Number 2!!!

Number 2 is here and he is nearly 3 months old now.

Introducing Malachi.

What a joy he has been and what a wild ride adoption #2 was for us.

We started adoption process #2 late last summer (2014). We completed the necessary paperwork and updated our home study. By the end of October we had everything turned in and were just waiting for final approval of our home study.

And then it happened…

On Monday, Oct 27, our caseworker called and said there was a birth mother in Texas scheduled to deliver a baby boy that day and would be shown profiles in the next couple days. We were told, though, not to get our hopes up because things still seemed “ify” with the birth mother. So we prayed and tried to control our excitement.

On Wednesday night, Oct 29 we got a call from the adoption agency in Texas, that our case worker was working through; the same agency that helped us adopt our daughter. The Texas case worker said, “What do you two think about coming down here to Texas to pick up your son?” We were absolutely blown away. The birth mother loved our profile. We were told that the birth parents both signed the paperwork and that our son was being placed into transitional care until we could arrive. It was actually happening.

Like I said, we were blown away ~ and ~ we weren’t ready. We hadn’t secured any financing. We had only just begun to apply for grants. We had no baby clothes out. Nothing. But praise be to God that our family came together to help with the financing so we could bring home Malachi.

So, within 24 hours of that wonderful phone call were were on our way to Texas.

Our hope was to get to Houston by Friday night to get Malachi, but as Friday went along it became clear we would not make it then. So we arranged to pick up Malachi on Saturday morning. But that was not to be either.

We crossed the border into Texas on Friday night, Oct 31, and were driving through the city of Sherman when all heck broke loose. Driving the speed limit on a 75 mph freeway we got into a car accident. A car changed lanes and hit me on the front passenger side of the car. The impact forced me into the curb on the left side; blowing out my driver side tire and badly damaging the strut. I lost control of my car and veered to the right hitting a pickup before eventually coming to a rest on the right shoulder.

Praise be to God that no one was injured.

The awesome God moment in all of this was that the whole passenger side of my car was damaged EXCEPT for the back passenger door…the side where our daughter was sitting.

[Cue the goose bumps]

After filing a report with the police and AAA changing my tire, we eventually limped our car to the Dallas area (about 60 miles) on a badly bent strut where some good friends lived. There is no way that we should have been able to drive that far on that damaged strut. But by the grace of God we made it. We rented a car the next day and continued to Houston. We picked up Malachi at around 4 PM on Saturday, November 1.

Wow…what a journey.

On Monday our friends found this nice, Christian mechanic, by Wednesday he had my car operational again and on Friday we got ICPC clearance to leave Texas and return home.

Once again, praise be to God.

This whole journey was wild, unpredictable and one we could not have done without God. Our first adoption journey included two failed adoptions and this one had a car accident but through it all we give God the praise and glory.

Now I am the father of two children under two. Sounds crazy and I am still trying to get used to that but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

~ Eric ~