did receive our first video & medical records, which we dutifully had reviewed by a specialist from the Mayo Clinic, who gave our girls a good prognosis, despite obvious neglect.  We were faced with the additional hurdle of having to change adoption agencies to Cherished Children International Adoption Agency.  The funny thing is, we had originally contacted Cherished Children a couple of weeks before they became licensed, and if we had gone with them in the first place, we would have been next in line to be offered the twins anyway.  So one way or another, we were meant to have them in our family.  Changing agencies means higher fees, etc, but both agencies worked with us to minimize the extra costs, for which we are very grateful.  At 6 months of age, our girls weighed only 10-1/2 lbs each :( but had just been moved from a very poor (now closed) orphanage into a foster home.

November 2000 -- We received an updated video and medical records for the girls--wow!  The foster family had been wonderful for them!  Not only had they gained a *lot* of weight, but they were happy and starting to be more mobile!  We were starting to really pine away for them.

December 2000 -- Our final court date went through on Dec 18th, meaning the girls were legally ours!  We had to wait for the mandatory waiting period to pass, then travel to obtain the girls' visas to enter the U.S.

January 2001 -- 4 days before Karen and friend Stephanie were to travel to bring the girls home, we received the devastating news that at the last minute, an appeal had been brought against our case because on 3 pieces of paper out of the *hundreds* in our file, Paul's middle name had been abbreviated or omitted.  Although this is considered normal here, it is not acceptable in Romania for middle names to be abbreviated.  With sadness in our hearts, we realised it would be yet another wait until our girls were home with us.  But we also realised we had the opportunity for me to go be with them briefly (we had already bought the tickets, of course).  So Stephanie and Karen traveled to Bucharest (in the middle of winter!) and had the girls in our apartment for 48 hours!  I will never forget the first time I held my daughters in my arms!!  Such sweet moments!  Oh the memories we made--so much loving to do in such a short time!  I got to meet the wonderful foster family, too, and was greatly relieved to see that the girls were being well-loved and cared for.  And K & E were soooooooo beautiful and wonderful and even had Sculley mannerisms!  Did I mention how cute they were?  Horrible trip back--the de-icing of plane wings in a blizzard meant nothing--I just missed K & E too much :(

February 2001 -- Pining away.  Belatedly realised that our girls' Romanian names are the same as the two women who have influenced me most as a mother.  Wow--only God could give us *so* many confirmations that he meant them to be our daughters!  Also realised that all our daughters have one name meaning "Grace"--his grace definitely rushes forth in abundance in our lives.

March 2001 -- REALLY pining away . . . put up this web site to keep from totally pining away.

April 2001 -- April 1st marks the day that Paul, Karen, and daughter C welcomed K & E into our arms and lives forever.  K & E remembered Karen from January, and E started calling me "mama" right away.  We bonded and loved and loved and bonded for two days, then went to the embassy to get visas and nearly didn't get to leave the airport because one of their visas was missing an official stamp but the guy took one look at us with our three little girls at 5:30am (and the pleading looks on our faces when we realised what was happening) and compassion not ordinarily seen in the world of airport immigration miraculously emerged.  We then traveled with our three girls under four (two in diapers!) on two plane trips in *three* (not five) seats, one of which was not on a bulkhead (next to a guy with a tempting laptop to grab; Paul was not the one being tempted ;)), for a total of 16 or so hours and nobody slept more than 15 minutes . . . but we made it!!!!  We were welcomed by our three boys of course, and a wonderful group of friends who all rejoiced with relief that we finally had the girls home!  What a great and wonderful God we serve!

Legacy of an Adopted Child

(author unknown; tweaked by Karen)

Once there were two women, who never knew each other . . .

One you do not remember, the other you call mother.

Two different lives, shaped to make yours one . . .

One became your guiding star, the other became your sun.

The first gave you life and the second taught you to live it.

The first gave you a need for love, and the second was there to give it.

One gave you a nationality, the other gave you a name.

One gave you a seed of talent, the other gave you an aim.

One gave you emotions, the other calmed your fears.

One saw your newborn face, the other dried your tears.

One gave you up . . . it was all she could do.

The other prayed for a child, and God led her straight to you.

And now you ask me, through your fears,

the age old question through the years . . .

Heredity or environment . . . which are you the product of?

Neither, my darling, neither . . .

Just two different kinds of love.