Isaiah's adoption

On July 24, 2010, Randy and I had some time to ourselves in the car, riding to San Francisco for Randy to run his first marathon.  Adoption had been on my heart and mind for years!  I had watched one of my closest friends and mentors walk through the fost-adopt process to bring two beautiful children into her life!  My college roommate had just brought home her first adopted son from China.  And another friend was in the process of adopting locally.  As a mom of a 4, 7, and 9 year old, I felt as though the time was right to grow our family and if we waited much longer we would miss our "parenting window".  Even more so, I felt that if we didn't adopt we would be missing out on an amazing blessing!  We have a God that loves us more than we could imagine and is the Giver of all good things.  If He was calling us to grow our family through adoption, it could only be to bless us by making us more like his Son!  And if we trust that He is our Creator, we have a responsibility to listen and surrender to his will in our lives.  But as I continued to wrestle with my own feelings about adoption, I knew I could not move forward without an agreement with my husband.  As much as I knew God had given me compassion for the orphan, I also knew that my prior calling and commitment (also one given to me by God) was as a wife to Randy.  I am called to serve and love him, and submit to his leading in our family.  If God was not calling Randy to parent an adopted child, I needed to start looking for ways to serve the orphans among us in ways other than adoption (of which there are many).

Earlier in that month of July I confessed to Randy that I was ready to STOP talking about adoption.  As I had been praying for our family, time and again over the past months, I had felt God telling me that I needed to surrender my adoption desires to God by surrendering this decision to my husband.  I told Randy that he could take as much time as he needed making the decision; I wouldn't bring it up again.  If he wanted to move forward, I would gladly do so with him.  If he said no, I would be OK with that and focus my attention on the three wonderful children God had already given us.  I knew that he would take this responsibility seriously.  And he did, even taking a night away from home in the mountains to pray about it.

So here we were a few weeks later, driving to San Francisco with no distractions, and Randy says, "So I've prayed about it, and I'm ready to adopt.  I know that I am not capable of parenting a fourth child, much less an adopted one.  But if God tells us we should, I know he'll give us the strength and grace to do it." Little did we know, in the timeline of Isaiah's life (and God's sovereign planning) his conception was just becoming known to his birth mom that very week!

And off we went...

Orientation in August 2010.
Foster parent licensing class October - January 2011.
More paperwork, fingerprints, home inspection, and more paperwork, all completed by July 2011.
Risk-adopt home-study in August 2011.
First placement presented to us in October 2011 (to which we declined).
License renewal in January 2012.
Isaiah presented to us for placement April 13, 2012 (to which we said yes).
Visited Isaiah in his foster-mom's home April 18.
Brought Isaiah to our home for a couple hours April 19.
Picked up Isaiah to bring home for good April 21, 2012.
Parental rights terminated for birth mom Dec 21, 2012.
60 day window for appeal by birth mom came and went.
Adoption finalization in Fresno County court June 14, 2013.

We are so very thankful to have Isaiah in our family!  What if I had not listened to God's call?  Not surrendered to His will and taken that step of faith?  Not allowed ourselves the waiting and the hard work?  I am so glad that we said yes!  After all, we serve a God that not only created us, but says yes, instead of no, to us and all our short-comings constantly throughout our lives.  May we continue on this path, parenting with all the love and grace that God has for us. Thanks for your prayers, love, and support through this process!  We know that we could not, and can not do this alone!

And now that he is Isaiah James Mack, I can post his beautiful face online!  Here are a few of my favorite pictures over the past year.

First day at our house

First week at our house

This boy loves water!

15 months old.  Camping at King's Canyon NP

4th of July in Lassen NP

Enjoying the beach at Redwoods NP

18 months. Playing at Oso de Oro park.

Christmas 2012

January 2013 at Woodward Park.

February 2013 in the snow at King's Canyon NP

Sunrise service, Easter morning 

Adoption finalization morning, June 14, 2013

We were very blessed to have our neighborhood family join us!  

And Randy's mom and brother were able to join us as well!