Finding Home

I think it’s time to tell the story.

18 years later I am taking the time to sit down and write out how God came to bring a baby girl across an ocean and to the home and family she was intended for. It’s a long story, so it will be posted in installments here. My goal is to have it completed by the 28th of this month, as that’s the day that baby girl turns 18!

It was December 24, 1990. Bob and I both had the day off and had the glorious privilege of sleeping in. As I woke up I reached over to turn on the radio to hear the morning news and catch up on what was happening locally. The announcer was talking about some little children who would be celebrating their first real Christmas ever, having just arrived in Canada with their new adoptive parents. He went on to say that thousands of children in Romania were still in orphanages, due to the poverty in the country and due to the upheaval there after Romania’s recent deliverance from a communist government.

In that moment, I turned to Bob and simply said, “We should do that.” Naive and impulsive words, but somehow it seemed so clear that Bob and I were in a place to offer a home to children who needed one. We had been hoping for children, having been married for almost 6 years, but hadn’t had any yet. We were not to the point of fertility testing, but were beginning to be impatient. Being in a place where we felt we were ready for children, but not having any yet, put us in a place of readiness for this situation.

Amazingly, only a short time before this particular day, Bob had heard about the plight of the Romanian orphans and had felt God calling us to adopt. Bob’s answer to that was “It’s fine with me, but you’ll have to convince Iris”, with the feeling that God certainly had His work cut out for Him! Imagine his excitement and awe, when I turned to him in bed that morning, totally ready and willing to do that very thing.

God was working and God had a plan. We have no doubt.

It was an excruciatingly long Christmas holiday for us, as we were anxious to get information about how to proceed. We really had no idea where to start, but started with Mennonite Central Committee as soon as we thought somebody might be back in the office after the holiday season. (We had been praying over that time of waiting and still felt that God was leading us to pursue this.) They couldn’t help us, but directed us to Samaritans’ Purse, which paid off, as they were able to connect us with an organization that helped out people wanting to adopt in Romania. It was a good start, after only a couple of phone calls. Bear in mind that this was before the day of the internet and Google and all the riches of information that would now be at our finger tips!

We waited anxiously for the information to arrive in the mail and begin to cautiously tell our family and close friends of our decision to pursue foreign adoption.

Come back tomorrow for the next part of the story-preparations to go.