Back...again!

We disappeared for a few months, but we’re back stronger than ever! This week I’ll spend time going through general updates on the kiddos, Carey’s research, TFI, and our adoption. You can also find all of our previous adoption updates on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/watsonadoption.

I’ll begin with the adoption.

In May I went with my TFI family to the Christian Alliance for Orphans annual conference. On my way out of town we got word that we needed to update our medical forms before our home study could be finalized. The forms can’t be more than 6 months old and the kids’ medical exams were expiring within a day or two. My husband being the superstar that he is was able to take care of all of this while watching the kiddos for the first extended amount of time.

The conference was in Nashville, the same place our agency Small World Adoptions, is located. Since we’ve never met them face to face, my inner Duck Commander came out and this Momma hunted them down. I’m pretty sure they thought I was stalking them-who is this weird lady waiting at our booth at 7:45 in the morning? My goal was to simply introduce myself and finally put a face to a name. It turned out to be a much more meaningful interaction. During the months we worked on completing our home study we felt God preparing us more and more for a special needs adoption. We always felt led that direction, but were confused when no special needs children were coming through our agency. I’d spent much time in prayer on the matter and honestly was frustrated with God when I wasn’t seeing my answer. But standing in that huge room surround by hundreds of people, I was surprised when the question slipped out:

“Are there any special needs children waiting?”

It felt like time stood still while Jimbo thought about his answer.

“The only special needs we have are HIV+.”

I was surprised when my heart sank. HIV is modern-day leprosy and we all know how Jesus felt about that. (If you don’t know, Jesus was known to heal lepers. He seemed to have a heart for outcasts ;)

“Oh wait!”

My heart leaped. I was clinging to this “wait”. This “wait” could be my son or daughter. It’s funny how in those moments everything really does seem to fade away. I’ll never forget my head spinning with dozens of thoughts, the crowds of people pushing by me turned into a blur, and my heart pounding through my chest. I didn’t expect to be so caught up by this question and I certainly wasn’t prepared for an answer. Ready or not…

“ a little boy named Biya”

Jimbo searched his memory for more.

“He’s 9 months old, cutest little guy… and has some sort of partial paralysis.”

Maybe he had you at “hello”, but he had me at “partial paralysis”. I’m weird like that. It must have been written all over my face because Jimbo just kept gushing about this baby. My baby. Before I walked away from their booth I made sure Jimbo knew that we were 1st in line for that boy and that he would have our finalized home study waiting on him when he got back to the office. I knew there was a good chance someone could sweep Biya away before we were given the official referral, but as I walked away from the conversation I found myself fighting back tears of joy. I knew I only wanted the child God had been preparing us for, but I sincerely hoped Biya was the one.

Bless Carey; he missed out on that one. His first introduction to our potential son came through a slur of text messages ending in excessive exclamation points. I’m pretty sure he was just as surprised and amazed as I was. Neither of us expected a possible referral at this stage of the process and I was pleasantly surprised when he seemed to have fallen in love with this little Biya.

We received the official referral for our Biya on May 21 and promptly consulted with the International Adoption Clinic at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. After several days of prayer and reviewing the info gathered by the medical team, we signed the intent to adopt this sweet little guy.

Stay tuned for more about Biya’s medical condition, to see how God did amazing things for us financially, and to learn more about the process after the referral.