Five Years Ago Today

In February 2003, God laid it on our hearts to adopt. We began the process and then waited on the Lord.

Five years ago today our lives were changed FOREVER!

On Saturday, February 14th, 2004 late in the afternoon we received a phone call from our social worker. She said that a baby boy had just been born and his parents fell in love with our profile. They really wanted their son to go to us. We were so excited! We also learned we would have to stay in the state of his birth until all the paper work went through, but we were close enough to home so that Phil could still preach on the weekends. We were told that the baby boy was born a few weeks early and weighed only 4 lbs.15oz. He would have to stay in the hospital for awhile until he was able to eat on his own. Our social worker then asked us to come as soon as we could to meet the birth parents and our new son. She made arrangements for us to stay in the Ronald McDonald house which only charged $5 a night. We had nothing for a baby, so before we could go meet our son, we had to do some major shopping. We were so excited as we shopped. We bought a car seat, blankets, clothes, etc. We had so much fun picturing our new son. We could hardly wait to meet him!

February 15th, our social worker called us back and said that there was a chance we may not get him because some legal mess came up. So we waited an excruciating 2 days until our social worker got the legal stuff all figured out.

On Wednesday, February 18th, we met our son for the very first time. The nurses were so kind to us and provided a room for us to stay in with Andrew during the day. Because he still wasn’t eating very well he had to stay in the hospital hooked up to an IV. Believe it or not, but Andrew began to eat a lot better when we became a part of his little world. Before we came, the only attention he got was from the nurses.




A few days after meeting him, Andrew was released from the hospital. Since we couldn’t leave the state, we took him home to the Ronald McDonald house. A few weeks later, after all the paper work was approved, we got to take Andrew home. I finally had a baby! The Lord had answered our prayers! We can't imagine are lives without hims! What a precious bundle straight from the Lord!

Having some fun with Daddy.

Reading with Mommy.

In loving memory of Buster. He was such a good cat for Andrew. He tolerated a lot.

This was a rare moment with young Tigger. He did not like Andrew, but was fascinated with his bath time.

When Andrew was 8 months old we finally got to finalize his adoption in court. The judge didn't stay behind his podium, he came at sat at the table with us. What a special day that was!

Here is our handsome boy today. HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY!!! We love you so much, Andrew!!!!