New Topic: How did God tell you this was it?

God spoke to me the moment I walked into the nursery at the hospital. All the little newborns were being held and fawned over by the new parents. My little 5 lb Bug lay in the bassinette looking so alone. The moment I saw him my heart smiled for the first time in more than 3 years. I knew he needed me and I was meant to be his mommy.

Well, here is mine. I am Catholic. For over a year, I had been praying for direction in my life, and saying Novenas to St. Therese for intervention. Well, St. Therese sends you roses when she hears you. Whether God will grant your request is another story, but you have St. Therese praying for you also. I was on a trip with my brother. We had not listened to the radio the whole 12 hour drive. As we neared our destination, he turned on the radio and was channel surfing. He flipped through 1 station, and all I heard was "And people always look to this as a sign of hope And he changed the station. Well, just as I heard that, I was looking at a billboard for a florist that was filled with roses! Wow, I thought, how weird that was. Well, a year later I decide to adopt, and a year after that I bring home my 2 year old daughter. When I looked back on what I was doing on the day she was born, I realized she was born the day after I saw the roses!

God spoke to me one morning before church and said he wanted us to take the classes through the state(foster care/adopt). I mentioned it to my husband, and he put it off and said he needed confirmation before he would ever consider doing anything like that. Well confirmation came the very next day, I got something in the mail reguarding the classes and the need for foster parents in our county, and the orientation was the very next day. We went to the orientation and the classes in our county did not work out with my husbands work schedule so it was put off like it wasn't meant to be. Within a few months I had several things happen, like commercials on tv (and I wasn't even in the room of the tv, I just heard it while in the bathroom), more things came in the mail on magazines and news papers stating the severe need for foster parents in our county.Then I called my husband who is not so easy to talk to about this becausse he didn't like the idea of foster care, and I told him I was going to throw up if I didn't get this off my chest. We are disobeying the Lord by not doing what he has asked of us. At that point he told me that he had just heard a radio commercial that touched him reguarding the need of foster parents, and it was then that God spoke directly to him about us doing it. We now have our first fs, and we have had him since Nov.7th. The timing was off quite a bit for our approval process due to a family members fingerprint hold up for 8 weeks, and we weren't too sure why but when we got our fs we knew it was becuase if we had been approved sooner we would have already had another child in our home and wouldn't have been able to accept him and due to his medical condition( quit breathing on me two times) I feel very confident that he was meant to be with our family. It helps me to know that I am walking out the will of the Lord to know that he was with us when this baby quit breathing, and to know that this baby will be taken care of while he is with us and I can trust that this baby will always be safe no matter what enviroment he goes back to. We had this baby dedicated and believe that his hand will always be with this child. And thats how we got involved in foster care. My husband also went to a conference on 7/7/07 called THE CALL, and most of the message was on stopping abortions, and the need for people to step up to adopt the babys that will need a home, and the strong need for christian foster homes.At that point he was confident we were doing what we were supposed to be doing and we had just finished our classes a week or two before that conference. And thats my story.Sorry it's so long.

I was very close to my Aunt who had two adopted daughters - my DH and I were going through the process and my Aunt was a great source of strength for me - she walked us through our homestudy and was there when I need help/support. About a year into the wait, my Aunt found out she had cancer, which we were hoping she would beat. Six months later, we knew it was terminal. My aunt, ever devoted to her children, battled it to the end. At one point she said that no matter what life was throwing at her, she would go NOWHERE until we were placed with a baby - her girls were her life, and she wanted the same for me. Two weeks later, we received "the call" after more than a year and a half of waiting with NO leads - (come to find out there was an error with our paperwork - yet another example of God's handiwork...a blessing in disguise). This thrilled my aunt to no end. She held on for a few more months, long enough to meet our beautiful son, come to his baby shower, and cheer us through our placement hearing. Sadly, she passed away when he was just 4 1/2 months old - two days after her bday (which incidentally is mine and DH's anniversary). Anyway, I believe God's good will helped my Aunt hold on long enough to meet my precious son. I just wish she was still here and could have met our youngest...

Awesome stories. They will love hearing them as they grow up. Here is my story for E, our first adoption. He was five when we met him and 6 at adoption. To make a long story short, dh and I battled infertility for many years. We had in fact given up, but God knew better. J was born two months after my 40th birthday. Despite the fact that we certainly wanted more than one child, and J desparately wanted sibs, we never concieved again. When J was about 3 1/2 years old I went into his room one morning to wake him up and found him in tears. I asked him what was the matter and he said "Mom, I prayed God would turn Baby James [a doll] into a real baby and he didn't." My heart broke for him. I said "Oh, honey, God is not going to turn a doll into a real baby." But there is no faith like that of a three year old, "He could Mom, God can do anything!" Five years later we met E. Who was just turning five years old. God answered the prayer in a way that only He could know. Coincidentally (or, what I refer to as a God-wink), E's middle name is James.

Just have to say, I am loving all of your stories. I am so moved, and this affirmation of our faith is incredible. This thread is definately one of the more upliftin ones I have seen, must keep tissue nearby! By the way, llovemy2boys, your aunt is sitting with Jesus, smiling down at you and BOTH your boys.

Our story is one that is a true profession that God does answer prayers with either No, Not now or later. In 1988 my husband and I had just gotten married and started trying to have a child. After several months of trying without success and being told we would never have children we decided to start the process of adoption. Before we got our paperwork turned in I was pregnant and we had our beautiful son. Four years later we had another son. Life was great and although we had always wanted three children and I truly wanted a little girl we knew we were done having children because I had so many problems carrying our two boys to term. My husband was "fixed" and I had surgery that prevented me from having anymore children. Fast forward to January 2004 when I meet a wonderful lady who was a nurse on the OB floor at our local hospital. She had adopted her little boy and had found his birthmother when she was in labor and she was her nurse. I told her I would love to have a little girl but knew I'd have to wait for grandchildren someday. The end of January she came to my door and told me that there was another nurse she worked with who knew of a teenage girl who was looking to place her unborn daugher for adoption and wanted to know if we wanted to meet with her. We met her, spent much time with her and fell in love. Four months later, in May, she gave us the most wonderful gift ever-- our beautiful daughter Castle. Our princess is almost 4 now and we still see her birthmother and her extended family several times a year. For us adoption was a wonderful experience as is open adoption!

I don't really know how to answer this. I just knew we were going to adopt and I knew He'd place the right kids with us.

Thanks so much for shareing your stories. I found them truely inspirational.

All I can say is wow, these stories are beautiful!

To be honest I don't remember when God let me know that adoption was the way I would choose to make my family. It's just always been there in my heart.My Mom says I told her I was adopting my babies when I was about six, so I'd guess it was then.As for Dh.....he sort of got steamrollered into it, lol. But it didn't take him long to come around to my way of thinking. I don't know that for him it was such an epiphany moment though. He's never really shared.

Our decision to adopt came after several years of ttc, and the gradual realization that we had made a shift. More than wanting to become pregnant, we knew we wanted to become parents. THAT, for me, could only have been from God. I do have a cool story that confirms God's presence in our wait. A few months after we were officially "on the books", we were sitting in church. It was July 4. As usual, I was thinking about our future baby and wondering how long we would wait. Out of the blue came a clear question into my mind. I knew it was God asking me simply, "Are you willing to wait a little longer for what I have for you?" As much as I wanted to say, "No! I want a baby now!" I knew better. I knew that nothing could be better than what he had planned, so I said yes, and prayed for more grace to wait it out. (Of course, I wanted more details than "a little longer" but no such luck.) Fast forward to the birth and homecoming of our Lilly. Never could I have imagined such a wonderful (and beautiful!) child. It wasn't until sometime after her birth that I was playing around with one of those pregnancy due-date calculators. I inputted what her due date had been, and looked back to when conception would have likely taken place. You probably know where this is going. It was within days of July 4. There is no doubt in my mind that God new as soon as he began forming Lilly that she was going to be his answer to my prayers.

We were done having children. I have health problems and we have one bio child. At the time she was born the drs said that they wouldn't recommend having any more pregnancies. Dh wasn't hard to convince. Poor guy had to live through watching the baby and I almost die which I think is worse than living through it yourself. But I digress.So we had an only child and that was that. Then we got this call....We had a relative in foster care and would we be interested in being considered as an adoptive placement for that child? We would...so we did the whole homestudy and everything. Our state places children adoptively through a committee process, and this was going to be a 'sensitive issue' committee since they were going to decide between two relative families who were hoping to adopt the child. They chose to place the child with the other relative. So that was that.But here we had this fresh homestudy...so our cw suggested that we consider adopting a waiting child. We considered, and inquired, and were turned down at 3 more committees before we were finally matched with our first adoptive child. I suppose that we took that as a sign...we FINALLY were chosen! LOLFor our other adoptions there were variations on the same theme. Waiting, not being chosen, praying, hurting, being chosen, being terrified!, etc. :) God has gone before us in all things, and we see how He went before us with each of our children, too. In fact, on very hectic days that start out with bickering from the second the first child sets a toe out of bed, I remind myself that God has placed these children in our home and in our hearts and He will give me the grace to parent them. :D

these are so awesome! amazing how God works isn't it?well, our story is kind of interesting. I knew i wanted to adopt when i was just a little girl. and we chose foster care because we couldn't afford anything else and also we can (as far as we know) have bio children, and didn't want to take away an opportunity for an infant for those who couldn't. my husband wasn't so sure when i brought it up when we were dating. but i made him watch the TV show, Adoption Stories, on Discovery Health and at the end, he was in tears and said, "yes, we can adopt." and that's been our only choice since.the story about the call is kind of neat. we were licensed last May and i had been waiting for the call to come any day since my social worker said we were a "golden homestudy" (whatever that means). i could swear that i would have a child that summer. but every year for the last 5 years i have volunteered at a sleepover summer camp my church runs for foster children. and that was in august and i didn't want to miss it. of course, i thought in my head, if i got a placement before then, of course i would take it and miss camp. but i also really wanted my husband to go to camp to experience the kids and God working there. so i was very torn.but, God didn't want me to miss camp that year either. so, as the summer progressed and no calls, i figured it wasn't going to happen before camp so i signed up to go as a counselor. i remember saying to God, "okay, i'll go to camp. but it would be really great if you can arrange 'the call' on the last day of camp." of course, i didn't really think that would happen.well, on the night before our last day, i checked my phone messages before going to bed and there was my social workers' voice asking if we wanted to be considered for a one year old boy. they were doing an emergency "teaming" in a few days for a pre-adoptive family for him. i started crying, right there in front of the camp staff, and could barely get the words out. so, the next day i talked to my social worker on the way home from camp and heard all about him and said of course we wanted to be considered. all weekend i went back and forth between being convinced they would pick us and being convinced they wouldn't. it was torture! but i prayed and prayed that this was our child and He wouldn't put me through this just to break my heart.well, the other amazing thing is that at this time my husband was considering taking another job and having trouble deciding if he should or not. well, we heard on Monday that they picked another family for this boy. and i was so upset, despite trying to prepare myself. but, my husband felt better because he could decide about his job without having the outside influence of possibly getting a child soon. so, that week he chose to stay at his job for reasons of his own. but i was still upset and couldn't stop thinking about this little boy.so, the following Monday, my social worker called and said, "are you sitting down? how would to like to have a baby on Wednesday?" and it was that same 1 year old boy! the family they had chosen, who apparantly only beat us out by one point, had just moved and weren't ready for a child yet. so, we got our baby two days later and we are heading for adoption in April!it couldn't have worked out better for timing and he is the perfect child for us! and it was great my husband wasn't starting a new job at the same time we were getting to know our son. so everything worked together so perfectly. well, that's God for ya!thanks for sharing your stories. they are inspirational!