Blessed are the givers....and grateful are the receivers

We are loving the life we lead and love this new adventure into parenthood.  We took this picture after Samantha had been home for about a week.  I love how tired and frazzled I look.  My hair hadn't seen a blow dryer in at least two weeks, no makeup for 1 week, and thankfully I had clean clothes on this day. 

This is definitely the life, just focusing on Samantha, her needs, her wants, and making the most of our time together.  I've been told that babies grow up way too fast, and we should enjoy these moments.  In fact, in the midst of my deliriously happy state; I asked our adoption worker (K-dawg as I like to call him) to do our first supervisory visit.  To my shock and horror, I had forgotten to clean the kitchen, so much for first impressions. 

One of the first questions, I had for our case worker, is "How soon can we do this again?"  We love being parents but worry that Samantha will be 16 by the time the next child would be chosen to be in our home, so as we ponder what the future holds, we hope that Samantha has many friends, a few close in age siblings, and a happy life.  We want her to know that we wanted her in our home for a long time, met the most amazing friends, and never gave up looking for her.  Our desire to be a parents a second time was only reconfirmed by a blog post about continuing to look for adoption opportunities.  I guess we are always in the finding or "paper pregnant" stage.

You know in the last few weeks, we have heard the same tale. "I know someone that after they adopted, they got pregnant."  It could be a sister, a cousin, my best friend, those people in the other ward, whoever, it is always the same story.  And even though I look forward to having more children in our home, I know that the only course for us, is adoption.  Without disclosing all of our medical histories, sufficient to say, adoption is the way we will continue to build our family.  Like I heard at a fireside awhile back, "Some of us were chosen to be infertile in this life, so that we could adopt."  It is just one of the blessings (or trials) in our life. 

In fact I was reading my scriptures yesterday and came across the passage of scripture, and it hit me so strongly, "Sing O barren thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child;....Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations; spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen they stakes;....In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee...For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed....And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children." (Isaiah 54)

I believe that this passage of scripture explains our adoption process.  As we became comfortable to sing or shout from the rooftops that we would  adopt, we then strengthened and prepared ourselves.  In the midst of the journey we felt despair, but then felt the kindness of the Lord, and were at peace that he was in charge.  Even though our situation came along quickly, we were at peace throughout the whole process.  I will continue to shout it from the rooftops.  We have been so blessed by this miracle. 

To quote from a "most excellent" card we received from the birth grandparents:
"Blessed are the givers and grateful are the receivers." 

Adoption truly blesses both the givers and the receivers.  There can't not be one without the other and we are indeed beyond thankful for our birth family, Samantha is the world to us!  To the 80 year old man at the gym who told us, 5 years ago, "Don't wait to have children. Start now."  I can finally say with confidence, "We never waited, and we always wanted but it was in the Lord's time not ours."