Rickie

I am just going to start out by saying that adoption is a God thing.  We went into this adoption almost 3 years ago with the idea of bringing home a baby from the hospital.   I think we just thought that was the most natural way to go.  The longer we waited, the more paperwork we filled out, the more research we did, the older Emma got...our hearts started changing.  We became open to the idea of an older child.  I have never really been attached to the idea of having a newborn again anyway.  They eat every 2 hours, poop every 2 hours, they don't sleep well, they can't communicate, etc. etc.  All in all, they are a lot of work!! With that being said, about a year ago, we started thinking about fostering.  We researched and we called, but in the end we found out we couldn't foster and continue with our adoption process we had with Bethany.  We felt like we didn't want to give up just yet, with all the time and money that has all ready went into it.  So, we set a date.  That date was March.  If something didn't happen by March, we were going to start fostering.  I prayed all the time.  Lord, just send us the child you have for us to our home.  We are ready.  We want to love someone else.

 A week after we set a date, we got an email.  There was a 3 year old little boy.  Blonde hair.  Blue eyes. Happy and Healthy. They wanted to know if we would be interested.  Seriously!?!!! Of course, we were interested!   Now let me just say, I have never had intuition of any kind.  But something was different about this email.  Bethany has sent out all kinds of emails in the past 2 years about all kinds of children that have come available, but they were different.  They weren't meant for us.  A week after we received that first email, we received a phone call from Bethany.  I got the call at 4:30 on a Monday...she said she just needed to talk with us about a few things.  I called back.  Offices closed for the day.  Ahhhh!!!!! That was the longest night ever...we just knew it was about him, but we didn't want to get our hopes up.  Sure enough, the next morning I got in contact with Bethany and Rickie's parents wanted to meet us.  They didn't know much about Rickie, they said he was behind developmentally, but they believed it was due to his environment.  Other than that, they said he seems like a perfectly healthy little boy who needs a home.  We set a date for Friday.  We had 3 days to prepare to meet the parents of our potential son.  I was dying to paint the room and buy the clothes, but we waited.  Meeting a set of birth parents is by no means a guarantee for anything. 

Needless to say Friday morning, we were so nervous.  What a huge thing to possibly be meeting with your son's biological parents.  We wrote down questions we wanted to ask and we prepared for questions they might have for us.  We both changed outfits a few times :).   The plan was to sit down and have a meal with them but I don't think I ate more than 2 bites.  Conversation was actually pretty easy and natural.  I could tell that Rickie's family truly loved him and my heart broke for the situation they were in that left them with not many options.  No one was allowed to make a decision that day, so we waited anxiously again for 24 hours.  We were told on Sunday that they wanted us to meet Rickie on Monday.  We knew at this point that if they wanted us to meet Rickie that they liked us and our chances were pretty good of everything going through.  The day we met Rickie, was the day everything became real.  You spend so much time preparing yourself for this moment, but this moment is something you just can't prepare yourself for.  When Rickie walked through the door, I had imagined this magical moment.  A moment where the world stopped and we could feel some sort of connection.  A moment where we would just fall in love with this little boy's sweet face.  It wasn't like that at all.  He ran in, hair flying everywhere and wouldn't even acknowledge us.  He wouldn't talk to me, to Justin or to Emma.  When he did talk we couldn't understand him, and we just didn't know what to do.  It was obvious that he was developmentally behind.  We ran around an arcade chasing him for what seemed like forever, just trying to pick up on something he was saying and make some connection with him. Let me tell you an arcade is not the ideal place to make a connection with a 3 year old. At the end of the 2 hours, we were exhausted, physically and emotionally.   I kept thinking, "We are getting no where... They are never going to let us parent this child...he won't even play with us in an arcade!!"    At the end of the 2 hours though, the birthmother pretty much told us that she had made her decision and that she couldn't have been happier with how much Rickie had taken up with us.  What?!  Rickie took up with us...did she just go through the same 2 hours that we went through??  I think I hid my shock well though and we agreed to think and pray about it and everyone would make their decision the next day.  The ride home was long and quiet.  I kept thinking "Lord, is this really what you have for us?"  Everything was just so overwhelming.  By the time we had gotten home though, determination and love had set in.  He was ours, the decision was made.  Of course, we wanted to welcome him into our home.  We talked to Bethany and they wanted the transition to begin that Friday, which was 3 days away.  We got busy painting and buying, painting and buying.  We prepared his room and tried to make it a safe, comforting place for him that he would hopefully soon call home.  A bookshelf full of books, a closet with clean clothes, a soft rug, lots of toys and a Daddy, Mommy and sister that were ready to welcome him with open arms. The transition phase was a little less than 2 weeks and on Tuesday (9 days ago) Rickie was placed in our home permanently.  Rickie has truly melted our hearts with his big blue eyes and his easy laugh.  He was always meant to be with us.  Everything so far has been two steps forward and one step back, but that is ok.  We don't know much about Rickie's past, but I am looking forward to his future.  He is an amazing, brave little boy who has been through a lot.  His whole world has been turned upside down.  Regardless of what that world was, it is still hard for  him.  There are a lot of things in life that I don't know, but I know I love this little boy and I know he was meant for our family.  God has given me such peace about the days ahead.  There will be some bad days and Rickie has a lot of catching up to do.  He can't communicate well.  He is almost four years old and he can't count to ten or recognize the colors of the rainbow and he isn't potty trained.  However I can tell you a few things that he does do.  He does walk around the house saying "I love Meemo" (aka Emma) He loves giving Lexi treats and he feeds her from the table...which btw is definitely not allowed.  He loves to play outside and everytime...I mean everytime we pass a big truck on the highway, he comments on it from the backseat. He loves books...we sat in the floor the other day for 30 minutes, just reading books!  All ready He runs to us when something is wrong and wants to be held in our arms for comfort.  He has a huge teddy bear named Fred that he sleeps with at night, that has to be covered up right beside him.  He will hold our hand now without pulling away and every now and then he calls us Momma and Daddy.  He goes to the pantry and checks out our food and tells me what he wants. At night, he doesn't cry anymore and I find him snuggling up next to me. That is all in 9 days!!   Every day we learn something new about him and he learns something new about us.  Everyday is better than the day before.  He is part of the family and it feels like the most natural thing in the world.  God knows what he is doing.  I don't know why we ever doubt him.  He hears us when we pray.  He sees the children that need homes...he hears their cry.  Our God is good.  So that is our story so far.  I know that there are many things to come and many tough days....but there will also be so many happy days to come.  So many blessings that God has waiting for us and for him.