SOPHIE’S JOURNEY PART 2

Already our 2nd adoption was completely different than the 1st. With Liliana we had no idea she existed until she was 6 months old and we got the phone call about adopting her. We waited almost 3 years to be chosen to adopt and thought it was a closed door. We did all of our waiting on the front end, so when the time came to adopt her, things moved quickly.

Now, we were waiting and anticipating the pregnancy with J. The idea of being there when the baby arrived in the world was a new anticipation. The idea of Liliana playing with her sibling and their dynamic was another new dimension. But mostly was the fact that we had the full term of the pregnancy to pray for this child. I felt like that was going to be important in this child’s story.

I prayed the normal stuff any mom would pray- the child would be developing in a healthy way, safe delivery, and even over the formation of the baby’s personality and spiritual calling even in the womb. But there were moments the prayers would turn into something more.

I remember one afternoon in particular. I was folding laundry and felt this overwhelming sense to pray. Soon tears came and the next thing I knew I was weeping for this baby. I had no idea what was going on, but just allowed the prayers and tears to flow and knew I was doing something on a spiritual level that I couldn’t see with my own eyes.

I had actually learned that from our adoption with Liliana. Even though we had no idea that she existed, God did. At key times in her life, our prayers would intensify for her, even though we had no idea why. Once we met J and heard their story, I went back to my journal and saw the parallels of what I was praying and what was happening.

Liliana’s story also began with a time of prayer and fasting in our church. We were observing Lent and had 40 days for prayer and fasting in 2007. I very much wanted a baby and so that was my personal prayer focus. Later I found out that during that time is when Liliana was conceived. The time of her birth along with a few other intense moments of her life, God had her new mom praying.

I knew baby #2 needed extra prayers due to her unstable situation.
D and J had gotten back together and J couldn’t bring up adoption because D didn’t want that. She called our social worker about a month before delivery not knowing what to do. Carol assured her we were waiting and ready, but that she needed to talk to D. In the mean time Carol told us to go ahead and get our new home study done and start the paper work on our end. We stepped out in faith, trusting that soon this baby would be with us.