Every Little Face

Many a time people have asked me how we came to the decision to adopt Blake, what were the determining factors.

Did you choose him based on where he lives?                            
        No.

Did you choose him based on the region that was easiest to travel too?                        
       No.  His region will require an-18 hour plane ride, followed by a 15-hour train ride...

Did you choose him based on his disability?
        No.


Did you choose him because of cost?
        No.  The cost to travel to his country and the legal paperwork costs to adopt from his country are about mid-range compared to other countries.  But we knew that God was calling us to adopt this child, so we knew He would provide.  (much like the story of the 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish)


Did you choose him because he is a boy?
      Kind of.  I won't lie to you and say that I spent just as much time looking at the girl's pictures on the RR website as I did the boys.  We were really wanting to add a boy to our family so we spent most of our time researching boy's.  Although, there were a few little girls on the website that caught my attention.


I honestly can only answer your question to why we chose him with:  it was God's working in our hearts. 

God placed this little boy's picture in front of our faces and there was an immediate connection.  I can speak this for both Jerad and I.  We had looked at several cute little faces on the website, but I distinctly remember the night that Blake's picture popped up.  I remember saying "Ohhh, he is so cute!"  Then turning the computer screen for Jerad to see, and instead of his usual, "yeah, sure"...he grabbed the computer screen from me and lifted it up for a closer look.  My heart begin to flutter, something about this little boy caught his attention too.  He would later tell me that he felt like "that was his son" at first sight!  

So explain to me how a child that lives across the ocean, who we have no information about, who we have never met or seen, who has Down Syndrome...could grip our hearts so tightly?

God. 

This was the picture that was originally on the RR website with Blake's description.

What we would later learn is...Blake had already been matched to a family.  A family that was working very hard to bring him home.  They were fundraising like crazy to make ends meet.  Well, for some reason or another, they were not able to adopt him.  So during the first few months we were looking at RR, Blake's picture was not on the available site of Down Syndrome boys, 0-5.  But as we were praying and fasting for discernment whether to adopt or not, God was working things out in another way.

So that at the perfect time, in the perfect way, we would find this picture.  The picture that melted our hearts and spoke to us in an ever so clear voice.

"This is your son."

Meet our son, Blake.

**After discussing this idea of 'love at first sight' with several other adopting mommy's...I would learn that the immediate connection for them was experienced much like ours. There is an immediate connection.  A feeling of love for this child much like we have for our biological children.  As I look at the pictures of the children other families were called to adopt, I did not feel the heart tug for them, as I did for Blake....and they will say the same thing.  See, only God could work such a feeling in our hearts.