I’m so excited to have my dear friend, Alicia Jordan guest blogging and sharing her adoption story.  Alicia works fervently for Visiting Orphans and Project 61 (she’s on their board). She has a spirit of mercy and encouragement.  Whenever I have the privilege of talking to her about my Ethiopia mission trip (she’s also MY trip coordinator) she is such a blessing and really helps set the pace for my Simply Love mission trips.  Thank you, Alicia for your BIG heart and love for the fatherless!

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O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! Psalm 34:8

I do not know the pain of childbirth, I do not know the pain of losing a school age or teenage child, but I do know the pain of being a barren woman. I know the pain of an empty womb that will never be full. As I’ve aged, I’ve realized that pain cannot be compared. I cannot compare my pain to yours. I cannot describe the pain of baby showers or labor stories or nursing stories or the longing deep within for a biological child. Yet, God has been faithful. Over time, the longing has been soothed, but not erased. This is the plan for our lives and it’s God’s perfect plan.

God choose to bring life into our family through adoption. Here’s Stephen’s unique story:

We knew that adoption was our next step. Months before our fertility treatments, I had seen a Dr. Falwell Old Time Gospel Hour where he talked about the Liberty Godparent Home. Sometime in September 1999, I called the adoption agency in Virginia and asked if they had a long waiting list. I had heard that domestic adoption waits were 2 years or more. The lady told me that they actually didn’t have a very long waiting list. We started on the paperwork immediately. Budgets, references, bios, fire escape plans, background checks, physicals, question after question about our marriage, our personal life and our faith. It was probably 50 pages of documents. We filled them out quickly and mailed them the beginning of October. It would be 30 days before we would hear if we had been approved by the board.

Derek was scheduled to go on a mission trip to Kenya with PT (our pastor). Derek debated canceling because of the miscarriage following our invitro treatment. I encouraged him to go. I would be fine. They went and their team led thousands to Christ.

While Derek was gone (this is mid to late October) we received two phone calls about birthmoms that wanted to view our files. We didn’t even know that we had been accepted and approved by the board. One mom was interested and we needed to do a video as soon as Derek got home. We shot the video in our family room and we’d pause the video and Derek would lie on the floor in between segments. Partly because of exhaustion from the trip and partly because of some mysterious illness he picked up in Africa.

We mailed in our video the beginning of November and the weekend before Thanksgiving, we met Stephen’s birthmom. She told us she was having a boy, “Did we have a name picked out?” We had been discussing names for months, possibly years. Stephen had never come up as a choice, but I had just studied Stephen in a Bible study and fell in love with the story of Stephen. As the heavens opened, Stephen could see Christ standing at the right hand of God. Christ stood for Stephen as he was stoned. It’s the only time in Scripture that we see Christ standing for someone. (see Acts 7:54-60)

Anyway, I said, “What do you think about the name Stephen?”

She loved the name. It is her father’s name. So Stephen not only has a biblical name. He has his biological grandfather’s name. Isn’t God good?

Stephen was born December 18, 1999. We had to wait 25 days for all the paperwork to clear. We didn’t see any pictures of him. They asked us if we’d be willing to come share a testimony Sunday morning at Thomas Road Baptist about the Liberty Godparent Home and what adoption meant to us. They told us that they would give us Stephen later that day in the evening service. They thought the church would love to be part of his “Gotcha Day”. Was that okay? Sure, why not?

We shared our testimony for the church that morning and this is what happened next…. DON’T MISS THIS VIDEO!!
(Note: Our last name and place of residence was kept quiet because of adoption policies)

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!!!

Alicia’s Blog