However, God seemed to have another plan. Kayla seemed to be settling down in this new stage of her life. In July 1998 I saw a photo of a two-year-old boy waiting for his forever family in an orphanage in Thailand. He looked enough like Kayla to have been her twin brother - the very same dimples and all! I quickly contacted the agency only to learn that he was on hold for another family. Suddenly I began to think that maybe there was a place in my life for a son afterall. You see, I had grown up with five sisters and no brothers! Then three daughters and eight nieces...and only four nephews. In August 1998 I read a posting to one of the listserves advocating the adoption of boys. The poster has since become one of my best friends, though about 3,000 miles separate us. She had been praying for three particular boys in Thailand. I believe that it is through this friend that we were led to one of the three boys in Thailand. This little guy was almost five and so adorable. We contacted the agency and learned that, yes, he was available for adoption and we proceeded once again with paperwork, fingerprinting, clearances, and all the other necessary hoops one must jump through to adopt internationally. "D" became our "Noah", the name we planned to give him.
On September 24, we traveled to the INS Philadelphia office's mobile unit which was in State College...my old hometown...to be fingerprinted for our INS approval. There was no place I would rather spend my birthday. Everything was going so smoothly. We began collecting the various documents we would need for our dossier. Even my birth certificate from California arrived in a timely manner. Nothing was going to stop us from being united with the child we felt would be our son. Not even a lack of financial blessings.
In October, we shared with our cell group about our need for prayer for the $1600 needed for the agency's fees. This was on a Monday evening. The following Friday there was a plain envelope in our mailbox. There was no return address and our names and address were typed. I opened the envelope. Inside was a piece of plain white paper which hid the real contents of the envelope. There were two money orders - one for $1000 and one for $600!!! The money orders were unsigned. We praised God for His gift.
Our I-171H arrived on November 5 - Bob's birthday! This document gave us INS approval to bring our son back to the United States. Another major hurdle out of the way!
Our dossier was shipped off to Thailand the Tuesday before Thanksgiving 1998. We were excited beyond words that we were one step closer to the child who would one day become our son.
Our Thai adoption story would not be complete with telling about Noah because it was through losing Noah that we found Micah. However, there was another precious little boy on AAI's photolisting that I feel helped changed my heart about adopting a son. I saw a photo of a two-year-old boy in July 1998 who I was really drawn to. I don't know anymore about this little boy other than his identification number was AAI26 (this is from memory so it might be incorrect). By the time we contacted the agency, this two-year-old already had been spoken for. I think about this little boy from time to time, wondering where he is...knowing that if I am supposed to know anymore about him, I will someday. God works in amazing ways!
In early July 1997, about four months after returning home from China with Kayla, we began feeling stirrings in our hearts to adopt again. For the next ten months, until May of 1998, those tuggings continued. Kayla had just turned two and it suddenly became a very difficult time for both she and I. On one particularly difficult day, I recall telling Bob, "Absolutely NO MORE!"
© 1997 rsteele@epix.net
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