Stories of YES #38

My husband and I have four healthy biological children - three boys and one girl. My pregnancies weren’t perfect and I lost two babies in between, but in the end we had little people that we adore.

When our daughter was getting close to two, I felt that unmistakable pull to have another baby, but my husband did not. I begged and pleaded, he still had no desire. God started talking to me about foster care during this time, so I started talking about foster care to my husband. After a while I at least got him to the place of “we can go to the first meeting.” At that meeting, he was absolutely broken by the statistics that were presented to us and agreed we could begin fostering. In our state, five children is maximum capacity, and we already had four at home, so we knew any placement would only be for one child. We started down the road of becoming certified foster parents.

It was a long road, and due to circumstances beyond our control the process ended up taking more than a year. After all of our fostering classes were done, we had to complete all the home safety inspections and meetings with a social worker for our home study. During that time, I was praying that God would give me peace about not physically having another baby. God has to have a wicked sense of humor, He answered my prayers with a flashing neon sign! While we waited to be officially approved to foster, I received an out of left field diagnosis of stage zero cervical cancer, and I was lucky since it was found very early. The doctor said a hysterectomy would give me the best outcome - full recovery with a minute chance of recurrence. Pretty sure my husband had the procedure scheduled before I could process the information! I had the hysterectomy and recovered before we were officially approved in late December of 2015. And I not-so-patiently waited till February before we got our first placement.

It was after two short-term placements when we got the call that changed our lives forever. “There is a newborn baby, a little boy in the hospital.....” That was really all I heard before the mama bear in me came to life. There was baby in the hospital that needed to be held and loved on, and I was chosen to do this. He fit in with our family from day one. We did visits with his biological parents and therapies to make sure he was meeting milestones. We would go to court not knowing what the outcome would be. His biological parents loved him and wanted to regain custody, but ultimately relinquished their rights to us after close to two years. His adoption became final a few months later.

This little boy that I didn’t physically carry within my body owns a piece of my heart the same as his siblings. Adoption changed us. It changed the way we look at the struggles people face. It changed the way our family looks at other families, and our hearts immeasurably grew when our youngest son came home from the hospital that day. I pray that more people will at least go to that informational meeting that is offered and listen to how almost every family can make a difference in the lives of children in their communities.

- Melissa Poplin