All about Melissa - Part 1

This is our second adoption. If blogs were in existence when we adopted Melissa I was unaware, and probably to busy to blog anyway! In my family there are 3 great adoption stories (including Sophia) and 3 beautiful home births. this is an adoption blog...so we'll leave the birth stories for another time and place :) Today I want to tell Melissa's story.

Before Sean and I were married we talked about things we had to do in our lives. Adoption was one of those things. We welcomed our first biological daughter not long after our second anniversary and agreed that God's timing was perfect. Despite her very fussy countenance we were so delighted with her that I longed for a sibling right away. Just after her first birthday we rejoiced with news of a second baby but miscarried not long into the pregnancy. A doctor informed us we may never carry another child to term and advised a cocktail of drugs to induce early menopause. On the heels of a home birth and still breastfeeding this advice was not easily welcomed. Sean and I prayed together and he began nightly praying health over my body... his body in spirit.

The decision to adopt was so simple I cannot remember who brought it up or how it happened. I began to research the seemingly endless list of possible ways to adopt. We considered Haiti at that time (2003) but could not imagine waiting so long for our baby to come home. We attended adoption information meetings with PACT and other agencies. We also believed that someday God would call us into full time ministry and I began nursing school with the belief that I would use my skills on the mission field. We contacted our county foster care and adoptions office "just in case" an infant became available there. We attended 6 weeks of foster care training and a social worker visited our home. We were told that on average a family would wait 2 years to adopt an infant through foster care so we continued to look into other options. I was enjoying nursing school far more than expected and busy with life when we got "the call".

A social worker explained that they had an infant who would be "nearly impossible" to place but because I was a nursing student they had to "try". I was told that they had a baby boy who was "bi-racial with facial deformations, a cleft palate, severe heart defects, a feeding tube, and a genetic syndrome that causes severe learning disabilities and possibly mental retardation." I made a little list as he talked. Sean and I had discussed adopting a child who "really needed a home" but had we ever talked about all of that? My heart raced and I heard myself saying yes in a blur. I couldn't reach Sean but before I could speak with him I received the next call, "oops, it is a baby girl but everything else was correct!" How do you make that mistake?

I talked to Sean and he also felt that this was our baby. A few days later I spoke with the hospital and received medical details so I could begin researching. We prayed for her all the time. Our family mostly thought we were crazy and urged us to reconsider. We already loved her, but it would be two weeks until we could meet her.

I got the call at about 4 in the afternoon, the birth parents rights had been terminated and we had been named legal guardians. We were now able to visit her in the NICU as her parents! I had class that night and was forced to spend 4 hours doing charts and blood pressure checks at the local hospital :( but at 10PM I was finally free and ran to my car! Sean was waiting for me and we drove the 90 miles to the hospital where our daughter waited (in far less time than it really should take). A nurse buzzed us in and we scrubbed up and put on the gowns required for the NICU. We were so nervous! So many unknowns and yet we were really meeting our daughter!

Part 2 tomorrow!