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Follow Chris, Project 1.27's Executive Director, and his wife Sarah as they adopt a child from foster care, too!
Part 2 (December 11, 2006)
Dear Friends of Project 1.27,
Burger King is a strange place to meet your daughter for the first time. Chris and I sat anxiously in a booth with our eyes glued on the door. The smells of greasy food encouraged my nervous stomach to churn even more. Chris took a deep breath and sighed, "Well, there's no going back now."
We've jumped through this adoption hoop four times already, but each time is different and has its own stresses. Paperwork. Fingerprinting for background checks. Hours and hours of training. Case workers - one assigned to us, one for Jalaha, and the one who came to do our homestudy. Our homestudy worker came over and interviewed not only us, but our children. Afterwards she said, "You know that consequence where you make the children do something nice for each other if they are mean to each other? Well, that one must really work because they all brought that one up in their interviews." Nice to know.
We went and read through Jalaha's life on paper - two files, each 3 inches thick. So much pain in such a short time.will we ever be able to help heal those wounds?
As we waited to see her little braided head come bobbing through the door, I wondered if she would bring the little photo album I made her. It has pictures of our family, our life, our home, our friends, and letters to her from each of us. Her case worker told me when she gave her the album the day before that she screamed with joy, clapped and jumped up and down. A family, finally.
Suddenly, there she was. She was smaller than I thought she'd be. And her bright brown eyes hinted at both excitement and fear. She stayed close to her case worker and quietly said, "Hi." I wanted to reach out and give her a big hug, but I was afraid I would scare her half to death. Instead I said, "Do you want to play on the playground?" "Yes!" she exclaimed, and off we went.
Her favorite colors are yellow, pink and purple. Especially pink. She likes pizza best. Dressing up as a princess is about the best time you can have in the whole world.
From then on, each time I saw Jalaha she came running at me full steam with a big smile and a bigger giggle. I knelt down and opened my arms wide, ready to envelop her in a big hug. "I missed you!" I declared. "So did I," she murmured. I smiled, "Let's go get some hot chocolate!" "O-kay!"
The phone call took my breath away. "Sarah, we have to stop visits," the case worker said. Another family member has entered the picture and they are not sure which way it will go.
I'm very overwhelmed. What if we don't get her? What will happen to her? Will we just be two more grown-ups on the list who made her promises and then disappeared?
Oh God, what are You doing? Please don't let this little girl fall! We love her already, and we so desire to make her ours. We thought she'd be home by Christmas.Make Your glory shine in this! Please, show us what to do.
At His Mercy,
Sarah Padbury
Read other parts of the Padbury's adoption story
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