Today is our 6th adoption day anniversary.

For those of you who dont know much about our story, here is the long of it:

After 10 years of being married and hoping for a baby of our own, Wes and I finally decided to work toward adoption. We knew we could not afford infant adoption at a whopping 30 to 40 thousand dollars, and we had heard of a program in our state that helped Christian families to become foster parents with the plan to adopt through the system. We started the long process of becoming foster parents. During this time I worked tirelessly on a book I had been writing for ages. The book was a fantasy about three girls, sisters, who were magically born three different colors. They were separated shortly after birth, and those who took them had named each girl Hope in their own language. I won't get more into the story than that. 😉

After the arduous processes and paperwork, we got our first call. We were scared and excited and so very nervous. The person on the other end of the line told us that they were looking for a home for three sisters.

I couldn't believe it. Really, three sisters? Yes. We agreed to the foster/adopt presentation, scheduled the date and waited, while simultaneously fighting with ourselves about the insanity of bringing 3 girls into our home. We had been told they were 2, 4, and 8. And I must admit that that last number was terrifying. How could we suddenly become parents to an 8 year old? How would she adjust? How would we adjust? 8 years is a long time to have endured abuse and neglect.

We spent our time frantically searching for information on the girls, only to come up empty. So we fantasized about what they might be like. We made up all sorts of scenarios, the craziest of which was, of course, that they were all different colors. We joked that maybe our white chocolate family would be joined by a dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and caramel, making a nice variety of flavors.

We also spent that time scared. Terrified really. And the day before our presentation I cried out to God "Please, I need a Gideon moment. I need some kind of sign that we are supposed to do this crazy thing."

On the day of our foster/adopt presentation, we made certain that our house was immaculate. Desserts were fresh from the oven. Tea and coffee were hot and ready. And I was wringing my hands with anxiety.

Three ladies showed up, one after another: the case worker, the GAL, and the CASA. After offering and serving desserts and drinks we all sat down at the dining room table. They asked us if we had any questions to start off with. At the top of my list was, what ethnicity? It didn't really matter in whether or not we would do this, but we still wanted to know.

One of the gals pipped up "Well that is a bit odd. They are all three different, as they each had different fathers. So one is Hispanic/Hispanic, the second is Hispanic/African American, and the third is Hispanic/Caucasian."

My jaw dropped, literally. Wes and I looked at each other and laughed nervously. Could God really be offering us three sisters all different colors? Was this my Gideon moment?

"Any more questions?"

"What are their full names, and how do you say them?"

They explained how to say the girls' first names. And then we asked about middle names.

"Again, it's a bit odd. They actually all have the same middle name."

At this point, I bet you can guess what it was.

"Hope."

At that point Wes and I knew that this was certainly our Gideon moment. God had every intention of making sure we knew that these girls were ours, no matter how scary or terrifying the situation would be.

In that meeting we learned much more, but nothing else they said could possibly deter us from saying yes.

Nearly 2 years later, we finally were able to adopt them and make them a legal and permanent part of our family. That day was 6 years ago today.

Everytime life begins to get to get tough, I look back on that first presentation day and remember, God's got this. He is in control.

And as you can see, God has added more since. In fact, the day after we signed the adoption papers, we found out that we were expecting our first baby boy.

God is so awesome.