Dearest Juliana:
You can’t read this now, but one day you will be able
to. My hope in writing this is that you know how much your Daddy and I
love you. As well as to share with you how God choose to place you in our
hearts and in our home.
It all began prior to when Daddy & I were married.
We often talked about adopting and knew that we knew God had placed the
desire to adopt in our hearts even before we knew we would have trouble
having "natural" children. You see we always looked at adoption
as having "super-natural" children. And that’s what you are! J
A Super Natural child!!! J
In the middle of 1996 Daddy & I contacted our local
Department of Social Services office about beginning the process of
adoption. We filled out lots and lots of paperwork and attended lots of
informative classes. January 1997 we had our home study done. We waited,
prayed, hoped, waited, and prayed a lot more. Continuing to ask Father God
for the child He would place in our home. You see Daddy & I have three
babies in heaven and we eagerly waited for when Father God would bless us
with a child.
Along the way God would give Daddy & I
"things" to keep our hope and faith alive. You see, the Bible
tells us that Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the
evidence of things not seen. We were holding on tightly to those
"things" – the physical substances. April 1998 a lady came to
a women’s meeting Mommy was at and she and her husband had adopted a
little girl. She talked about how important it was to get little
"hope gifts". I remember telling her I couldn’t do that. She
urged me to and to start small. A few months later Mommy and Grandma were
shopping and I noticed a three pack of bottles. I can’t explain it, but
I felt as though I was supposed to buy those bottles. So, I did. I kept
those bottles on my nightstand by my bed so every morning when I woke up
and every night before I went to sleep I would see them, touch them and
Thank Father God for His promise of a child.
The next "thing" gift we bought will always
stands out to me. It is how we got your crib. Your Daddy is such a man
full of faith. He kept telling me we wouldn’t pay more than $60.00 for a
crib. I thought he was nuts especially since all the cribs we had looked
at ranged from $100.00 to $400.00. Well, it was this one particular
Saturday in March 1999; we had stopped at a couple of places and then
decided to stop for lunch. On our way we passed a store that was having a
sidewalk sale on baby furniture. Ya know what was out there? A beautiful
cherry wood crib. Daddy took the tag inside talked with a manager, then
asked me if I liked the crib, went to the register to pay for it. The
total cost was $58.60. J
It was January 2000, we had recently moved into a brand
new house with a nice back yard, and playground in the back. A perfect
location for children. We began to talk about changing our age limit. You
see, Daddy & I didn’t specify anything to our caseworker just simply
an age range 0-3 years old. We were told it be "easier" for us
to adopt if we upped our age to 5 years old. We talked and prayed about
it. We finally decided to go ahead and meet with our caseworker the first
of March when I returned from a business trip and up our age limit.
You know I truly believe God has a sense of humor.
There are scriptures in the Bible that talk about God laughing, so I know
He has a sense of humor. It was the last day of my business trip, March 2,
2000; I was sitting with my boss talking over lunch. Some how or another
the subject of our adoption process came up. I told my boss what your
Daddy & I were thinking about doing and closed the conversation with,
"No matter what, it’s all in the Father’s hands."
I got home late the night. When Daddy brought me home
there were two messages from our caseworker, Melonie. Daddy called her,
thinking we were going to have to change our meeting time for the next
day. She told Daddy she wanted us both on the phone.
She said she received a call late that afternoon that
we were CHOSEN to be the adoptive-parents of a newborn baby girl!!!!! Born
to a 14-year-old girl, on February 7th, weighing 6 pounds and
11 ounces, 19 inches long, that she was completely healthy. The next thing
Melonie told us was we had the honor of naming this precious baby girl.
She told her supervisor she didn't know who was going to be more excited
about the news she or us? J It was a toss
up, but if I had to guess I would say it was definitely Daddy & I.
If you haven’t guessed yet, that precious baby girl
was YOU!
Well, Daddy cried right way and me…I was just in
shock. All the past eleven years of waiting and praying came rushing in
and all I could think of was "Thank you Father!"
We couldn’t contain ourselves so we began to call
family and friends with the news. By 10pm that night the only person we
were able to talk with was your Aunt Julie. She was so overjoyed!
Especially when Daddy told her what your name would be. Juli for your Aunt
Julie who is also your God mommy, and Ana for Mommy’s middle name Ann.
Your middle name Rachelle comes from your Oma’s (Daddy’s Mother) name
Rachel.
On the afternoon of Friday, March 3rd,
Melonie called Daddy at work and told him when we would pick you up…Wednesday,
March 8th at the Department of Social Services office.
She told Daddy to take a deep breath because we had four days to prepare
for your arrival; most Mommy’s and Daddy’s have 9 months to prepare
for their baby’s arrival.
Oh if you could have seen your Daddy those four days. J
He didn’t get much sleep. And he was a bit teary eyed on and off since
hearing the news that you would be coming. Me, I was still in a state of
shock. And of course thinking of all that we needed to do to prepare for
your arrival.
March 8th finally arrived and we were so excited - the nursery
was as ready as it was going to be at that point. We still had some
decorating to do, but it would come over time, and it did.
Your Grandma - Terry (Mommy’s Mother) was extremely
happy and even happier to be your "nanny" while Daddy & I go
to work.
Anyway, as you can imagine after all these years...11
to be exact...of medical treatments and then the waiting of the adoption
process we were so excited (beyond mere words) and extremely thankful to
our Heavenly Father for the tremendous blessing and choosing to entrust
you with us.
All I can say is WOW what a day that was! We met our
caseworker, Melanie, a little after 11am. Afterwards, we met with your
caseworkers, Ann and Beth--had the time of disclosure (when they tell us
all they know about your medical history and your birth family) and the
signing of some paperwork as well as questions and answers.
Ann stated that they didn't want you staying in the
hospital, so she placed you in a temporary foster home with a family who
only takes in newborns until the adoptive parents are chosen. After all
the "talk" time Ann excused herself and went to see if you and
your Foster Mom, Nancy, were there yet. About 2 minutes later she came in
with you. Daddy & I had tears in our eyes the moment we saw you. My
heart just began to race. You were absolutely beautiful…still are. Even
Melonie had tears in her eyes. After Nancy passed you to me Ann told
everyone to leave the room so we could have some time alone before talking
with your Foster Mom a little bit. We took some pictures and video taped
some. J
Your Foster Mom was a godly woman, who prayed over you
daily. She took lots of pictures of you for us as well as your caseworker
took some pictures of you the day you were released from the hospital and
we have your little footprints the hospital made. J
You see how much God cares about the details. Father God knew those things
would be important to us.
Shortly after we got home with you Grandma-Terry came
over and the minute she saw you she just teared up. She was thrilled it
was feeding time and sat like the proud Grandma, she is, and fed you. J
The last 9 months have flown by since that day in March
when we brought you home. It has been such a joy to watch you learn and
grow and explore your world. How I look forward to the times when you take
your first steps, cut your first tooth (yup you are 10 months old at the
time of this writing and still have no teeth) J
, learn to ride your bike, go to school, play in the park … gosh I could
go on.
Today is a very special day for all of us. We went to
court along with our attorney, and talked with the judge, with Mommy and
Daddy’s case worker Melonie, and the court appointed Guardian ad Litem,
Hollie (she acts as your guardian to make sure you were being well taken
care). At the end of the hearing the judge commended Mommy & Daddy and
congratulated us too and said, "It is very obvious that you love this
child and she loves you and it is the ruling of this court that this
adoption be made final this day." The judge then signed a piece
paper called an Adoption Decree and the County seal was placed upon it
making it all official. According to the State of South Carolina we were
now a family!
I think your Daddy said it best in church tonight…"Today
the State of South Carolina has recognized what God did 9 months earlier…"
Everyone at church just rejoiced with over what God had done.
What did God do you might ask? He brought a precious
little life into our lives to love and to cherish, to care for and to
nurture, to teach His ways to. He enriched our family in a way we hadn’t
known possible. He chose us to be your Mommy & Daddy. What a
tremendous gift we have been given in you…a precious jewel. You have
brought so much joy into our lives. As I sit here writing this I can see
your smiling face and hear your giggles, even though you are sound asleep.
You are so special. God created you that way and He has
a plan and a purpose for your life (Jeremiah 29:11). You are fearfully and
wonderfully made and you are highly favored of God!! Don’t ever let any
one tell you other wise! God has filled you with such joy … it is
awesome to see how others respond to you.
Oh I could go on and on and bore you with lots of
little details, but I won’t. J
My prayer is that you always know how much you are
loved by your Mommy & Daddy, how brave your birth-mommy was to make
the decision to give you to us through DSS, and lastly to praise God daily
from whom all blessings truly flow! To God be all the Glory!!!