Posts filed under ‘Burgess Adoption’
January 10 – The Decision | Mae’s Adoption Journey
I don’t tend to be an early riser but with everything we had discussed before church with Scott & Patti, I tossed and turned most of the night. The image of the little girl snugly sleeping in her bed, and the thought there was a crazy chance out there she could be the daughter God planned for us … blew my mind. So, after a night of restlessness, I got up early and started getting ready for the day.
Decision Has Been Made
It was a good thing I was up because I was actually awake and coherent to take Scott’s early morning call. He called me in an excited panic with a story to share. He wanted to make sure I was awake and “ready for this.” So I had him begin. And I made sure Mike was near to take in all of the news.
The following conversation was basically one of the coolest stories about someone having crystal clarity about what God wanted them to do. Scott had received several texts from his friend Nick, who apparently couldn’t sleep so well that night either. Nick had come to the point that night where he knew adoption would be best for his niece, and that was what God wanted for him and for her.
Nick texted Scott in the early morning hours, and soon the news traveled to us. Just a day earlier we were saying “Ok, sure…” to a process that seemed so up in the air, a process we both vowed not to get emotionally attached to. And now we were hearing that a decision had been made, the baby was on a path to adoption, and we were the ones being looked to as the prospective adoptive parents.
I sat in disbelief shaking my head, not sure what to say or how to respond. I was happy, yet more in disbelief. Everything I had ever pictured or dreamed about how our adoption process could look never quite fit into this mold. And while I was extremely thankful, I was also in shock a little bit. I had just received a phone call that I could be an adoptive mother … and soon. Was I really ready for this?
I didn’t pass out or anything like that. But after I hung up the phone with Scott, things just got fuzzy and the room spun. I tried to recap the details with Mike as he buttoned his shirt and ran out the door for work. I couldn’t wrap my head around this one. I still wanted to proceed with caution; we hadn’t even met anyone yet. Plus, there were big questions in my mind that hadn’t been answered – like did Nick have custody and authority for this adoption? And where was her birth mother? As my mind flooded with the realization that I had agreed to a process without having any important answers, I started to semi-panic. Yet at the same time, I knew the information would could come in time. And after all, we hadn’t signed on any dotted lines … yet.
January 9 – Pre-Church Meeting | Mae’s Adoption Journey
So although we hadn’t really dumped much expectation into the meeting at church, there were definitely some butterflies fluttering in my stomach as we got ready and headed that way. I didn’t want to care. I didn’t want to hope. Yet something in me was curious about this little gal. And don’t we all deep down wish that something crazy magical like this would happen to us?
We finally got to church. Mike had worship practice. And then we slipped away to meet Scott & Patti in the hotel lobby. Our church meets at the Hilton Garden Inn, so it’s never easy to find a super secret spot to meet, unless you want to rent a hotel room or something like that. So – we opted for the hotel lobby which was across the building from the conference room where we set up for church. This way we could meet privately. This was top-secret stuff.
As good friends, the four of us rolled up chairs to a round glass-top table and made it seem as though we were about to undergo a serious business transaction. I tried to control myself and not swing around in the chairs too much; I love a chair that rolls. But the conversation at hand called for seriousness and maturity. So, I tried to sit still as we opened up the somewhat awkward yet life-changing conversation.
Opening Conversations About a Baby
The conversation went smoothly as Scott & Patti explained to us the situation. Their friend was helping raise his niece. She was about 3-4 months old. He had come to the point that he was considering adoption for her. It was early in the process for him, and he still wasn’t completely sold – but definitely considering it. We immediately had come to their minds. And in the event he wanted to move forward with adoption for her, they were checking to see if we’d be interested.
Why This Fit the Burgesses
So much about this situation made them think of us. Mostly, we were already in the adoption process and desiring a domestic adoption. Our home study was complete. We were about ready to go active. Plus, the baby was biracial, and that was something we had requested in our adoption papers. They knew that she had been well cared for, and that she came from a good family. Plus, they knew her family would be looking for a good couple to raise her.
Why It Might Not Fit the Burgesses
While Scott & Patti felt like so many things fit, they made sure to present the situation carefully. They weren’t sure this was exactly what we were looking for, and we could tell the last thing they wanted to do was push it on us. But, also not wanting the opportunity to pass us by, they went ahead and mentioned it. Everything about it was awfully close to home – come to find out she was living only 10 minutes away from us. She wasn’t a brand new baby – she was already 3-4 months old. And, this would be more of an open adoption than we had planned for since we’d need to all work together to make this happen.
Um… Sure, We’d Go For It
After Scott & Patti explained the details, I looked to Mike to respond and lead the way. I’d felt like God had made it clear to me to let Mike guide this process all along, and so I wanted him to respond. I was all for pursuing it and seeing what God had up his sleeve. But I needed Mike to be, too. This was still such an up-in-the-air, hypothetical situation. She wasn’t definitely up for adoption yet. The big decision to find her a family hadn’t been made. But, the issue at hand was for us to decide to get involved, despite the lack of finality. What if … she was to be adopted … would we be interested? Not exactly the easiest decision – especially since we thought we had a plan for what our adoption was to look like. Did we really want to derail the process for a far-out opportunity? An opportunity like others that had already fallen through?
Despite the discomfort with the “what ifs,” and our desire to guard our hearts, we didn’t feel any red flags. Even as much as some of the scenarios didn’t match what we had in mind, something about it felt right. Sure, she lived in Lee’s Summit – but we knew our child would come from one of the 50 states – Missouri included. She wasn’t a “brand new” baby – yet months earlier I’d begun to feel like I wasn’t sure I was ready for an infant from the hospital. And while the open adoption scared us a bit, having friends like Scott & Patti vouch for everyone involved gave us much peace.
So, with that, we gave Scott the OK to mention us to his friend if he decided that adoption would be best for his niece. We weren’t really sure what to expect, nor if this would really all happen. A large part of us doubted it, yet there were small slivers of hope that this might actually be it.
“You want to see a picture?”
With the agreement to move forward, Scott offered one of the biggest carrots you can give someone that’s adopting – a photo. Mike quickly shook his head no, he didn’t want to see a picture yet. There was still too much uncertainty about the whole thing, he didn’t want to get any more emotionally attached to the situation. I quickly followed Mike in saying no, but only a second later changed my mind. For me, I needed this to be more real if it indeed was happening. So I agreed and leaned over to see my first sights of a sleeping beauty.
A cute little kiddo was softly sleeping in her pack-and-play. Not sure how I should feel, I looked over and told Mike she was cute. I didn’t exactly get all gushy, but seeing her face definitely made things more real. There was a baby, she might need a family. And we’re first in line if the gun went off.
And with that, we needed to go. Church was about to start.
We still weren’t really sure what to expect. But we figured why not check it out until God closed a door.
Except after only 12 hours, we realized that God wasn’t closing doors.
Instead, He was opening them.
January 8 – The Text | Mae’s Adoption Journey
After a year, I think it has “sunk in” that Mike & I are now parents to the beautiful Miss Mae. Please join me this month as we travel down memory lane. I’ve not yet told our full adoption story in the blog. Join me as I reminisce. Get caught up if you’re still confused about how on earth we became parents. Be encouraged if you too are on the adoption path. And through each day, may God be glorified.
January 8th – Holy Cow – This Will Be Us Soon….
That’s exactly what we were thinking at this time, on this date, last year. Our friends Scott & Amy had just had baby Ayla the previous day and we made a trip to Blue Springs to visit them in the hospital. We pulled up and giggled when we parked in the “ministerial parking” spot. I figured my church job had to pay off somehow.
We entered the maternity ward and located their room. Of course, perfect timing for us, we arrived right during Ayla’s dinner. While we waited for Amy to finish feeding her, we went and waited in a nice waiting room outside of the birthing room suites. We sat there, looking around at the kid toys, posters about breast feeding and pregnant woman fliers and became overwhelmed with the thought that we could soon be in a waiting room just like this one … except instead of waiting to see our friends’ kid – we could be waiting to see our kid.
A Little Background on the Adoption Journey
Leading up to Jan. 9, we had kicked off the adoption process earlier in Fall 2010. We knew we had both heard from the Lord that it was time to begin the process, and so away our application papers went in September 2010. Through the months of Oct-Dec., we worked on our home study. We announced to the world we were adopting through our blog. We had baby room furniture. I’d been shopping for gender-neutral fabrics and the nursery bedding was underway. (All while we tried to wrap our minds around the fact that we’d begun our path to parenthood.) With a completed home study, we planned to go “active” with our adoption agency in a few weeks – which meant that soon pregnant moms could begin “shopping” for us. So sitting in that waiting room was a stark reality of what was to come… and suddenly we realized how awkward it was going to be.
Visiting New Baby, Ignoring the Phone
Once the awkwardness hit us, the room got silent. We were the only ones in there, just staring at the flier about car seat safety. Something about it felt so weird and unnatural. I’d been having feelings creep up that I wasn’t really up for a brand new baby. Brushing it off as fear, I figured this was all part of the adoption process. Parts of it just felt so unnatural. Fear was a natural response.
Luckily, Scott came to get us and led us back to the room in just a few seconds. We were soon caught up with the excitement of a new baby, so small and tiny, so beautiful. We were excited for our friends and took in their beaming faces. It was a great moment. In the midst of meeting Ayla, holding her and getting the “we stopped by the hospital to see the new baby” photo, I began hearing my phone alerts. It was the text message alert so I figured it wasn’t urgent and I’d check my messages once we left the hospital.
New Message: You Want a Kid?
Okay, so the message wasn’t exactly that blunt. However, once we returned to the car, I realized I had a text from our friend Scott. He was asking if he and his wife Patti could talk to Mike and I the next morning before church. I quickly fired back, “Not if you’re leaving the church.” I wasn’t sure what else could be so serious that they’d need to make sure we’d be available to chat the next morning.
A few follow-up texts began to give some context to why Scott & Patti wanted to meet. I knew about Scott’s friend Nick and had just learned days before that he was taking care of his baby niece while also juggling being a single dad. The possibility of adoption for the little girl had come up. She was 3 months old, biracial and in Lee’s Summit. Not knowing if that’s what we were up for, they decided to go for it and text to see if we wanted to even talk about it.
When we realized why Scott & Patti wanted to get together with us, we shrugged it off and thought, “Why not, it won’t hurt anything.” We’d been the “go-to” couple over the past few years for situations that had risen up where a child needed an adoptive family. And after two or three of those situations had fallen through, we’d learned not to get our hopes up. We figured the pregnant-birth-mom-finding-us-through-our-adoption-agency was the right path for us. But, we were always open to what God had in store. Plus, there were some things about this that strangely matched our desires, even if she was already three months old.
After briefly discussing it in the car on the way to get dinner, we decided to respond back, “Sure, we can talk tomorrow…”
And that was that. Never did we expect for it to really go anywhere. But entertaining one last random opportunity like this wouldn’t hurt anything, right?
Miracle of Adoption | National Adoption Day
Last year on National Adoption Day I carefully crafted an announcement that our process had begun, and adoption plans were in our near future. I had no clue that a short two-and-a-half months later, we would be leaving a courtroom with precious Baby Mae in our arms. The Lord is good.
As I reflect back on our past 10 months as parents, on National Adoption Day, I am thankful for the miracle that’s termed “adoption.” And while I’ve heard that term a lot, not until I experienced it did I understand how adoption was a miracle.
Any baby is a miracle – the process of creating life is not chump change. And while I understood how giving birth and making life was a miracle, I searched to understand how adoption fell under that same category. In a world that functions heavily on bloodlines, keeping things “in the family” and passing on family names – adoption can be counter-cultural and unnatural. Especially when there’s multiple races involved. However, over the past many months, I’ve experienced the miracle of loving a child as if she were my own blood. I have the opportunity to be a parent; an opportunity that I would not have gotten otherwise. And maybe more than anything, I’ve received a spirit of adoption that comes only from the Lord. I love her with a supernatural love that’s been gifted to me; the same love God has for each of us. And that, I feel, is the absolute miracle and blessing of adoption.
In a season full of thankfulness, I am so thankful that God’s plans are not my plans, and His ways look radically different from mine. Last year at this time I thought we might have a baby in our house right now, but one that was itty bitty and from a different state. Never in my wildest dreams did I think we’d have a 14-month old daughter who was born in our zip code, and a very blessed open adoption situation. We are indeed blessed, and so grateful for the Miracle of Adoption. Oh the Lord is good to me…. I mean our party of three.
Burgess Family Photo Shoot
Thanks to our close friends at Fantasma Imagery, we had some photos taken to celebrate our “It’s Official!” adoption day. Not much to say except wowza – we were blessed with one beautiful baby.
Enjoy some of my favorites!
It’s Official
Technically, we waited for this day for a little over six months. But really, the process began many years ago as we started looking into adoption. And I am very excited to report that as of last Friday, our family is official and Mike and I are legally parents. Our adoption was finalized. The judge gave us a glowing smile. And we left court as three “official” Burgesses. How blessed we are.
With Jackson County Commissioner
With our great adoption lawyer
Three Burgesses leaving court
Taming the Mixed Baby Hair Mane
Now this little love boat…..
Is absolutely EVERYWHERE now. As is her beautiful hair. (Please disregard her lack of clothing and mess of a house; but this is what life’s like around here these days, well some days at least.)
A fun fact you may not know, not only are you asked a million questions when you adopt a child, but you’re asked a million + 2 questions when you adopt a biracial child. You get to always explain to others how you’ll explain race in the home – and you’ll get to answer to everyone – including the court system – about if you’re learned how to do mixed baby hair.
And for the record, I’ve got a pretty good handle on how to do mixed baby hair. Of course I’ll keep learning as it grows in thicker and gets longer – and I’ll always be open to suggestions so keep sending them. And yes, I get why it’s important to know how to do the hair not just from a “girl’s got good hair, let’s show it off” perspective, but also from a cultural one. I get all that.
So…
That’s why this mama walked all the way to the car today in 104 degree, record-breaking heat with a bunch of bags and 20-lb. baby in my arms, realized that I had not put anything in the poor thing’s hair all day, dropped off my things in the car, walked all the way back inside of the house with baby in tow, applied leave-in conditioner to tame the mane and define her curly spirals, and then walked back to the car, through the heat, got the baby back into her seat and all buckled up, and continued on with our errands.
Can’t wait to tell the judge that one.
Mae Day
If you would have told me three weeks ago that I’d be putting our daughter to bed in her own room tonight, I’m not sure I would have believed you.
But that’s exactly what has just happened.
The phrase “God works in mysterious ways” just touches on the miracle that’s taken place in our lives over the past few weeks. We thought we had an idea of what our adoption journey would entail. God obviously had other plans. And we couldn’t be more delighted, excited and absolutely blessed.
Word of a precious, 4-month-old baby girl came to us three weeks ago. She needed some parents and a stable home. We were thrown for a bit; we had not signed activation papers with our agency yet and thought we’d be matched with a pregnant birth mom in another US state. We thought it would take a few months. Yet something about this baby girl intrigued us. She was older than a newborn. She was biracial. She was absolutely gorgeous. She was local. And something about this just felt so meant to be.
So a few weeks ago we started down a road that led to confirmation after confirmation that this indeed was the child that God had prepared for us. Everything worked out so smoothly, all of the what could-be complicated details were smoothed out. Doors and windows just seemed to fly open. And we agree with the many who have said, “it’s just a God thing,” as this adoption process has been very fast and nearly seamless.
So it was with great joy today that we were given temporary custody and got to bring home our little gal. Her adoption should be finalized in six months, via Missouri law. As her adoptive parents, we’ve chosen to give her the name of Mae Brooke. While the idea for her name originally stemmed from our love of music by one of “our bands,” the name has come to symbolize so much more. Mae because it’s the month we married, and it means new beginnings and family for us. Brooke because we dearly love both of our siblings, and we wanted to carry on their names with our kid(s). I pray that she can always look up to her aunt, Laura Brooke, and love and know God through the example she sets.
We are still in awe and pinching ourselves just a little bit. But we’re over the moon excited for this new chapter in our lives, and the plans God has in store. We couldn’t be more thankful to the big, loving God we serve. We’re so honored He gave us our Mae Day today.
Enjoy some pics…
Semicolon Stories 