Our family letter—December 2013
Well, Friends, a lot has happened since we last sent out a
family letter in the fall of 2011!!! I
will try to recap the last 2 years in a relatively short letter. I’ll leave you to decide whether or not I was
successful. :-)
You may recall that we made an unfruitful trip to Ohio
around Thanksgiving 2011 for the purpose of adopting a little boy that was to
be born shortly. We came home empty
handed and broken hearted. A month
later, our adoption agency in PA suggested we broaden our search because their
birthmother clientele was in a slump, and they figured it may be a while till
we would get matched. So I (Judi) went back to our trusty computer and spent
more hours seeking further opportunities for us to get connected with a child.
At that point—the end of February 2012—we contacted A
Rainbow’s End Adoption Services, a facilitator in California. On April 3rd,
we were matched with a sweet birth couple who were making an adoption plan for
their baby girl, due to be born in July.
Something felt “right” about it, and, in spite of the knowledge that it
could fall through (ANY adoption can fail until finalization), we felt an
uninhibited joy.
That joy was brought to fruition when our precious daughter,
**K, was born and placed in our
arms. We were there for the birth (K’s
birthparents requested that we be there), and felt the incredible emotions that
surround the placement of an adopted child… the agony of the birthparent,
placing their much-loved child in your arms… and on the other hand,
experiencing an unmatched joy in the wonder and ecstasy of being Mommy &
Daddy to this priceless bundle!!!
Without a doubt, K’s birthparents loved her dearly but were unable to
provide for her financially, etc., and thus made an adoption plan. It was our privilege to get to know them
prior to K’s birth. During the three
intervening months between matching with them and K’s birth, Birthmom and I
texted a lot. I have saved those texts
and will give them to K when she is old enough to understand and appreciate
them. We also spent some time with
Birthparents after we arrived in California, both before and after the
birth. K’s birthparents are not just two
regular people to us. We treasure them
as individuals and also because of the way they gave us a child. It is an awesome and emotional thing to have
two people place their own flesh and blood child in your arms and then
introduce you to their friends as “our baby’s parents”. Makes you want to smile and cry at the same
time. I don’t think it’s possible to
capture in words the thoughts and emotions that accompany the placement of a
child for adoption.
K’s adoption is not final yet, which is very unusual and
quite a trial to us. We want her to be
an official part of our family! The attorney
that we started out with was not aggressive at all and let things go at their
own slow pace. Finally, after a year of
waiting around for some serious action, we hired a different attorney who is
pushing things through. There are some aspects of her adoption that has stretched out the adoption much longer than normal, in addition to the original slow attorney. Please pray with us that things may soon be wrapped up for good!
Whatever the case, we dearly love our precious little girlie
and have THOROUGHLY enjoyed being parents!!! She is human like the rest of us,
but we don’t think there’s another sweeter girl on planet earth. Of course, we might be just a wee bit
prejudice (I suppose most parents are). J She has a very lively personality that is
almost always on the go. K is not a
noisy child, but is moving ceaselessly from one activity to the next, most
often with smiles and chatter. At nap
time and especially night time she seems to feel the need to rehash her day,
and can be heard “talking” and sometimes even chuckling to herself. SO sweet!
God has continued to give Reuben with steady work, for which
we praise God! We realize that many are
not so blessed. This is especially
important to us for the past and present adoption expenses.
My life consists of nothing outstanding, except that I LOVE
being a wife, mother, and homemaker. I
cannot think of anything I would rather be doing! I feel such a fulfillment in my role. It is also a great pleasure to me to watch K
and her Daddy. She LOVES him (and visa
versa, of course!), and one of her favorite times of the day is when “Daddy” or
“Dee-dee” comes home. When it starts
getting dark outside, she goes to the outside door, looks out the window, and
starts saying something to herself, no doubt about Daddy coming in. And when Daddy DOES come home…. wow! she
lights up like a little fire cracker. Of
course, Mommy has taught her (by example) to be very, very happy about Daddy’s
home-coming, so it’s little mystery why she acts like that.
In looking back over the last 2 years, we have one thing to
say: God has been so good, so faithful, so PRESENT. This last year (2013) included several
heartaches with regard to the enlarging of our family, but even in that we
experienced God’s grace. The winds of change have also blown strongly over our
church. Our dear bishop, Dale Kulp, went
Home forever on March 19th after a brave battle with cancer. Three weeks after his death our church held
an ordination that Dale had planned before he got sick. God chose Reuben’s brother—Joel—as the new
pastor, serving alongside Steve Graber and Marlin Good. Again we would say—in spite of these losses
and changes—that God has been CHANGELESS, and so PRESENT in every moment. We didn’t always FEEL Him, but that made Him
no less near.
Our heart’s cry is to draw nearer to God moment by moment…
to WAIT, to TRUST, to HOPE, to MOVE FORWARD with God.
He is WORTHY!!!
~Reuben, Judi, and K
**I have not included K’s
full name, nor our last name, for security purposes. Thank you for understanding.
