Prior to 2016, I really didn’t know the significance of November being National Adoption Month. It was just something not even on my radar. I’ve met so many wonderful people who have always had this dream of adopting, my story is, I responded to an immediate opportunity in front of us, and it was the best response ever.
We had been fostering a little girl since she was two days old. While the stated goal of the foster care system is reunification with the family, it cannot always be the case. Our little girl’s case seemed to be dragging on. Every time we went to court for her case, there was another continuance with little progress being made. She was now fourteen months old and our family was the only family that she really knew. Even at fourteen months, she began to verbalize fears and anxieties about a lack of true permanence in her life.
Again, adoption was not on the forefront of my mind, but it was on my wife’s and on God’s. And to be honest, I had this feeling that she would be ours, but I didn’t say it out loud.
At her last court hearing, I felt I needed to go and was able to. The state asked for another continuance and the judge asked if there was anyone else who had anything to say. I found myself raising my hand. The judge asked who I was and what I had to say. I expressed my concern for the lack of progress being made and how it was beginning to affect her. The judge looked at me and asked if my wife and I were willing to adopt this precious child and without any hesitation or “maybe we should talk about it”, I said, “absolutely, yes”. His gavel came down and her case moved to adoption.
Five minutes later I am in my car and I call my wife, “Babe, guess what……?”
Her “gotcha” day was a couple of months later and our lives and the lives of her, now, siblings and family have been blessed by our sweet daughter who now bears our name, ever since.
Here in November 2020, National Adoption Month is of great significance and importance to me…and it will be for the rest of my days.
This personal account was written and shared by adoptive parent Andy Meyers, Agape Adoption Agency’s Intake & Outreach Specialist.
