Where we are from and our experiences shape so much of who we are. It is so important to look back at the past and never forget what God has done. In the Summer of 2008 we were a family that was broken and hurting. We had been trying to reconcile why we were not having a biological child. When you looking at what you want as so many of us are very accustomed to doing it is so much like standing around a campfire, oblivious to the world around you. When the doctor's told us we could not have children without the help of science to be honest our marriage was at a crossroads.
We would like to say that adoption was our plan A, we are so amazed that is was God's plan A for our lives. What I think so many people fail to realize is that these weights that we think we must carry are not ours to be carried. So we began the process of giving God our weights our insecurities our human shortfalls and started this journey to far off places.
A beautiful tragedy sums up adoption. We announce with this very blog that we will start the process of adoption and we hear so many wonderful things. Our family our friends are excited and waiting for this story to unfold. Thousands of miles from us a mother has very much the opposite story, adoption is a paradox of irreconcilable proportion. To think that 150 MILLION mothers will experience what Mikah's mother experienced is heartbreaking to say the least.
We wait and wait impatient with the process, thinking of what it might be like to be parents. The phone rings, time stops, hearts race, reality hits. The next few hours are really a blur but somehow forever recorded in our minds. We rush to a computer to see our daughter for the first time. Something about this picture was so surreal the way the light hits those big brown eyes the way her little hands grasp the little blue plastic chair as if to say can you come right now and get me I just need to be held.
What happens for the time that we wait to travel to meet our child is something that cannot be explained well in words. The closeness you feel to God during this time is really surreal. It is the feeling of trust and the feeling of overwhelming joy that is a mix of complicated wonderful emotions. It made sense after all God tells us in the bible over and over his love for the orphan, the widow even going as far as saying “Whoever receives a child in My name, receives Me.” Matthew 18:5. It makes sense we would feel that love grow inside of us.
Another milestone hits in May 2009 the high court in Ethiopia has approved us to adopt this little girl. We wait for travel dates and start making plans to meet Millennium. We board a plane in Portland landing in Addis Ababa Ethiopia our first trip out of the country as a couple and one that would change our lives forever.
Tears well up in our eyes as we think about the family we left behind in Ethiopia. For we thought that we were just simply adding one sweet little girl to our family but really we added so much more. Ethiopia is hard to describe and is really something that is felt. The people the warmth the hardship the joy the range of emotions make a quality of people that is amazing. We pray for Mikah's family she left behind in Ethiopia never taking their sacrifice in vein.
We have been keeping a record of our journey to Mikah for some time now. This blog was really a way to record our thoughts and family our journey. That journey has come to an end and a new story will soon unfold. We thank you, those that still check this blog or get our updates. Thanks for your prayers, your support, your kind words.
Lord willing sooner than later it will be BHBB #2 but for now we enter a holding pattern with regards to adopting a brother or sister for Mikah. In the interim we hope you join us at - THE PHILADELPHIA PROJECT - we are in the process of writing a book and Lord willing so much more. So follow the link, bookmark it, sign-up, THE PHILADELPHIA PROJECT blog.
The End
mbyrd3@hotmail.com
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