The last three years....
Our story in a short version... My husband, AJ, and I got engaged in February 2010 and were planning a summer wedding, but hadn't set a date yet because we were waiting to hear when his brother would return from Iraq that summer. On April 22, 2010 we received a phone call from my husbands younger sister asking if we could help her out with her two youngest kids for a couple of weeks. Her husband had left with the kids and were several states over (from Alabama to Oklahoma). He wasn't suppose to be around the kids... long story. By 3am Friday morning, April 23rd, we were driving through Oklahoma to pick up a 12 month old and 25 month old who we had never met (my husbands niece and nephew). When we got home with these two babies, we saw a story unfold like no other... things I could never dream up! The abuse, the neglect was just heart breaking. We immediately began to investigate the situation more. We found that my husbands sister and her husband were "state hopping" from DHS and the law. They had flown under the radar in 3 other states. When they would get in trouble in a state, they would pack up in their RV and move to another state. So, my husband and I saw a need and felt God has placed these babies in our care for a reason. We threw the wedding plans out the door and eloped the next week ~ May 1st, 2010 (my dads birthday). Long story, short ~ no state had jurisdiction because they were not residents of any state. We hired a lawyer and were awarded temporary guardianship 2 weeks after we had them. By September we were awarded Perm Guardianship, with intent to adopt. By this time we were out around $30k w/ lawyer fees, court costs, daycare, etc. November 2010 we found out we were expecting a baby! :) With all of the expenses and trying not to accumulate any more debt with lawyer fees, we put the adoption on hold.
Our testimony: September 2012, we went through a Sunday school series on giving. At the end of the lesson, AJ and I felt so convicted to begin faithfully tithing even if we "felt" like we may not have it... We were paying up to $1700 a month for daycare for the 4. We had no financial help from any source. Benton county laughed at me and said, the problem didn't happen here so it wasn't their problem and wouldn't help with daycare or anything. There were months I didn't know if this was the month we needed to file for bankruptcy... Let me tell you how faithful our savior is!! Later in Sept, we found out that Sarah qualified for ABC preschool, then in October, a spot opened up for Logan. I was filling out his paperwork and told AJ that I would figure out what to do with him daycare-wise next year. The lady looked at me and said, "now you know this is a 2 year program?" Praise the Lord!!! I work for a subsidiary of Hallmark Cards; their Christian division, DaySpring Cards as a designer. They allowed me to shift my hours in the office so that I wouldn't have after school daycare expenses and work partly from home. Then in November, they announced the new benefits for 2013 they were upping the reimbursement program for adoptions to $5,000 per child!!!! ~This allowed us to move forward and petition for adoption in December 2013. The beginning of the 2013 I was promoted to Senior Designer with a raise. The court set our date for June 5th, 2013 where when we went in, the judge immediately granted our adoption w/in 10 minutes!! We have so much to be thankful for and we give God ALL the Glory!! 3 long years ended with a beautiful, happy day! So... we celebrated!
It hasn't been without trials. AJ's aunt gave us some of the best advise one time. We were going through a really rough patch with the oldest and her resistance to me. His aunt asked, "has it been without thorns?" AJ's response was, "NO! it's been kind of tough!" She responded, "If it were your own children, it wouldn't be without thorns." ~ SO VERY TRUE!!!
The kids mother is currently in prison in Oklahoma. Their father is in hiding. It's very sad, but it's something our babies will never have to relive ever again. We are extremely BLESSED to have them!!! We are madly in love with them both! They know no other than AJ and I as dad and mom.
So we celebrated last Saturday with a Randolph Family Adoption Celebration! My mom and dad played a HUGE role in helping us in the beginning financially. My dad claimed them as his grand kids before I realized they would be mine. ;) He LOVED kids!! When I was four months pregnant with my youngest (Jace) my dad went to be with the Lord. My 3 older kids talk about papa being in heaven with Jesus almost daily. We wanted to release our balloons so papa could celebrate with us because this was a day he said will come in time! In 4th grade I remember releasing balloons and putting a note on there with our name and info to see how far the balloons traveled ~ I thought what a wonderful idea for the kids!
God is good all the time! So... our journey begins!
