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A Steady Stream of Firsts
It’s been 7 weeks since we met our little guy, and we’ve had some really BIG and exciting things happen in these past few weeks!
April 4: Our First Court Hearing
April 8: Our First Time Meeting Aaro
April 30: Aaro’s First Birthday
May 12: My First Mother’s Day
May 25: My First Baby Shower
Aaro’s 1st Birthday 🎉
We got the very special opportunity to video chat with little Aaro on his birthday morning in India! It was a little after midnight where we live, (9:30am where he lives) and I stayed up with so much energy and excitement that night. I had balloons and party hats and a few phrases written out in his language. I had worked so hard to be able to tell him these words:
“Happy Birthday, Aaro! I love you so much!”
It was fun attempting to speak his language, and though I’m sure I sounded ridiculous, I don’t even care. It was important to me that I at least try to say those two things to him in his heart language. He was so handsome with a new haircut, and we got to sing Happy Birthday to him! We went to bed (though I couldn’t sleep) with happy hearts and woke up the next morning to a slew of pictures from his orphanage of a birthday celebration that they had thrown for him that day! There were lots of people in the photos and it looked like they performed some traditional Indian birthday customs for him. I even saw pics of him being fed bites of his first cake! Oh, how I will treasure these photos for years to come. I’m so thankful for the caregivers that love on him day in and day out in his orphanage. He spent his first birthday surrounded by people that care about him and know him better than anyone else. And I'll get to have the rest of his birthdays with him.
After scrolling through the birthday photos that morning, beaming with pride over my little one year old, I jumped on social media. To my delight, the women's ministry company that I work for, Well-Watered Women had shared a blog post that I had written about Walking the Road of Infertility.
It was a post filled with hope and encouragement for other women walking this difficult road, and I shared very personally how God has led me and my husband Steven through our journey so far. One of the stories that I shared in the post was about how the week before Mother’s Day last year was very tough for me. I explained that for the first time in my life- and after trying to start a family for many long months- I had reason to believe that week that I might be expecting! But when it turned out not to be the case, I grieved and wept and felt so confused and hurt. I couldn’t understand why this would happen just days before Mother’s Day… until 9 months later when we were matched with our son. Miraculously, Aaro had been born the week I thought I could be expecting, and God perfectly timed it so that we would then sign the paperwork to match with this little one exactly 40 weeks after he was born! God allowed me to have my own kind of “pregnancy” with Aaro. And He allowed me the greatest blessing of getting to meet him before he turned one! And Well-Watered Women released the blog post in which I shared the details of this sweet story on HIS FIRST BIRTHDAY. They didn't know it was going to be his birthday, and I didn't know they had chosen that date. Hah! Seriously, only God. 🙌 He is so personal. He knew how much that would mean to me. A perfectly timed gift on a very special day for my mother’s heart. And sharing our story and how God led us to Aaro is something that brings me so much joy!
It was a post filled with hope and encouragement for other women walking this difficult road, and I shared very personally how God has led me and my husband Steven through our journey so far. One of the stories that I shared in the post was about how the week before Mother’s Day last year was very tough for me. I explained that for the first time in my life- and after trying to start a family for many long months- I had reason to believe that week that I might be expecting! But when it turned out not to be the case, I grieved and wept and felt so confused and hurt. I couldn’t understand why this would happen just days before Mother’s Day… until 9 months later when we were matched with our son. Miraculously, Aaro had been born the week I thought I could be expecting, and God perfectly timed it so that we would then sign the paperwork to match with this little one exactly 40 weeks after he was born! God allowed me to have my own kind of “pregnancy” with Aaro. And He allowed me the greatest blessing of getting to meet him before he turned one! And Well-Watered Women released the blog post in which I shared the details of this sweet story on HIS FIRST BIRTHDAY. They didn't know it was going to be his birthday, and I didn't know they had chosen that date. Hah! Seriously, only God. 🙌 He is so personal. He knew how much that would mean to me. A perfectly timed gift on a very special day for my mother’s heart. And sharing our story and how God led us to Aaro is something that brings me so much joy!
And to celebrate his birthday as a family, that evening Steven and I found a local Indian Restaurant that shares the name of Aaro's city. The food was delicious, and we enjoyed the special experience together so much. I made Steven wear a party hat with me as we laughed, took photos, and celebrated our son’s birthday together from far away.
You can’t freeze time, but you can freeze a cupcake.
Aaro’s first birthday cupcake will be waiting for him next year! 😉🎂
My 1st Mother’s Day 🥀
There were little moments on different days leading up to Mother’s Day this year that I felt the weight, felt the gravity of this day. I didn't get to feel all the sweet feelings that an expectant mother might, or celebrate quite like a mother who already has her baby in her arms could. I definitely felt the complexity of this strange in-between place. But I prayed a whole lot going into that Sunday- I claimed in prayer that it would be a joyful and celebratory day, no matter what emotions I might feel throughout the day! And the day was sweet and felt covered in peace. I felt the prayers of many different sweet friends and family members that reached out and said they were praying for my heart, and I was wished a Happy 1st Mother’s Day from several kind people. I received some thoughtful cards and gifts, and my heart stayed in a good place all day long. And my sweet husband had some special plans in store to help make me feel celebrated. He told me to take the day off that next day (Monday) because he wanted treat me to a Mother’s Day celebration! He surprised me with a day in Athens, GA. And the name of the restaurant that he took me to first thing that morning was called Mama's Boy.
How perfectly named for the occasion!
We enjoyed walking around shops together, buying a couple of things for Aaro, eating lunch together, and then he treated me to a massage! It was a relaxing, fun day together- and most importantly, it was a gift of quality time- something that I savor and appreciate so much these days.
And now, looking back, I can actually say that last year was my very first Mother’s Day! Aaro was born just a couple weeks before! And I’ll have yet another "first" Mother’s Day next year when I have that little two year old wild man in my arms! (Or perhaps running all around and keeping me on my toes! 😜)
My 1st Baby Shower 🍼
I was so blessed to have a baby shower thrown for me by my wonderful church small group ladies this past Saturday! They put together a lovely spread with the most perfect cake for the occasion!
And they showered me with some very sweet gifts. The biggest surprise was that they had purchased Aaro’s crib-- and while we were at the shower, some of their husbands were at my house building it and setting it up in his nursery!😍 I came home to the sweetest sight in his room! The crib is beautiful and perfect and this is all feeling so much more real to me now. The crib is that one piece in the nursery that just indicates BABY more than anything else in the room. And now I peek my head in there and get all the butterflies. All the feels. All the anticipation just wells up inside of me. And I can’t wait to lay that sweet baby’s head down in the little space that will become his resting place in our home.
And they showered me with some very sweet gifts. The biggest surprise was that they had purchased Aaro’s crib-- and while we were at the shower, some of their husbands were at my house building it and setting it up in his nursery!😍 I came home to the sweetest sight in his room! The crib is beautiful and perfect and this is all feeling so much more real to me now. The crib is that one piece in the nursery that just indicates BABY more than anything else in the room. And now I peek my head in there and get all the butterflies. All the feels. All the anticipation just wells up inside of me. And I can’t wait to lay that sweet baby’s head down in the little space that will become his resting place in our home.
Our 1st Court Hearing ✓
We have some good news! 🎉 We were thrilled to recently receive a court number for our adoption case in the local court in India. We were originally told that it could be months of silence before we got any information or updates about our case, and so we have been waiting anxiously with no indication of how things were (or weren't) progressing! The court has been closed for the whole month of May- and will reopen in June- however, we found out that we had our FIRST COURT HEARING on April 4th! We had no idea that this had happened and (surprisingly) it actually happened when we were in India on our mission trip! So crazy! Apparently, we were registered in court on April 3rd and had our first hearing that next day, praise God! And our next hearing is scheduled for June 14th. We have been told that it is typical for families to have 3 court hearings, but we have seen many families in this city go through 5 long, drawn-out hearings… We are praying that it only takes TWO hearings 🙏 and that we won’t even need the 3rd, but we are preparing that court will finalize in July or August. We have been told that we can only begin to make our Gotcha Trip travel plans 1-2 months out from court finalizing. So things might look like August or September travel dates, but maybe as late as October.
Thank you to all of our faithful prayer warriors that prayed along with us for court to be finalized by Aaro’s first birthday, April 30th. Even though we did not see that come to pass, I wanted to share a neat story of how God used that prayer...
Another adoptive mom reached out to me a couple of days after we shared publicly that we were praying for Aaro to legally become our son by April 30th. It was late March at this point, and she messaged me saying that she had a baby boy in the same city as us and they were waiting for court to finalize. She said that she followed our story and saw our video where we were praying in faith for this court miracle by April 30th. She told me in the message that she admitted that she had her doubts when she saw our prayer request. She has followed the court trends very closely and was very informed as to how long things typically take for international cases. She is adopting a little boy with a severe heart condition, and he has already endured one open heart surgery at only a year and a half old. She said that OUR PRAYERS of faith inspired her to begin praying that their court process would finalize before May just like ours. Well, she reached out to me in mid-April letting me know that their family had passed court! And apparently their family had gotten through court faster than any other family! I was blown away!! Our prayers of faith were meant to be part of this family's journey to getting their little boy!! And they are now well on their way to being able to go get their fragile little one soon! My heart was overjoyed with gratitude that God used our faith and obedience to have a special part in another family’s journey to their son! I hope that our boys get to meet one day.
A look at the remaining steps in our process...
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