You haven’t heard from me in a while, but I’ve been thinking of you. I find myself wondering what topic to write about. Life as a medical spouse? Updates on the kiddos? Adoption? It paralyzes me and I don’t write about anything! I think we’ve got some new friends through our adoption journey so I think I’ll take some time today and introduce or reintroduce the Watson Family.
Daddy Watson (Carey) is in the middle of his 1st year of research as a general surgery resident in Cincinnati. The program is a total of 7 years, two of which are for required research. In July he completed the two intern years, now he’s doing research and out of clinical rotations. In July of 2014 he will abandon research and jump back into 3 years of clinical rotations as a chief surgical resident. We’ve been in Cincinnati 2.5 years and are both from Texas. It wasn’t an easy transition for any of us, but we’ve grown in ways we couldn’t have experienced without these challenges.
Aisley Grace is our 4 year old daughter and is a tenderhearted little ball of sweetness. She’s very timid and shy initially, but has really found her voice this year! We’re sensing an introvert in the making because she certainly needs her quiet time to decompress, but when comfortable in her environment she can certainly impress in a loud and energetic way!
Hayes Lane is our 2 year old rough and rowdy redneck! I have to admit I was devastated to bring him into the world in a Yankee hospital, but he doesn’t seem to know he’s out of the South! Give this boy a camo hat and pile of dirt, and he’s the happiest boy alive!
We still have all of our furry, 4-legged friends: our Great Dane, Case; shelter rescue, Emma; and barn cat, Kitty Texas. We’ve seen a change in Emma and Cash as they advance through middle age, or maybe as they parent these toddlers!
I’m Momma Watson (Lacy) and a SAHM. God has drawn me closer to Him through my struggles as a medical spouse 1300 miles away from home. Carey does work A LOT, but I’ve been blessed by an amazing church family and friends who are now family. They go above and beyond to encourage and care for our family when we’re stretched.
As Carey and I grew in our faith over the last 2 years, we began feeling a tug in our hearts for orphans. Because of his work at Children’s Hospital, Carey began to see children at the mercy of the foster care system. He saw parents who weren’t involved and didn’t participate in the care of their children. He witnessed nurses and caretakers trying their best to love and even teach these kids while their parents refused to even show up. God was opening his heart to the need of abandoned children and he had no idea.
Meanwhile, God lead me on a similar path. It seemed like I couldn’t read a book, follow a blog, or listen to a sermon without hearing about the needs of orphans overseas. My heart broke as I learned of their life in institutions, the lack of care takes, and their desperate need for love. But we couldn’t adopt. Medical school, a cross country move, and some bad financial choices, left us scraping by. Actually, we were just digging a deeper hole of debt. Even though we knew there was no way we could afford the $40,000 adoption price tag, even though we knew there was very little chance of us being approved for adoption because of our financial worksheet, even though it is unheard of and we are crazy in the eyes of our peers for adopting during surgical residency…we couldn’t quiet God’s voice. We had to take the leap of faith that led us to our Ethiopian adoption journey.
We began fundraising by selling adoption bracelets through Etsy. God blessed our efforts. We found a faith-based adoption agency that saw our income potential and were willing to accept us. We found an awesome local home study agency that is patient and understanding through our looong paperwork process.
But then…the rollercoaster began. Our adoption agency informed us that their Ethiopia license wasn’t going to be renewed at this time and we should move on to another country. Carey wasn’t shaken by this at all, but I was crushed. I was devastated. I had poured my soul into learning and praying and dreaming about the people and culture of Ethiopia. These were my people. They were gracious enough to birth and care for my child. They were selfless enough to surrender one of their own to a total strangers across the world. My heart was broken for my child and the trauma it was experiencing. Tears fell for the birth parents of my child as they died, were forced to surrender their baby, or willingly abandoned a baby. None of those situations leave you with peace. All of those situations are begging for grace. So I cried and prayed for them and this only brought me closer to them. Closer to Ethiopia. Another country just wouldn’t do. God encouraged us to wait for Ethiopia. So we did.
We asked our home study agency if they would consider us for their Ethiopia program. They politely said that they are a very conservative adoption agency and it might be worth the effort to find a less conservative agency for the actually adoption (they are still our home study agency). They did however; find out what was going on with our adoption agency for us. It seems our agency wasn’t actually licensed in Ethiopia. They were “piggybacking” off of their orphanage in Ethiopia. They weren’t expected to get their license back anytime soon-if ever. Ouch.
God continued to encourage us and we found Ethiopia again through a different adoption agency. Things fell into place easily and it seemed like we might actually be able to transfer our home study and begin the process quickly. But then they dropped us. Like a bad date they didn’t get back to us and didn’t respond. We felt like we had hit our last and final dead end.
Then out of the blue we received an email from our original agency stating that they were granted approval to renew their license in April and their existing license was good-effective immediately! What a mess, huh? We’ve been through so many highs and lows and we’re still in the home study process! We’ve decided to move forward with our original agency. We’re hesitant. We’re cautious. But we both agree that it’s worth the risk considering we have no other options. God has provided everything we’ve needed so far and we trust His will, to Africa or not.
