This time of the year is different. There are lights on the
houses, trees inside houses and families gearing up for time together. It
certainly is a time of change! Change is something Cam and I have somehow
become accustomed to in our four and half years of marriage…and this week has
been no different. Bare with me as I try and paint a picture.
As many of you know we have been waiting to adopt two little
ones from the gorgeous country of Lesotho. We had bags strapped to our back and
we were bracing ourselves for a long road ahead. And we were walking and
trusting.
Then…this week happened. Early Monday morning I woke to
intense pain and eventually was taken to the hospital in an Ambulance. Cam was
a superman, though pretty nervous, but was the greatest servant in this
situation. By 8:00am I was transferred from the emergency care in Spring Hill
to Williamson Medical Center in Franklin where the testing began. I must admit
that I was pretty out of it but they managed to get the pain under control. I
was released Wednesday night with the prognosis of an extreme arthritis flare
up – which I have never experienced before. Anyhoo – I am home now and on the
mend.
All that to say, while we were in the hospital, we received
a phone call from our adoption agency to say that they have a little boy for
us!!!! Whaaaaat! This is totally unexpected…especially because we were quite
happy on the road to Lesotho. What happened to Lesotho? Well, to be honest, we
don’t know. We never intended to be in the domestic program, however, five
weeks ago our agency called us just with a simple introduction to the domestic
program and asked if we would consider being in that program. At that time, we
declined and said though we were interested in domestic adoption after our
international was completed, but we were happy where we were at, so basically,
a thanks, but no thanks. So, back on the road we went. Until….last week, our
agency called us again with a more of an ‘inquiring’ phone call. During that
phone call, the agency mentioned that they had a meeting the previous day and
that they thought we would be a good fit for a birth mother that were talking
with. They were unable to give us many more details due to privacy and the fact
that we weren’t in the domestic program. Once we discovered that there was no
cost in joining the domestic program and that we were still able to stay in the
Lesotho program, we thought we would go ahead and see where this part of the
journey takes us.
Then, Tuesday happened. A phone call, while we were sitting
in a hospital room, a phone call that informed us that the birth mother had
actually picked us out five weeks ago when we received our first phone call. She
had looked at our photo and told the agency that she wanted that family to
adopt her baby boy. Our case worker did mention that she also fell in love with
our puppy dog who was also in that photo (which happens to be the same photo at
the top of our blog). This is crazy, right?
One of the reasons why we were always nervous about a
domestic adoption is with the issues that can arise. It just made us nervous.
It made us nervous that there was a revocation period when the biological
parents have a right to request the child back. Being first time parents, we
were just a little nervous about some of those things. Amazingly, God took care
of that! The biological mother and father had terminated their rights and the
revocation period has passed. Just like our agency said ‘this is the kind of
adoption that people dream of – it’s perfect! Yes, it is perfect. We were expecting
an international adoption, we got a domestic adoption. We were expecting two
little ones at once, but we got one. God knows what we needed.
So, the short of it is that we have a little two and a half
week old who we have named ‘Calvin Jack Clausing’ and came into the Clausing
home today, December 18th. As
you can imagine, we were not expecting this and not prepared for this. But we
are so excited about this…...a little overwhelmed but we know that God has us
right here for this.
So many of you have
walked with us, some from afar and some right where we are. We know our story
so far does not just include us, but so many of you. We are sincerely so
thankful for the way in which so many of you walk with us and encourage us to
keep on trekking.
Here’s to a great Christmas! Here’s to our first Christmas
with a little baby!
We’ll be in touch!
XX
