THE HOME STRETCH

Ahhhh! God's ways are so much higher than my own. Friends, in less than two days (Friday at 10:00am EST to be exact), we will be standing in front of a judge finaling our adoption of Brandon Henry; Brandon, the name given to him by his birth family, and Henry, the middle name we chose because it's my maternal grandfather's first name and my paternal grandfather's middle name. I've always liked the name Henry and I'm thrilled to be passing it on to our son.

For those who don't know, this will be our fourth adoption. And this one caught us by total surprise. We were in the car Christmas shopping on December 16th, 2006 when Carl's cell phone rang. He recognized the number as the agency we provided foster care for in Ohio for 5 years. We had moved out of state and thus had to let our license expire, so I wasn't sure why they were calling (or how they got our number). But Carl "knew." He said it before he answered the phone, while I said, "No, that's not it." Well yes, that was it. A baby. The biological brother of our girls. We immediately turned our van around, drove 30 minutes back home to pack a bag for a family of 5, picked up an infant car seat and off we went, 6 hours to Ohio to pick up 2 day old Brandon.

Fast forward 14½ months later. We're on our way again, first thing in the morning. The day we have all waited for. Carl and I were open to ages 0-5, any race or gender. What God knitted together was beyond our wildest dreams. Four newborns whom we brought home directly from the hospital. A fifth will always be in our hearts, having stayed with us for almost 6 weeks before being removed to be adopted by "family" elsewhere. And Reece too was nearly removed from our home. It hurts to contemplate that now. And yet, here we are. The H's, just as God ordained.

Oh, there's sooo much more I could babble on about concerning the way God formed our family. I have many last minute details to tend to though, so I'll just share some past entries that express ME quite well here. For starters, you'll find my heart in this;

I WOULD DIE FOR THAT. (don't miss the dialogue in comments or you may miss where I'm coming from altogether. The last comment in particular was so very special to receive.)

And here;
WHAT MAKES A REAL MOM?

And definitely here;
A HEART FOR ADOPTION.

I know your positive thoughts are with us as we journey this final step to grafting Brandon onto our family tree. "See" you when we get back.

He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—
Ephesians 1:5

Toni