The Call

My wife looked around the house, as a sudden sense of freedom settled over her. After a long eventful summer the first day of school had arrived, and for the first time in a long while, all the kids were gone. Tres' first day of preschool was underway, the girls were off with their new classmates and teachers. The early fall sunshine shone brightly through the windows.

Then, out of nowhere, the phone rang.

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Minutes later, I received an unexpected call of my own. Funny how a single call can change everything in a moment. One minute I had been wondering if an adoption was going to ever happen for us—a family with three biological children. The next I was emailing my boss requesting the afternoon off to go meet our prospective son.

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Those mere 48 hours between the first phone call and bringing home Cuatro to live with us are a blur. Two trips up north to a distant and unfamiliar hospital - meeting him through the glass in the ICU - praying through the life-changing decision together - alerting our social worker of our decision - scrambling to throw together a diaper bag and some infant outfits - making the final trek up to the hospital once more to bring him home with us.

Things in life often happen quite differently than you expect. We had imagined a nine-month process of meeting a birthmother, getting to know her personally, getting all the paperwork and court documents in order in a timely fashion, slowly preparing our home and family again to receive a little one - however, none of these turned out to be the case.

Nursery prepared and stocked with diapers, wipes and pacifiers? Nope. Extensive medical history and family background information on our new son? Again, no. A period of time to prep our extended family for the unexpected news? Not really.

However, there were undeniable signs that this was the child God had prepared in advance for us to receive. He had just decided to keep us on a need-to-know basis!

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The kids were ecstatic at the news. I had been a bit nervous springing it on them without warning, but we had already been in the process of looking for a baby who needed a family like ours for nearly a year, and they were more than ready. Turns out they were even more prepared and flexible than we were!

I'll never forget the parade of our three kids coming home one by one from family and friends' homes to meet Cuatro for the first time. Such happiness and unfettered acceptance - it made such a lasting impact on me to see unconditional and genuine love for a stranger. They've only grown fonder and closer to Cuatro every day since. And so have we!