Friday, August 10, 2007

The Beginning of the Journey


Our adoption journey began on Saturday night, January 14, 1989. My husband and I were enjoying a quiet evening at home alone - fire in the fireplace...Houston Rockets on TV... our 4 kids out doing the teenage thing. All of this equals an amazing night at home, enjoying the fact that our children were starting to do things on their own and we were beginning to see the signs of "empty nest". I was scheduled to start work at New Life the very next Tuesday. What timing!

With one phone call the next 18 years of our lives changed. Jessica literally arrived on our doorstep late that night. We knew her birthfamily so we knew the difficulties that she had faced in her short 3 months of life. She was quiet and deep inside her we knew that she was afraid and wondered if she could trust these new people in her life. We began this journey expecting it would last for a weekend. But, as God would have it, the weekend stretched to more than 9 months. That is when the journey became difficult and painful.

As a family, we committed to this baby girl even when she was taken from our home and it seemed that it was impossible. We determined that we would be there for her as long as God allowed. We traveled a treacherous legal path and waited on God. We prayed intensely. We fasted and prayed regularly. We believed God and followed His directives. We eventually, by faith, relinquished our own desires and told God that we would accept willingly what He desired for her and for us - the hardest thing we have ever done. The details belong to my daughter so I will not share those.

The beauty of this story is that God protected a precious baby girl and honored the prayers of a family dedicated to her best interest. Before Jessica was conceived in her birthmother's womb God had a plan for her. He knew that she would be grafted into the Seay family and that this was the place he had designed for her to grow and become all that He wanted her to be.
And so - on October 30, 1992, our baby girl became OUR baby girl! Praise be to God!

Get to know Jessica by checking out her blog (seay-pictureperfect.blogspot.com).

I would love to hear how God led you on your adoption journey. After doing this for 18 years, I know that every family has a story of how God brought them to the point of adoption. We encourage each other by sharing our story. Would you share it with me?

1 comment:

Jennifer Bacak said...

I will start. My adoption journey began with the beautiful girl you see at the top of the page. Jessica Seay (my sister) changed our lives, and I mothered her long before I had any of my own children. I think I had the desire to adopt from then on, and Praise God, my husband agreed. We gave birth to two beautiful babies, but knew that we would adopt the rest. We felt very led toward trans-racial adoption. We now have two gorgeous brown boys as well; Justus, we adopted through New Life almost three years ago. Treston, we are fostering with the intent to adopt through New Life right now. Please pray for that situation!
We are constantly sharing with others what God has done in our hearts and lives thorugh adoption! This journey shows us how prideful we are, how much we love control, and reveals to us so much about the Father's love, who has adopted us. There's so much to share, that's the best I can narrow it down. I frequently write about adoption on our blog www.bacakblogginit.blogspot.com.
So glad you started this blog Mom!
I hope more people share!
jenn