Hi Friends!
I’m sharing a story that only a few people know but it’s such an awesome little life nugget that I am finally documenting in my bible.
It’s my adoption story.
It’s really a story of being chosen and loved! And to a little girl who had no dad she could count on, this was a dream come true. So to be clear, I wasn’t in foster care or taken away from anyone. My mom is my mom. She gave birth to me and raised me. Very well I might add. But my bio dad wasn’t down with the whole staying sober and keeping a job thing so he was gone when I was 5 after several failed attempts to get it together.
About 3 years later my mom met a man at a country western dance and they 2-stepped right into love! When they decided to make it a serious thing we began to go on family dates with his daughter who was – get this – 35 days older than me!!
Sometime in 1989 we were all at Thrifty’s getting ice cream and I accidentally called him dad and then took it back for fear of rejection. I mean – being left by your first dad kinda messes you up and I was hesitant to let him in – but it was such a natural bond with he and I. He asked me if I wanted to call him dad and I confidently said YES!
From that point, he was my dad. He treated me like his own. He went to Father-Daughter events with me. He took care of me, sat next to me and watched TV and told me he loved me.
Over the course of the next 3 years he moved in, we moved towns and he married my mom! Then came real talk. At age 12 they asked me how I would feel if something happened to Mom and I had to go live with my bio dad. I was honest and told them I would rather raise myself but asked why I wouldn’t be able to just stay with Dad. We talked about what it would mean for him to legally adopt me and that we would have to go through lots of stages of the process and I was 100% in. On my Mom’s birthday, 1993, a judge informed us that my biological father had signed away his parental rights for me and I was given the best last name a girl could ask for, one that was the same as everyone else in my house.
Now, this doesn’t mean that we all floated through a meadow into a sun-filled sky. Nope. There is always strife. But that’s life with parents and teenagers. But the point of this whole story is to thank God for my second-chance daddy. My Papi is the guy who gave me everything I needed and more. He’s the guy who asked me if I wanted his help to locate my bio dad in case I wanted both of them to walk me down the aisle. Of course I hugged my Papi and told him I only have one dad. He tells me he loves me more than I could ever know. God knew exactly what I needed. He knew that I needed this man when I was 8 and at 36 and dang near every moment in between. He is the earthly Father that God blessed me with and I am forever grateful.
If you have a special person in your life, don’t forget to journal about them too! Especially if they were sent from God as a blessing to your life!
Wanna check out how this entry all came together? Check out the video here:
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Thank you for sharing your story. You’ve got me crying in my pancakes!
What a beautiful story. Thanks for sharing it so openly!
xxx