Intro--new here

Samuel'sMommy · Post by **Samuel'sMommy** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 2:56 pm

Hi everyone! I have a 3 year old son, Samuel, and have just ordered LHTH to do with him. I can't wait to get it and get started! I look forward to getting to know everyone here.

peridot · Post by **peridot** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 3:46 pm

Welcome!!

lovetobehome · Post by **lovetobehome** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 4:01 pm

WELCOME!!! This is COMPLETELY off topic, but....
My baby is Samuel, he was a miracle baby! We were told at 18 weeks pregnancy that he probably had Trisomy 18 and would not live. That night, God brought the story of Hannah and Samuel to my mind in the middle of the night, and I knew He was telling me I had to be willing to give this baby to the Lord, as Hannah did, no matter what that meant...in life or death. From that moment, we knew he was to be called Samuel. I just wanted to say hi from another "samuel's mommy" Beautiful name, if I do say so....
I am glad you are here!

beandip71 · Post by **beandip71** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 5:18 pm

Welcome to the boards.

Gina

Samuel'sMommy · Post by **Samuel'sMommy** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 6:27 pm

Thanks for the welcome!

Meg, that is an amazing story about your Samuel! I'm sure he is a great blessing to you and your family. DH and I prayed for our Samuel for over 7 years so we felt it was a fitting name since it means "the Lord heard".

water2wine · Post by **water2wine** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 6:34 pm

Welcome! I am so happy for you that you found HOD right off the bat.

I have an adorable picture in my mind of a three year old named Samuel. How sweet!

Melanie · Post by **Melanie** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 8:21 pm

WELCOME

I've always wished that I had found HOD earlier so I could've done Little Hands....I can't wait to read about it goes with your little one!

netpea · Post by **netpea** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 9:07 pm

Welcome Stephanie!

Jessi · Post by **Jessi** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 9:15 pm

Welcome!! I am just starting LHTH with my daughter and she and her friends are loving it! You'll enjoy it so much. I just love adoption stories. Do you mind sharing? Adoption is such a soft spot spiritually for me as we are all "adopted" into the family of Christ.

God bless!

Samuel'sMommy · Post by **Samuel'sMommy** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 8:12 am

I just love adoption stories. Do you mind sharing?

I love to share our story, but I'll warn you this could get long!

I have 2 younger brothers who are adopted from Korea so when DH and I got married, we had always planned on adopting "someday". It was something we always talked about but wanted to have bio children first. We started trying on our first anniversary. After a couple of years with nothing happening, we knew something was wrong. We went to a couple of doctors and they couldn't give us a reason/diagnosis for our infertility. We didn't feel comfortable pursuing a lot of treatments so we decided that we would go ahead and adopt. It took us a few years to get to a place where we felt stable enough financially, in DH's job, etc to get started.

In July 2004 we went to our first orientation meeting to pursue a domestic adoption. At the meeting our social worker encouraged everyone to begin praying for their child and his or her birthparents because they could already be conceived and the birthparents would have a lot of tough decisions to make. (I'll come back to this in a minute

) We started all the paperwork, homestudy, etc and were officially approved in November 2004. Our social worker told us to expect a 12-18 month wait because that was the average, but since the birthparents choose the families in domestic adoption it could happen sooner. We left it in God's hands and honestly didn't really worry about it. On January 5th, 2005 we got a call from our social worker saying that a birthmother had chosen us and she was due in March. She lived several hours away from us and wanted to meet us later that month.

At the end of January we drove up to meet Samuel's birthmother. She is an amazing woman. She brought me flowers, gave us the ultrasound pictures, and let me feel her tummy. She referred to us as Samuel's parents right away. We were suprised that she felt so certain about her decision. We had gone to the meeting somewhat guarded because in TN the birthmother has up until 10 days after the birth to change her mind about the adoption. During the course of our conversation she told us that she had found out she was pregnant in July 2004 (around the same time we went to our orientation meeting and began praying for her and the baby!!). She already had 2 children and didn't feel she could parent a third so she scheduled an abortion. She was driving to her abortion appointment when she saw a sign for abortion alternatives. She said something made her stop and go in and talk to a counselor. She decided then and there to place the baby for adoption and was referred to Bethany Christian Services (our agency). How amazing is God!!!

Anyway, Samuel was born March 8, 2005. We got to spend more time with his birthmother in the hospital and also meet his birthfather. She had asked us to be present for the birth but because it was several hours away from our house, we didn't make it in time. We got there 15 minutes after Samuel was born. We took him home the next day and he is the joy of our lives. We have so much fun with him! We send letters and pictures to his birthparents a couple of times a year, but have yet to get any responses back from them.

Sorry this got so long. If you have any other questions I'll be happy to answer them!

lovetobehome · Post by **lovetobehome** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 8:42 am

Oh, that is beautiful, thank you so much for sharing! I am in tears reading, what an AWESOME GOD WE SERVE! That is a wonderful story, how blessed you and Samuel have been!

JennyBenny · Post by **JennyBenny** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 1:43 pm

Hello & welcome. Your adoption story is beautiful. My dh & I are in the very early stages of an int'l. adoption. I love to hear such encouraging testimonies. It's nice to "meet" you & thanks for sharing your story.

~Jennifer

Jessi · Post by **Jessi** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 2:10 pm

Stephanie,

Thank you for sharing your story. I just love how our Lord puts all the pieces together so neatly. From the moment of Samuel's conception, God already had you and your husband picked out as his parents. I love it!

water2wine · Post by **water2wine** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 5:49 pm

Stephanie! I loved reading your story. I have four that are adopted and I always wanted to adopt some day. I had a very good friend as a little girl that came from Vietnam. DH and I decided we would adopt when engaged. Long story by our second year anniversary we had four ages three and under all from Kazakhstan. Now we have six, the last two were by birth.

I love to meet other moms with a passion for adoption!

Thank you for sharing your story. There are several moms here that have adopted as well!

Post by **Carrie** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 12:50 pm

Stephanie,

I just wanted to welcome you to the boards too! We're glad to have you here. I pray that you and your little Samuel will enjoy Little Hands... as much as we have.

Thanks for sharing!

Blessings,
Carrie