So, I know I've been talking a lot about my family on here, and it is probably annoying, but please, read one last one?...for me?? My family is incredibly unique in many ways. My parents met in Uganda as they were serving as missionaries, got engaged there, came to the states, and got married. Just over a year after they got married, they got pregnant with my sister, and they've basically had kids ever since. There are so many other things that makes our family unique, but I am going to talk about one in particular.
The summer before, I entered middle school, we learned a very sad, and a very surprising thing about my family, we learned that my grandma had grown up an orphan, and had spent time at a boarding school for orphans named Crossnore. It was from that point on that my parents were very, very interested in adopting(or trying to adopt...) from Crossnore. That trip to North Carolina was pivotal in our family, from that trip we all grew to have a heart for orphans, or children from broken homes, but we had no idea what we were in for... As soon as we got back to Illinois, my parents wasted no time at all getting licensed to for foster care(which is necessary to adopt).
Now, fast forward a year and a half, in the middle of the afternoon, the phone rang. My mom was giving piano lessons out of our home at the time, and was giving them then, so I picked up the phone. "Hi, this is DCFS(Department of Family and Child Services, or the foster care place...), we have two little boys sitting in our office that need a home tonight." Can you imagine being 14 years old, and trying to figure out what to say to that? Obviously, I politely ran into the studio where my mom was working and said, "I need you...like NOW." Before I even knew what was going on, I had 3 hours to get everything in my room into garbage bags, or grocery bags, and get the room ready for little boys, because I was becoming a big sister. That is how our crazy adoption story began.
Soon after the boys came, we got ANOTHER call from DCFS and were asked to take in the boys' younger brother, Aedon as well. What we didn't know is that the foster family that Aedon was staying with was completely convinced that THEY were going to adopt him. This led to a long and drawn out custody battle, which ended in Aedon's foster mom storming out of the courtroom, and leaving it to DCFS to pick up Aedon from daycare and bring him to us. In early October of 2010, after we had gotten Aedon and felt that our family was complete, we began to move towards adoption.
I am so happy to say that in May of 2014, the boys were FINALLY adopted, and they are officially ours. It takes a lot of patience, kindness, and a true heart of service to do what our family did. It was a huge adjustment for my parents, going from having a 14 year old as their youngest, to having a 2 year old. But, it also took a lot of sacrifice and adjusting for us. When we got Aedon, we had 6 kids ages, 19, 17, 15, 7, 3, and 2, now THAT'S an age range! However, it is very clear to me that God was preparing me to be an older sister for all my life. I had always loved little kids and wanted so badly to have a younger sibling of my own, and I honestly can't even imagine my life without being an older sister. It has truly shaped me and molded me into the young woman that I am today, and I am so happy to have had this opportunity.
Adoption changes not only the child's life, but it changes the entire family's life, for the better. That's not to say that it is easy, or fun all the time, because adoption certainly has it's share of challenges, but the impact you could make on a child's life is worth going through all the challenges in the world.
<3 Always,
Rose
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