Do you remember as a kid what it was
like to lose your first tooth? How you would wiggle it day and
night and you couldn't wait for it to fall out. Then when that tiny
white tooth would come out it was like a huge treasure you would tuck
so carefully under your pillow and wait for the tooth fairy to leave
a special surprise. Well our poor little 7 year old has been eagerly
waiting to lose a tooth. He finally got one that was becoming loose
and for the past month he was wiggling that thing nonstop. And lets
just say having your hands in your mouth all the time is not a good
thing, when you have a germaphobe nurse for a mama!! Yuck !!! But
then finally, it was out! Thanks to his Gaga - she pulled his
first tooth. So that night he placed his little white tooth under
his pillow anticipating that the tooth fairy would come and visit
him. Even AJ was excited to go to sleep hoping that he might
accidentally awaken when the tooth fairy appeared in their bedroom to
sneak a glimpse of her magic and beauty.
The early morning arrived with two
very excited little Ethiopians standing at the edge of my bed. One
holding a dollar in his hand, eager to tell me about his very special
vistor he had in the middle of the night. This visitor had no magic
or fairy dust or money to bring but something far more important that
Bryson was excited to share with us........
So I know we have kinda been quiet on
the whole adoption. But there is not a whole lot to talk about when
your collecting papers, having things notarized, fingerprinted,
stamped, approved, and checked with a fine tooth comb. But we have
FINALLY finished our homestudy!!! This homestudy took a lot longer
than we had hoped but we really struggled with what our request would
be for a child. My answer in the the beginning was ages 0-14 siblings any
medical, physical, or mental special needs. I just felt and still
feel that: 1.God already knows our child/children so we should just
leave it as open as possible and let Him do His work of matching us.
2.I want to be obedient to whatever child/children God wants me to
parent and 3.I know some children's issues may sound scary to parent
but I also know that God knows me better than I know myself, and I
trust that he will give me the tools, strength, support, and love to
parent any child regarless of their history or special need.
Call me crazy for being so
open (and some have) but I truly felt like I was putting limits on
what God might ask of me. I know looking back now that is kinda
silly because God is greater than what any human types on a piece of
paper, but at the time I was losing sleep over this. Jimmy on the
other hand was open to any age but a little more reseverded on the
type of special needs he was willing to be open to. However our
social worker was very against our age request. One reason our
social worker didn't like our age request is because they do not like
disrupting birth order. Especially putting an older child above the
first born. We didn't think Bryson would have a problem not being the
oldest because he doesn't act like a first born, and he doesn't have
a lot of first born characteristics. He also was not the first born when he lived in Ethiopia with his birth mother. When we sat
him down to ask him how he would feel about having an older sibling he was very against it and said it would make him “very mad”. So we decided that he had
been through enough change in his life and that we wouldn't take
that away from him. After a lot of praying we really felt that God
was helping us close some doors and made our age request 0-6 years
of age.
So remember dollar in hand standing at
the side of my bed?......
Bryson: Mommy I had a
dream.
Me: You did? About what?
(expecting it to be about tooth fairies and magic dust)
Bryson: God said we should
adopt an older sister. (I about fall off my bed at this point!)
Me: He did????? (I looked
around and make sure I wasn't dreaming)
Bryson: Yeah
Me: Who was in your dream?
Bryson: Me, God, my older
sister and a bunch of kids.
Can we adopt one
older sister and one younger sister mommy?
Me: I don't know Bryson. We
will have to see. But how did that make you feel when God said
that?
Bryson: Mad. No I won't be mad
anymore. (What an honest answer. Don't we always want to be mad
and say no at first!?)
Me: What's in your hand?
Bryson: Oh a dollar from
the tooth fairy. ( Take THAT, tooth fairy, your measly little
dollar, magic, and fairy wings, mean nothing when God shows up!
Oh wait am I talking to myself here??)
I just love everything about this
conversation and will cherish it forever1 That this little child is
being obiedant to God, despite what he wants, and that he is being
obiedant for an orphan. Here I thought God was closing the door for
us to adopt an older child when Bryson was so against it and little
did I know that He would appear to him a dream. I think it is so
easy to forget that God works on the heart of a child just like He
works on our heart. I think as a parent we always think we need to
be showing our child right from wrong, good from bad, and that it is
our job to be guiding their hearts to do the right thing. When
sometimes we need to step back, pray, and let God do His work. So
needless to say after more praying and another long conversation with
our social worker, our age request has changed to age 0-10 years old.
So whether or not Bryson will end up with an older sibling or not is
still unknown but I do know that God is changing his heart for an
older orphan for some reason. I'm not sure what that reason is for
but the fact that he is saying 'yes' couldn't make this mama any
prouder. I just love that kid and our talks we have about
adoption!!!
