Most of you already know Mark and my desire to have more children. What some of you dont know, is that we have struggled since having Caleb; I've misscarried twice, and have had a very difficult time getting pregnant.
I have ALWAYS had a desire to adopt, probably mainly due to the positive experiance of my parents adopting my little brother, Anthony. Mark and I knew we would adopt one day, but always planned on it being later in life, after our biological children were older... After our second misscarriage Mark and I began talking more seriously about the possibility of adoption, sooner than expected:). We woke up one morning, looked at eachother, and both said, "We need to adopt!" After praying about it and evaluating our financial situation we decided the best course of action for us would be to become state lisenced foster parents and adopt a foster child. We completed the process with ease and excitement rather quickly (in four months time!) then began to wait.
Last month, we had one of the ladies in our ICF (like a "small group"... people from church meeting in hosts home) approached us and said, "I know you're lisenced to be foster parents, are you interested in adopting as well?" Of course, we informed her that was our desire, and she began to tell us about a woman she knew, through a friend, who was looking for a family to adopt her baby. We gave her our information. I told Mark I felt in my heart almost instantly this was something we needed to pursue, he agreed!
A week later we were in contact, I talked with the birth mother over the phone for over two hours, swapping information, asking questions, getting to know her, and allowing Jesus to love on her through me. Two days later she asked if we could meet her and her kids (she has two other children) at McDonalds to let the kids play while she got to know us. We had a delightful time! We spent over four hours laughing, sharing, and again showing Jesus love to this hurting, beautiful young woman.
During this time the Lord was doing several things, we believe He really gave us favor in her eyes, she had already been in contact with an agency, reviewed stories on birth families etc, and liked us best of all. Also, she asked what we would like to name the baby, if we were to adopt him, we said we definatley wanted to give him the middle name 'Ray' because thats a family name on my side of the family (brother, dad, grandpa, and great grandpa all had the middle name Ray)- she was VERY excited as she told us HER middle name is 'Rae', she thought that was VERY special. Since then we've spent more time talking and getting to know eachother. She told us that she is positive she wants US to be this babies adoptive family, and we are SO excited!
This little boy is already such a bundle of joy! He is due June 14th (though we expect him a little early as his brother and sister were both born a week early) and we plan to name him
Carson Ray Dickinson
-sonogram taken at 20wks-Please join our family in prayer for our soon-to-be new addition to our family, as well as for his birth mother and siblings. We really see this not only as an opportunity to make a difference in this babies life, but to be Jesus' hands extended to this family in pain.
Love you all!
Mark, Jessie and Caleb
