Love Came Unexpected- Softly- Like a Hurricane

When love came unexpected – softly – like a hurricane, we hardly had time to pack a suitcase, much less prepare! Our story of adoption is different than most. We had not planned to adopt. Our first son was a honeymoon baby. Boy number two came a few years later. Our life was progressing as scheduled, hardly a cloud in the sky.

We were enjoying our second boy child when I got a phone call about a baby in trouble. Although I’d never met this little one, I had prayed for him many times, and worried over him plenty. I had seen a picture of him, once. Without any rhyme or reason, I had yearned and cried for this little baby boy. I had awakened in the night and cried out to God for his safety and protection. I did not know him, but I loved him. Softly, God was preparing my heart.

Then, I received the phone call. The circumstances surrounding the situation with this child were such that I cannot share the details. Suffice it to say that it was an emergency. I told the party on the other end of the line to hold out – to hang on – the words came out of my mouth before I even processed what I was saying, “Because . . . . he is MY Baby and I am coming to get him!” 

I hung up. Though the words had by-passed my brain, they had come straight from deep in my heart. I looked at my two little boys, one still a nursing babe, and my heart was full – except for that part that wasn’t. One was missing. My husband was aware of how I had prayed over this child, but the conversation of adoption had not come up. Ever. Until this time, there was no reason for it to.

He was at work when he received my phone call.  I carefully, and probably a bit too quickly, laid out the details for him. And still –  I did not ask the question.

I did not tell him what I wanted. I did not ask. Instead, I waited. Each breath a prayer.

My mind was spinning, my heart thumping – none of this made any sense. We couldn’t adopt a baby. Could we? We still had one in the crib! There was no way my husband was going to come to the same conclusion which I had come to. He would not, could not be feeling what I was feeling and thinking what I was thinking.

As I finished telling him about the call I had received only moments before– the line got really quiet. There was an exaggerated pause, for a solid two minutes, and a deep deep breath . . . . . before he said, “You better go get him – understand this is it, he will be my son.”

This was no temporary situation. They were not calling for a baby sitter or a foster home. My husbands words were meant to convey that he would open his heart to this little one, and there would be no turning back.

Though God had softly prepared my heart, this was sudden, like a hurricane.

There was one shot, one chance to keep this baby I loved already, from going into “the system,” one chance to bring him home.  I threw clothing into a suitcase and was on an airplane the next morning.

 I was going to get my baby – and bring him to his forever home.

It was sudden, like a storm that appears out of nowhere! We did not enter into it lightly. We understood what was at stake. We knew our lives were forever changed, and that it would not be an easy road. Most worthwhile endeavors are not.

I see now how God had prepared my heart for this child. He had planted a seed of love, the kind only a mother knows, long before I ever laid eyes on him. Softly, He prepared me. I felt a ferocious, mother bear kind of protective love for this baby who would be mine. It is the kind of love that will go the distance, like the Shepherd who braves the storm and leaves his flock in the night to search out the one lost lamb. Love came unexpected – with the force of a hurricane.

It was scary. We could not know what problems lay ahead, or how difficult it might be. He had been through a lot and it would take a lot of time. We stepped out on faith, believing that no matter what lay ahead, God would provide us with the wisdom and the strength of heart to go the distance with our son.

Parenting is difficult under the best of circumstances. Walking with Jesus is the only way I will finish well. Only Jesus. The challenges may be great, but so then are the rewards!

This joy is felt more deeply because it has come at a cost. This is what families do, they brave the storms. It has stretched me and grown me. It has placed me in a position where I cannot rely on my own strengths. Only Jesus.

We did not plan to adopt, but we know that He who hung the stars and moon and spoke the world into existence, He places families together. God has ordained me as the mother of these three boys, no matter which came from my womb.

Parenting is hard. There is never a promise of an easy road, but you need not fear the storms because,  when God calls you to a task, He is faithful to equip you for the journey.

When Love came unexpected, softly-like a hurricane – our family became whole.