We all have a story of when we were born. Some stories are really miracles. Some are funny or sad. Some are truly amazing and special and others are just plain (or so you may think). I want to tell you a wonderful story of when my little sister, Rosie, was born.
Before I start my story of this amazing little girl, I want to tell you about our family before Rosie. Our family has always wanted to adopt a child. So, we decided to adopt from China. We were sure we would be getting a girl. We named her Harmony. Well, we did the paper work and we waited and we waited for what seemed to be eternity, but in reality it was three years. And still nothing was happening. China was stretching their wait time greatly and we were becoming discouraged, but still full of prayer.
Our family had a heart for Chinese orphans and we sponsored an unadoptable child from a Chinese orphanage. And to our surprise this little girl (Naomi) was going to be one out of twelve orphan children to be the first to come to the United States (which is quite an accomplishment). It took a long time for the Chinese government to allow these children to travel out of the country. Before these children were given permission, they had to learn the traditional dances in order to perform in the States. My family and I were able to see this little orphan girl that we had sponsored from China at a church near where we lived.
After seeing this little girl, we were all excited about adopting from China. And we were so happy that we were able to meet this amazing little girl. We began experiencing hope that our adoption in China would happen. But our Lord had other plans in store.
And now here is the adoption story.
The day after we were able to see this little girl from China, my parents received a call at 10:00 pm from... Ok, here it goes...some friends that had received a call from some friends who had received a call from a pediatrician who had received a call from a lawyer who had received a call from a hospital social worker... saying that a little girl had been born at noon that day in Jacksonville, Florida, and she was needing to be adopted immediately by a ready family. The baby would have to go in state custody if somebody did not adopt her. Her birth mother was planning on leaving the hospital. We (children) did not know about the phone call that night. That's a mouthful - I hope what I said made some sense.
Something else that you need to know about our family is that we had a home church at that time. So the day after the phone call, it was Sunday, and we were hosting home church. Our house was clean. The soup was in the crockpot for our lunch. We (children) were dressed and ready, but the clock had rolled around to nine-thirty and mom and dad still were not. It seemed strange as they were running back and forth, up and down the stairs and on and off the phone. I was very curious and so I asked my mom “What’s going on?”. She answered and said “I think we are going to adopt a little girl.”
To be honest, when she said that we were going to adopt, it did not seem like reality. It was something that I had begun to believe was impossible. But yet, it was something I wanted and so I did everything in my power to help. Now as for my siblings, they learned about it in a different way. That Sunday, one of the ladies from the church was having a birthday. Toothie and Purple Eye didn’t really seem to notice that something was going on. They were busy with banners and birthday cards. So Purple Eye and Toothie found out when they were writing a card. They went to my mom and asked “How old will she be?” (They were referring to the lady with the birthday). In surprise my mom said “Well, she was born yesterday.” (She was referring to the baby girl). Toothie and Purple Eye looked at each other and said “Ms. Nancy?!”
Well, by this time everybody was confused, so mom told them (very quickly) about a little baby girl in Florida needing to be adopted immediately. Everybody was excited. The people began to arrive to our house. How were we going to tell them?
Both sets of our grandparents were there that morning, as were our close friends. Our service started by the preacher asking if anyone had any announcements. This was the moment - we held our breath - as my dad stood up to speak. My dad said, “I have an announcement. We have received a call about a little dark skin baby girl needing to be adopted. Our family has prayed and desire to accept. We ask that you all excuse us while we go pack so that we can leave immediately.” There was silence. Everyone was shocked. Then after a moment, the “congratulations” came pouring in.
Our grandparents helped us pack, gave us money, and helped pull out all of the baby items from the attic (while church services continued). We ate our lunch, packed the car and pulled out of our driveway before two o’ clock. It felt really weird waving at people in our front yard, on our front porch and in our kitchen. And so down the road we went, excited.
On our way to Florida, we realized that this little girl would need a name. To be honest it only took us thirty minutes to decide, her name would be ___________ Rosie.
That night we reached Jacksonville, Florida in just eight hours. We only made one stop on the way. We were trying to get to the hospital before visiting hours were over; but we did not make it.
Early the next morning we went to the hospital. And we (children) sat in the waiting... just waiting. Here we were - three kids - who found out that they were going to have a new baby sister, packed up and waved good bye to family and friends, traveled to Florida, woke up and went to the hospital, and sitting in a waiting room - all in twenty-four hours. We looked pretty rough, our clothes were probably wrinkled, and we looked like we had just gotten out of the bed, well, because we had. We were sitting in the waiting room right under the TV and everybody was facing us watching it. It felt just like everyone was staring at us.
My parents got to meet the birth mother and little Rosie. My dad came and brought Rosie to the nursery glass so that we kids could see our new baby sister. She was so cute, but this still did not seem like reality.
Mom and Dad did not want to leave their new daughter all alone in a hospital, so they held the baby almost all day - every day - for five days. They took turns, one would be with us while the other was with baby. Rosie was in the NICU. She was considered a drug baby. Children were not allowed in the NICU area and so, we were only allowed to look and admire our new sister through the glass.
We had some funny experiences while looking through the glass. We had these two older women, who were nurses at the hospital, say, "what a darling family," and had us pose in front of the nursery glass in order to take our picture. We had a Security guard ask if he could sing for us on our video camera. But we didn’t mind all of this, we were just glad to have a new addition to the family.
The day finally came - Rosie was released from NICU. We were able to take her our hotel room and have her all to ourselves. I remember that day: Rosie’s nurse brought her out of the nursery and handed her to me to hold for the first time and then she was passed to my brother and then to my sister. The nurse escorted us, along with the lawyer, to our car and then she released her to my mom. She was ours, forever.
We were going down the road on the way to our hotel room, when it started… “I want to hold her first”, “I get to feed her first” and so on and so on. Needless to say, I changed the first diaper, and my brother got to feed her first. I remember being jealous because I went to the store with my mom to get supplies, while my brother and sister got to stay and hold the baby.
For two weeks we lived out of a hotel room, waiting for permission to leave the state. During those two weeks, we spent most of the time in the hotel room just sitting and holding this little bundle of joy while sending emails and photos back home.
No matter where we went, little Rosie didn’t get put down. We would hold her, putting her in her carrier was not even an option. At one restaurant, I was holding the baby and a lady asked “how many children do you have?” We all assumed that she was talking to my mom and so mom replied “there are four of them.” That ladies eye balls popped out of her head and she said “Why she don’t look old enough to have four children!” The lady’s finger was pointing at me who at the time was twelve years old. I could feel my cheeks turning red and then my mom was saying “NO! They are my children.”
The two weeks seemed short and we were all packed and ready to go home. Going to Florida took us only eight hours. But, coming back home took twice as long. After all, we had a little baby who was needing diaper changes, feeding, and burping.
It felt so good as we were coming up our driveway. We saw a banner on our front porch along with my grandparents welcoming us. As soon as I stepped out of our suburban, my grandmother took baby and just held and hugged her. And then our granddad held the baby. And then an aunt took her. Everybody just could not wait to get their hands on her.
For next few days we had people at our house, we had several baby showers, and we received phone calls and cards. It felt good to have this little new addition and to see everyone excited to have her in the family.
Now, three years later - this little baby girl who was born in Jacksonville, Florida, given up for adoption, adopted, loved, and cared for - is all was ours and nothing in this world can change it. Life would not be the same without this little girl. And now it seems like reality.
This little girl was born Feb 20, 2010 and so today is her birthday. She is a cute, adorable, sweet, and at times, a little pickle. But we all love her and we think she is just grand!
Happy Birthday to my little Rosie.
P.S. While we didn't get to adopt from China, the Lord was preparing us for this little gift from Florida. If we had not been paper ready at the exact time needed, Rosie would not be ours. So from the beginning of time, this little baby was meant to be our Rosie.
This post was written by Gracie and was edited by mom.
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