Ruth and Naomi's adoption story

Jackie asked to hear Ruth and Naomi's adoption story so I thought I would just write it here on our blog since I'm sure lots of people have heard bits and pieces and not the whole story.

To start off, I never would have dreamed about adoption. Since we had only been married a little over a year, we hadn't even started talking about having kids, but the Lord had other plans: I remember it just like it was yesterday. It was a beautiful Labor Day in 2005 and since Brad and I were both off work, we decided to go play golf. (That is, Brad would golf, I would drive the cart) So we were out on the golf course and my mom called. She told me her 2nd cousin had delivered twins (at this time we didn't have the whole story about the circumstances surrounding their birth) and social services had taken the twins into custody. After we got off the phone, Brad and I really started discussing how awful for the babies to have to grow up in foster care, bounced from house to house. So we decided we would pray about taking the babies if we could. So we started praying about it and on the next day, I called social services just to see what would be involved with getting the babies. It turned out, that there was already a family in line to get them, but since we were considered family (even though we are distant family to the girls) we had first priority. So, we decided to start the process, never dreaming how long it would take. First, we had to have a homestudy with the county that we lived in. (The girls were born September 1, we had our homestudy the first of November) During this waiting time, we found out a lot of information about the girls: Their birth mother was 41 and their birth father was 19. She had NO prenatal care during her pregnancy and even had wanted an abortion, but she waited too long. She had taken drugs, smoked, drank during this pregnancy, but amazingly the girls were not addicted to any drugs. When it came time for her to deliver the babies, she went to the woods with the babies' father, spread a blanket beside of an old barn and had the babies right there. We are not really sure why she wanted to deliver them there. When Ruth came out, she was not breathing. The birth father panicked and went to call 911. When the parmedics got there, they said, "Ma'am, one of your babies is dead." We aren't sure if they recessitated Ruth then or what exactly happened, but she suffered no brain damage from not breathing. They took them all to the hospital and during the hospital stay, the birth mother checked herself out of the hospital to go looking for drugs. Social services stepped in, thank the Lord, and would not let her back in to see them or to get them. After they were discharged, they stayed in a temporary foster care home, while we were waiting for our home study. After we had our homestudy completed, we got a call from our social worker asking when we wanted the babies. We told her that we would like them by Thanksgiving which was a couple days away. She said, "What about tomorrow?" We were like, aaaaah! We had no cribs set up, nothing! They had taken so long with everything, we didn't have anything ready. So, that night, we went and got cribs, my dad put them together and my whole family chipped in to get the room ready. I stayed up ALL night long and then got the babies the next day. I'll never forget when they brought them in the house, the babies were screaming because they were hungry and so we got to feed them. It was so overwhelming and exciting to finally have them! After they left, my mom came over and gave them a bath, because they smelled like smoke! :o) We went to church that night, and I went to work the next day with my mom watching the girls. The next day was Thanksgiving and I was off for a few days. Then, on Monday, the exhaustion and overwhelming feelings kicked in. We had TWO babies that I didn't know what to do with! I didn't carry these babies, but I think I had postpartum depression! :o) We were so overwhelmed with figuring out how to care for them and work, etc. Then, started the visitations with the parents. Adopting through social services, I think, is very hard because if the parent's rights have not been terminated, you have to deal with weekly visitations. These were SO hard because we had to sit there watching them hold the girls for an hour each week. These visitations progressivly then went to every other week, then to once a month, then to no visitation at all because of no progress on either of the parent's part to get a job, get off of drugs, get a house, etc. The father finally relinquished his parental rights, but they had to terminate the mother's rights because she would not relinquish on her own.

That brings us to today. We FINALLY had an adoption worker (not social worker) visit us today. This was the first of 4-5 visits before the adoption is complete. I asked her today how long this would take and she told us she is hoping it is complete within 2-3 months. Who knows though. They have given us time frames before that don't really mean anything because they usually last longer than what they say. It has been a long journey that is still going on even today, but we believe the Lord is teaching us to rely on Him and to trust His timing. I could go on to a lot more, the emotions of it all especially, but I think I have wrote sufficient enought for you to know how much of a miracle it was for the girls to be alive, for us to get them, etc. The Lord truly is omnipotent!

Thanks for all of your prayers for the girls and for us during this time-we finally have seen the light at the end of this very long tunnel! Thanks for reading their story!

**Update: The adoption is final! They are finally legally ours! Thanks for your prayers during this long journey!**