This is the "Cliff's Notes" version of our adoption story. To read all 123 posts covering our adoption journey, click HERE.
We always discussed international adoption as an option for adding to our family, but always thought about it as this far off distant thing that hopefully one day we would be blessed enough to experience.
As nearly newlyweds, we moved from Small Town, Alabama to Louisville, Kentucky in August 2005 for Kenny to begin seminary. The second church we visited was Highview Baptist Church. We soon grew to love this church we now call home and discovered in short time their budding adoption ministry and a huge heart for orphans.
Fast forward a couple years. We decided soon after moving to Kentucky that we wanted to start a family. We tried for several years to do that the way we thought God had planned for us to no avail. In May 2008, we realized that we had been going about this all wrong, put our plans aside and dove head first into the process of adoption. It seems that was God’s plan for us all along the way, but with our own plans in the way, we failed to see what God had been laying out for us. He surrounded us with a church family who treasured God’s gift of adoption and became a great support to us along the way.
We decided which agency to work with and what country we felt like God was leading us to and completed paperwork for one or two children under the age of 24 months from the country of Ethiopia. We chose Ethiopia because of Kenny’s ties to mission work in Kenya. And Ethiopia is just north of the Kenya border. I specifically remembered thinking I should be petrified at the prospect of bringing home two children from a country I knew little about, but I was totally at peace with the decision we made.
On December 1, 2008, we received an email with pictures of two of the most beautiful little boys I had ever seen. They were grainy black and whites and we could barely make out the features of the older brother. Their information said they were 1 and 4-years-old and while we were a little shocked at the prospect of a 4-year-old as beginner parents, we knew almost immediately these were the little boys that God hand picked for us.
It pains me to say that our biggest fear and lack of faith throughout the entire process revolved around finances. We knew we didn’t have the money just sitting around to cover the expenses of an adoption, let alone the adoption of two children. I felt like we had the love for any child that God blessed us with, but I was terrified about where the money would come from to pay for what I thought was an impossible amount.
In November, shortly before receiving the referral for our little boys, we sent out support letters requesting our closest family and friends to pray for our adoption process and to consider supporting us financially through this adventure. It was one of the hardest things I’ve done…to admit to those closest to you that you need help financially. Lots of pride had to be set aside if we were going to continue down this road. But little did we know what a faith booster it would end up being!
Through Highview and Lifesong For Orphan’s help, we were given a $2,500 matching grant and later received a second $2,500 matching grant from Louisville Orphan Care Initiative (now Orphan Care Alliance) after accepting the referral for TWO children. Between mid-November and the first of January 2009, almost $26,000 was raised to support our mission to bring home the two little guys who had already stolen our hearts and the hearts of many around us!!! Talk about having your world turned upside down! I was worried over something that God already planned for years before I was even born! Fund raisers were put together by co-workers and stories started coming in about how this person or that person felt led to support us and where the money had come from. My favorite is still from Kenny’s aunt who passed on money to us she received from an insurance policy that was taken out in 1960! Even 50 years ago, God knew where each cent would come from and how it would be used to glorify His name!
We planned to travel to pick up the boys towards the end of February or early March, but after some major paperwork issues, we were not allowed to go pick them up until the end of August. On July 1, 2009, we finally received that coveted phone call that we had passed court and our boys were officially Cook’s! That may have been the longest nine months I have ever experienced with many bumps and unexpected setbacks, but looking back, I have no doubt that it was God’s perfect timing.
We left on August 22, 2009 headed to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and saw Charles Nuredin and Samuel Edaso for the first time on August 24th. I’m not going to lie and say that our time in Ethiopia was great and wonderful. The country is beautiful and I wish we had been able to see more of it. But it was hard. Really hard. The boys actually did fairly well during that first week with us, but we were in a foreign country operating on little sleep and had just transitioned from a family of two to four. Not to mentioned being thrown into parenting older children who didn’t speak the same language as us. We now had two children in our care that had opinions and routines and little personalities that had been shaped by their unstable first years of life. And did I mention they were a little off on the ages…Charlie was telling us he was already 7!
Our first six weeks home were trying to all of us as we adjusted to life as four and set boundaries and expectations for two children we barely knew. Other than an obvious language barrier, which still occasionally presents a problem, I can say in all honesty that after our initial transition, we have had few issues and have two little guys that grafted almost perfectly into our home. It may be cliché to say, but on this side of the adoption process I can see more clearly now the picture of Christ and how we are adopted into His family as children of God. Incredible.
Charlie is now a very inquisitive and bright 7-year-old. He never stops talking and asking questions. And is a new 1st grader experiencing school for the first time in America this year. Sam is your typical 3-year-old boy. All balls and cars and trucks and trains. And has a smile that lets him get away with almost anything. Almost.
I can’t wait until the boys are old enough to understand the testimony of small faith that brought them to America and forever into the Cook family. I pray that they will use this awesome story as a part of their own personal testimony and share it for years to come!
1 comment:
love love love this!!!
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