Ten years ago.....we got news that changed our lives forever.....
Jon, Steve and I had just come back from a "vacation" to Branson Missouri. We actually went up for Jon to interview for a ministry position. We had been offered the position but we felt way too many red flags to take it ( THAT was a good decision on our part LOL) Anyhow we had done some fun things while we were in the area. We visited some caves and some friends. We also looked at private schools for Steve. The one closest to where we would have lived took us on a tour. We found out that IF Steve started there, one of his classmates would be Tony Orlando's child ( remember Tony Orlando and Dawn? "Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree") and another would be the adopted child of Jim Baker (remember PTL Club) That was a hoot to me:) Steve was starting second grade so he would have had some interesting classmates. Can you imagine the PTA meetings???? LOL
On the way home we stopped in Arkansas to see Jon's cousin. Jon's family is from Arkansas but so many have now passed away:( Anyhow we had a great time with cousin Shelia and visited some other relatives. One day she took us over the line to Mississippi to eat at a really good old time southern restaurant and they had fried pickles..... Oh My Lord.....I was hogging the plate!!! Jon
"thought" he was over his allergy to fish....ate some and found out he wasn't as he swelled up like a blow fish. We actually had to stay a couple of days extra till he recovered but we had a blast.
So we get home, and still had some days of our vacation left, we were going to take a few days and go to the beach with family and just chill.
So the morning before Jon made coffee....I gagged. we thought it was funny.
10 years ago today I woke up SICK and thought "let me take a pregnancy test" .....Jon was out jogging when I ran outside with the test stripe screaming:) We were SHOCKED to say the least:) We had been using fertility drugs but had been off for a couple of months just taking a breather....LOL
So a decade ago we started down a path that was unknown to us...... within just a few days, complications started. It was a ROUGH pregnancy....one that was very unsure all the way to its' early end in February with the birth of our baby Sam! Bed rest for most of the pregnancy, one medical problem after another.....just a small preview for what lay ahead!
Throughout the pregnancy we assumed that the problems were more related to my "advanced maternal age " LOL I had had some problems with Steve 8 years earlier and he was fine.....
But we were wrong.....somewhere I've read that most babies with Peter's Anomaly die before birth....early miscarriages..... but my little man was a fighter. He rarely moved in utero, and there were times I thought he was dead....but he made it!
We had no inkling that anything was wrong with Sam. The few prenatal tests that were done, were all fine. Even if we would have done the most sophisticated testing it would have not showed up as there are only about 230 things that are checked with amino fluid. And we were not taking a chance on losing this little one.
We also didn't know that just two months after I found out I was pregnant with Sam, the one who would really ROCK my world, that a little boy was born in Chengdu China, on the almost exact other side of the world from us, who would become our son, Shad.....
We also didn't know that just four months after I found out I was pregnant with Sam, that another family would find out they were expecting a child also...in Makiyivka Ukraine .....Selah
We also didn't know our new baby would have Peter's Anomaly and that one day we would find another little one who looked just like him from Donesk Ukraine .... Sarah
We had no idea where life would take us from that fateful morning.....
I could have never ever, in my
wildest dreams, imagined the life that was ahead for us both good and bad.....that morning as we were giggling and telling Steve that he would be having a new brother or sister.... He was a very serious little 8 year old and he quickly said "it will be a boy, I prayed for a brother" LOL he was right:)
Who would have thought the birth of a little blind boy would changed three other children's lives like it has?
I love the families who step forward and adopt children with special needs yet they do not have biological children with special needs..... All I can say is God Bless Them! I probably would have never had the guts to do it! But after Sam rocked our little world, nothing else could be anymore scarier:)
For me it was the love we had for Sam that opened our hearts to little ones who didn't have a mom or dad to walk through life with......many times I'd think that as I learned about special needs orphans..... Sam had a rough time but he had us with him, taking care of him from day one. Then we realized loving Sam had stretched our hearts big enough that we could love another little one who wasn't "perfect" but had a longing for a family.....and then another...and another.......
What a decade this has been.....from months of bed rest, a premature baby, finding out our preemie was blind....dealing with so many medical issues and machines for Sam in the beginning....then the path to adopting our other kids.....to Selah's accident....to now.....
We have had some challenges to say the very least...but God has been faithful....
I would not trade my sweet Sam for anything or anyone in this world. His funny little ways are so precious to me, his crankiness is so cute (he is so like me it is very scary) I adore him from his head to his crooked little toe nail (yes it is crooked)
A few years before Sam, while I was going through the long dark valley. God spoke to me, just as clear as day "You will have a son named Samuel and he will change your life" I can remember where I was on Hwy 98 south driving into work....don't know if it was an audible voice or just in my heart...but it came out of nowhere.....so when I found out I was pregnant I was pretty sure it was my Samuel. I was so afraid that I'd miscarry him and have to go through that pain again....but no I had a different "pain" to go through. Oh I've cried many tears in the past decade....but I've had lots of wonderful love from my little man and the little ones that came in to our lives because of him!
So we haven't had a dull moment since that morning ten years ago......
Love you Sam....
Epcot 2010
