What a difference a year makes!! It seems like yesterday we
held Kyle for the first time, and now he has been home a year! He has learned
so many phrases and truly is a southern boy now. I love seeing the look of love
and happiness in the eyes that once pierced my heart with sadness. Him KNOWING that
he is loved, wanted and belongs means everything!
As we celebrate his one year anniversary, I have been
thinking of an answer to a question I answered when we were in the paperwork
process. “Name one word that adoption means to you”. At that time I came up
with the normal answers. Love, Family, Belong, Wanted, Blessed, Forever and Chosen.
These are all true statements. However, today the
best one word answer I have is OBEDIENCE.
I think of our
journey and everything we went through and it was obedience that got us to
where we needed to be. But, Obedience is not only effecting your life, but
those you come in contact with. If my dear friend did not obey and adopt her
“sassy peacock”, then who knows if we would have adopted Kyle! See her and her
husband obeyed God no matter what people said! They gave her daughter a very
slim chance of ever being normal. They told her she would never walk, talk, or
even sit up. The people in Chin@ even tried to “give her another one” on Gotcha
Day. But they followed God! During this trip they visited a popular foster home
in the town where their precious baby girl was from. The pictures they took
there is what God used to show us we were to adopt. At the time, we knew
nothing about adoption. We saw a little boy that we KNEW was ours. We were
walking by faith and we knew even though everyone said it was impossible to get
this child that God was going to do a miracle and he would be ours. I prayed
and asked God to show me what agency we were to use. I ran across an agency
that had a symbol on their site that was the same symbol of the foster home in
Chin@. I knew at that moment that was the agency we were to use. This part of
the story you know. Our case worker called in November 2012 and told us she had
a file of a little boy she wanted us to look at. I will NEVER forget the day
and the days that followed.
This part I haven’t
shared before. We opened his file and he met the specific’s we were looking
for. However, he was not the little boy WE picked out. Now this is where
OBEDIENCE steps in. All the questions over whelmed me! Do you believe God for
the one you thought was yours? Is this your son? What about Faith and believing
God for Miracles? EVERYONE in my family thought the 1st boy we saw
was ours! Am I letting them down if I say this is our son? God knew right where
I would be when Kyle’s file came in. I was working a holiday fair with two dear
adoptive mothers and some very close friends that are my family. My sister from
another mister gave me advice I will never forget. She told me to go home and
sleep with Kyle’s information and for me and Todd to pray! That’s what we did!
That night will forever be in my mind. Both of us put our hand on the file and
prayed before we went to sleep. I remember us sleeping with the file in between
us. Every time I woke up during the night, I would search for those papers. God
bonded me with MY son that night! I never said anything because I didn’t want
to influence Todd in any way. All that weekend I got encouragement from those
around me. They prayed for us and gave me wisdom and just let me talk out all
my fears. That Sunday we were sitting on
the couch watching TV. I received a text from Todd. (YES, he was sitting right
beside me lol) It was the picture of Kyle and a note that said “Momma, come get
me”. When we told everyone, there were
some that just gave you the look like “are you sure?”. I could read their
minds. They were wanting to say “well what about “the one” you saw first?
Aren’t you going to believe God for a miracle? Why are you giving up? IT IS
HARD to look at the people you love more than life itself and stand your ground
and obey! If we would have went by what man thought, we would have turned Kyle
down and still wouldn’t have got the first little boy. (I am happy to report
that his family found him and he went home in December of 2013)
Sometimes obedience isn’t easy! In fact it is VERY hard!
What we have to remember is to put God first. He has our whole life planned out
for us. All we have to do is obey. He is the only one that knows what He wants
us to do. It’s up to us to pray, LISTEN, and obey. Not only for you, but for
all the others that He has planned for you to touch. God only knows how you can
affect someone else. That affect could be positive or negative. Let’s strive to
be a positive effect on those around us.
We can’t imagine life without Kyle! There is not one doubt
in my mind that he is the one God created just for us! He is full of life,
funny and very entertaining. I thank God every day for the opportunity to pray
to a living God that has us all in the palm of his hand. Intertwining life’s
together for His glory.
Kyle will be doing an update soon of all the fun things he
has done in a year! I just wanted to share what was on my heart!
Love,
Charm
Kyle and his sassy peacock!
