In The Beginning

When I (Michelle) was very young, the family across the street adopted a baby girl from China. Her name was Autumn and she had 2 wonderful big brothers. Autumn's mother was very active in her church, and after hearing about the baby girls needing homes, she felt called to bring Autumn home to join her 2 bio sons. Remember this was 30 years ago. They were blazing the trails that I now maneuver.
From that time on, I would talk about adopting from China some day. God started early and planted the seed. Throughout our dating and marriage, I would bring up adopting from China from time to time to Ian. He would tell me when a colleague was adopting from overseas or when he ran into someone sharing their story of adoption. Still, it was just talk.
That didn't seem to be the path we were following. We have been blessed with 3 amazing biological sons. Each one is so different, and such a blessing. I enjoyed the typical girl things when I grew up. Tomboy wasn't exactly the word for me. So, my boys have opened my world up to sports, broken arms, a fascination with wrestling, all forms of technology, a passion to go fast, and music that I can't understand the words being sung to. They have also shared many of my passions such as being on stage and the love of reading. They love deeply. They hurt deeply. They care deeply. It has been an exhausting joy watching them grow. I am grateful for each one of them. If I had only given birth to Corbin, I might have mistakenly thought all boys were like him: outgoing, sensitive, athletic and sneaky. Then, along came Collin who taught me that boys can also be very introspective, quiet, passionate, thoughtful and logical. Where Corbin loves to team, Collin loves to solo. And, I was sure that when Aidan was born he would be like one or the other son or on a scale somewhere in-between. But, Aidan is a boy all on his own. Corbin sucked a pacifier.. Collin sucked his thumb.. Aidan sucks his ring finger.. Aidan loves to draw and has a great grip already.. He sits and listens to books when I used to chase Corbin and Collin around the house reading to them as they played.. He loves to dance. In fact, the things that I looked forward to doing with Corbin and Collin, that they had no interest in, Aidan has surprised me and really loved! Aidan even loves pushing a stroller and taking care of his doll now that baby Milania has joined the baby room at our school. Having girls and babies around him during the day has exposed Aidan to things Corbin and Collin didn't experience. It is fun to see how much his pals enjoy vacuuming and dressing up along with riding their bikes and playing ball. It has been a rich and fulfilling motherhood. Scary at times. Exhausting at others. But most of all, I would say it has been overwhelmingly fulfilling. I love being a mom.
That being said, everyone knows that I love all things girly. I love pink, glitter, bows and ruffles. I love watching little girls cheer and dance in recitals. The opportunity to put bows in hair and oogle over twirly dresses has been one of the great gifts of being a PreK teacher. Watching Aidan fall in love with Milania really opened my heart up to the idea of adding a fourth child to our home. It just seemed so perfect and right to me that we would adopt from overseas.There were lots of signs. A friend called about adopting a baby girl in Tampa, and that opened my mind to the idea. It wasn't time for our family then, but I wanted to know more about the logistics to adoption. I began to research. Then, after teaching for many years, I got my first overseas adoptees in my class. And, low and behold, they were all from the EE. In all, out of 32 PK students, 6 are adopted. I had never seen those odds before. Years went by when I didn't have any adopted students. Now I had 4. And those parents swayed me to Russia. But the signs kept coming. My dear friend, reminded me that during the summer she talked with me about Russian adoption, and my brother shared with me his desire to do missionary work in the Russian orphanages with his church. God seemed to be giving me signs all over.

It is time.

It is beginning.....