....The Rest of the Story (*insert Paul Harvey's voice*)

Yep, thats it! We are DONE!!!! Done with what?

Erika & the Riggins kiddos

Josh's adoption is COMPLETED!

May 10th, 2012 Finalization Day!

All the Riggins and 'Grama Judy'

I'm still in a bit of a shock or daze...can't pick a word to really describe it. Except to say that it went a lot faster than I thought it would. We were so blessed to have 2 amazing people help us that day! Judy is our Notary and Erika is our beloved friend who watches our kids often.

 A little recap:
*In February of 2011 we began the paperwork with our Colorado agency, Colorado Adoption Center.
*In April of 2011 we were put on the family list and began paperwork for our Florida agency, Christian Family Services in Gainesville.
*In June of 2011 we became home study approved...thus beginning our 'waiting purgatory' (Thank you Randee...I will ALWAYS be using this marvelous adjective for what the waiting is really like ~LOL).
*In July of 2011 we applied for the JSC Foundation's grant and received $8000 it in September, taking care of our placement fee.
*On January 7th, 2012 at 11am we received 'THE CALL' and left at 530pm that same day for Florida. We pulled into Christian Family Services on January 9th, 2012 wrapped up paperwork and headed over to the hospital to met our precious son, Joshua, who was born on January 6th, 2012 around 3pm FL time. How amazing and faithful is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who lead us into the adoption world on shaky and wobbly feet to come out strong and in awe of the miracle of adoption. What a perfect picture, that we got to experience first hand, of His unconditional love. To see and meet our son and fall in love with him absolutely, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was, in fact, OUR son. Knitted together by the Lord's hands, loved so deeply by his precious birth mother, and designed so specifically for our family. When I look at my children and see how miraculous each one is, I'm humbled to my knees, knowing that the Lord handed me the most incredible privilege of being their mommy. What an honor to have such a huge responsibility that the Lord HIMSELF CHOSE FOR ME. While it is sure to be a long road, its one that is marked with sounds of laughter and tears, heartache and immense JOY. How deeply engraved are my children on my heart and each day that passes I grow more and more sure of who God created me to be as their mommy. Such an awesome gift!!!

*May 10th, 2012 we nervously awaited the call from our lawyer to come in. We were set to 'appear in court' by phone with our case worker, Monique and our FL attorney, Mitch. Our judge is a man known for his passion for adoption and the lives of the children he sets in each special Forever family. It wasn't a long call at all, but as Rob and I stood in our kitchen with our dear friend & Notary, Judy, it was hard to imagine that the journey we had been on for what seemed like so long was about to come to an end. What an enormous relief it was to hear these much coveted words, "...its official, this adoption for Joshua Connor is final." I could FEEL the smiles in the room that we were only hearing and the joy that the Judge felt as he asked me, "So, is Joshua sleeping through the night yet?" which I was trying so hard to control my shaky-from-tears voice, "Not quite yet, but we are working on it." And hearing the chuckles of understanding from our case worker, attorney, and Judge, I knew that again, God had lead the way, knowing exactly who needed to be in our court room and so joy-filled Himself that we had followed by FAITH and not sight. We could have never found our way here without His very clear leading. Tears of relief, joy, and exhaustion rolled down my cheeks as I looked at my sleeping son, who had no idea how much we had worked to get to that day.

I think its very similar for each of us, as God's children. How far He does go and Jesus was our very obvious sacrifice that God made to love us and to be with us. When He sees us He doesn't see the 'sister' or the 'aunt' or the 'husband' or most importantly, He never sees us as 'the grandchild.' He sees us as His CHILD. There is no inlaw or grand, step or half when God looks at us...there is nothing but His OWN CHILD. This absolutely amazes me because how often do we feel the pressure of what other people think about us and take it on as though that is how the Lord must think about us? I know I certainly have, only to realize that no, I'm a daughter of the Lord Most High...created and established IN HIM. His thoughts, His words...everything that I am...IS FOUND IN HIM. The ONLY identity worth having is my identity that is found in Jesus. No matter what crappy, untrue words that are spoken about me do not matter...why? Because Jesus knows me. He knows ME. He sees my heart and is the ONLY ONE that has the authority to judge me...NO MATTER WHAT. Which is why I can stand FIRMLY on the knowledge that each of my beautiful children was given to me, with confidence, BY GOD HIMSELF. He knew I was capable, even when I didn't. He knew I was able, even if others questioned it. He knows that I will always call out to Him in my distress and holds me up when I'm too weak to stand. When I am weak...HE IS STRONG. Such true joy is found in obedience...

May 10th, 2012

And for the simple, yet complex task of obeying, I can say with all my heart...ADOPTION IS SUCH A BLESSING!!!

WELCOME TO OUR FAMILY JOSHUA!!!!!

Alittle shut eye would do the memory good... ;)

Yikes, I realized that I left out some details that are extremely important.
As I said in several other blogs, Rob and I are not the sort of family that has an issue trying to find a place for all those 'extra' coins. In fact, the mere mention of the price tag that comes with adoption, whether its domestic or international, was enough to make you faint straight away. To the point where Rob and I questioned often if we were really supposed to adopt because it wasn't exactly 'in the budget!'

When we decided we were supposed to do our garage sale last summer and asked for donations, I remember standing in Michelle and Cory Dalpra's garage PACKED full and asking her, "Hey, think we can get $3500 out of this?" She laughed and said, "Well...I think you'll get $1000...!?" Awesome...not exactly what I was hoping for, but I can tell you that I distinctly 'heard' the Lord tell me, "I'll provide the FULL amount." Okay, that's it Lord?...could you give me another hint...? Like, what full amount...the amount I need by next week (when we had to fulfill our $2500 for our birth mom fees, remaining fees for our post placement fees for CO, and our application fee for CFS ~ we needed $3750)....or do you mean like the F.U.L.L AMOUNT...and I'm laughing because I think that the Lord tells us what we can HANDLE. This revelation with the Lord saying the 'full amount' meant that yes, for that weekend, he was going to provide the FULL amount ...we made $1870 from our garage sale and a friend donated $2500. So that right there people was EXACTLY what we needed...RIGHT THEN. And then Lord didn't tell me anymore until He chose to! lol

Obviously we wanted to do all that we could to raise money because adoption IS expensive. This is another reason we chose Christian Family Services, Gainesville, FL. They were SIGNIFICANTLY less expensive than 90% of the agencies we looked into. Our case worker, Monique will tell you that I asked point blank, okay, whats wrong with you guys...why are you so much more affordable?

  (Let me just rabbit trail here for a second. I LOATHE that when I say "affordable" or "expensive" or anything dealing with money it makes me feel as though I'm somehow putting a price on  life of a child. This is NOT the case...its just the facts of what an adoption looks like and it almost felt like these other agencies charging $17,000+ for a PLACEMENT FEE were selling babies. I'm just saying...it felt WRONG. If there are truly 147 MILLION children needing a home, WHY IS IT SO EXPENSIVE!?!?!?!?)

 

She was fast to answer. "We do not believe in selling babies. This isn't just a job, its a ministry and a life that God has brought into the world and its our belief that its our responsibility to help that child find the home God designed for them. We don't have the normal fees that the other agencies do because we don't have the expenses. Obviously we have to pay for our social workers and our building and the expenses that go with having a business, but we aren't in this to get rich or make money...we do this because we are called to take care of the orphans." Uhm...yes, this is what solidified where we felt God leading us. CFS it is! I will tell you that they don't charge a flat fee of $17,000...or any other ridiculous fee that makes NO sense whatsoever. They charge 13% of your annual GROSS income, NOT to exceed $15,000. SO guess what, even if you make millions of dollars a year there is a cap of $15,000. This is amazing. They are not secretive about where your money goes. I had people try to tell me that we were 'being taken for a ride' and 'someone's gettin' rich!' Bottom line, we knew our agency was honest and the whole integrity part made it very easy to work with them. ;) Plus I cannot tell you how many times I'd call and talk to Monique (for waaay too long~ sorry Monique! LOL) for reassurance, information, or just needing to talk to someone who knew. I can't begin to express how much it meant...I can say that our agency KNEW US WELL...or knew ME well! 

Now, there are a lot of grants and loans and options for adoption fees. A few options we were not comfortable with because we did not feel that going INTO debt was something God was asking us to do just to adopt. Raising support was incredibly humbling...we sent out a 'support letter' and held a spaghetti dinner. We looked into many grants, but found that we didn't qualify for some, we missed some of the deadline dates, or it was only for international adoptions. However, we found JSC Foundation and met all the requirements! We applied in June when we were finally 'home study ready' (which, FYI, if you are not done with your home study you cannot apply) and found out we had received a grant from JSC in September! SO not only were our fees paid for to date (our home study, post placement, 2 applications, birth mom fees, and all the little odds and ends that cost alittle), but now our placement fee was completely paid for!!!! The largest sum was done...GOD!? YOU JUST ROCKED MY SOCKS OFF!!!! Okay so all that was left was a finalization fee of $995...but in my mind I just thought, okay...taxes are comin...so no need to worry about that. Then, as we are driving across Kansas, our Colorado case worker, Tammie, texted me and alerted me to an interesting tidbit. "Hey, I'm sending your FL agency a check for $1000 from a donation that came in." OOOOHHHHH MY GOSH WWWHHHHAAAAATTTT??????????
 "Rob, someone just donated a serious amount....OUR ADOPTION IS COMPLETELY PAID FOR." We both stared out the windshield for awhile...and instantly I heard the Lord tell me again, "I will provide the full amount." 

So when we were signing paperwork at CFS before going to meet Josh, Jerry laughed as he handed us paperwork and told us, "This is a first for us...we've never actually handed over a check AND a baby!" Wrap your mind around this with me. Our adoption is paid for. God used people who were ready and willing to bless us with an unimaginable gifts, both large and small. Every bit of it counted...every prayer, every dollar, every donation ~ for a garage sale or individual amounts, every hug, every tear, every single bit of this has counted.

(Side note: A HUGE THANK YOU to our donors. Without your constant support, both prayerfully and financially, we would not be where we are. God heard EVERY one of your prayers for us and we cannot express our gratitude. To those of you who I have leaned on heavily for emotional support...is THANK YOU ENOUGH? Each of you holds a very dear place in our hearts and are so thankful that we can share our family's life journey with YOU!)

 And the biggest humbling fact? I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT!!!! I didn't help the money come in...I sure did pray and I definitely worried about it until the very end when the Lord proved that He's OBVIOUSLY more than capable...why did I ever doubt? 

I want to encourage those of you who are beginning the adoption paperwork, are in the midst of waiting for a referral or match with a birth mom, or those who are just beginning to CONSIDER adoption and you see the dollar signs bombarding your computer screen. DO.NOT.LET.THIS.DETOUR.YOU.FROM.GOD'S.CALLING.

 Its not going to be easy. Its going to require your emotions and be heart-wrenching when you can't see the end or understand what the Lord is doing. However, I firmly believe that when the Lord calls us to further His Kingdom and take care or the orphan, 

HE ALWAYS EQUIPS YOU. 

HE ALWAYS PROVIDES.

 HIS PLAN IS ALWAYS BEST. 

Our story is proof that God is faithful and his promises never come back empty. The Lord WANTS to delight and dazzle us! What loving parent doesn't enjoy SURPRISING His children?

 Well get set...God's gonna ROCK YOUR SOCKS OFF!!!!!