The timing was all wrong… we were living in an RV at the time- trying to decide if we were building or buying our next home. There were 5 of us and a guinea pig living in an RV on my (Austin’s) parents land.
Though we had talked about adopting in the past, it wasn’t on our radar at the time. We had friends in the adoption community that would advocate for a kid or two occasionally and we prayed they would be united with their forever family, but nothing felt like it was something we needed to look into until Alex…
Alex was 12 years old when I saw his profile picture in a friends Facebook story one day- these family friends were advocating for him and it simply said that he would age out of the system in March… this was February at the time.
I brushed it off thinking, we can’t possibly adopt now- we live in a RV! But a couple days later, there his profile picture was a second time! This time, I stopped and read through the details (they had never posted for the same kid twice) and proceeded to email Small World with a simple question- which March? If it was next month, it wasn’t even an option- but when the agency responded and said it was 13 months away- I requested more info.
Reading through the details- it became apparent that this was our son. I forwarded the emailed details to my husband who usually would talk me out of my “crazy ideas”. But when he responded with- “this is our son, we need to apply” it felt like the world stopped spinning.
The next 13 months are a blur- we weren’t financially in a position to adopt, we needed to get moved into a permanent residence, I was opening a business with a friend (our coffee shop that would be part of our story and now helps sponsor adoptions), it wasn’t our timing, it actually seemed completely crazy- but it was Gods perfect timing!
We flew home on Alex’s 14 birthday- the very day he should have aged out of the system and our world has been changed for the better.
Adoption is hard, messy, complicated and rewarding!