He was meant to be with US

One of the blessings of open adoption, is that we get the tremendous experience to visit with the birth mom. We get to share our expectations, our fears, our stories. So, I was overjoyed to spend two full days with our birth mom, Ashley, in the hospital after she delivered Daylen. While we chatted she told us her end of the adoption story. We were amazed to see how God had directed her to us, just as much as He directed us to her.

When Ashley found out she was pregnant, she knew that she could not care for the child as she would like to. She started researching adoption. Along the way she was introduced to a lawyer who specialized in private adoptions, and with that she met a couple that had desired to adopt for five years. This couple had tried adopting internationally but had not yet been matched. They decided to move forward with adopting Ashley's child. While the months progressed communication between the couple and Ashley dwindled. In March of 2008 the acting lawyer contacted Ashley and informed her that that couple had been matched with a little girl from China. They chose to terminate the adoption with Ashley.

As one could imagine, Ashley was devastated. She told us that at that point she really wondered if God was telling her to keep this child. She didn't know what her next step was to be. In May she started researching more options of adoption. She found that she also expressed to us that there was a moment when she considered leaving the child as a born baby at the hospital. This means that the child would be taken from her immediately after delivery and placed in custody of the state. Most of these born babies get adopted, but in some cases these children grow up in foster care or in group homes. The thought of this was only a moment in passing for her. She realized that doing such a thing would not show this baby love, but instead show it abandonment.

At a last chance effort, she got on line and searched adoption agencies. The first one that came up was ANLC (Adoption Network Law Center) Feeling helpless and with no where else to turn to contacted them and began the process of placing her unborn child for adoption. What she didn't realize at that moment, was that WE had just turned in our application to adopt a child through this agency.

It wasn't long until our paths merged and it was evident that it was God's doing. I am thankful that Ashley chose to listen to God's direction as we did. I am thankful that God told her to go online one last time. I am thankful that God lead that first couple to their child in China. Daylen was meant to be OUR child, he was meant to be with US from the moment of conception. We all just had to listen to God's voice.