Celebrating Kobe and everything UNKNOWN!

Today is a day of CELEBRATION!!

Kobe turns 11!! If you are a person who acknowledges "Golden Birthdays"...then this would be his.

We don't so much get into that, but Kobe does think it is pretty awesome that he is 11 on the 11th today!

What a an amazing blessing it has been to be his mom...I know most moms say this about their children...but really, truly, deeply I am so thankful God chose US to be his parents!

This time of year is significant not just for Kobe's birthday, but in 3 days from today, we also acknowledge Kobe's "Gotcha Day"...the day he came to live his life with us. In 3 days we celebrate Kobe being in our family for 10 years!!

I want to share some of Kobe's story with you today.

Let's first start with adoption, since Kobe was our first adoption. We (both Nick and I) always knew adoption was in our future. It was made clear to us that God intended for us to adopt sooner verses later (which was our plan).

Throughout this journey of adoption, God was nearly at times audible in His direction and making His plan clear.  Even more so when we first learned about Kobe.

A fundraiser was being held for our adoption, a garage sale. It was the last day of the sale and it was a dreary rainy day. I ended up leaving half way into the day with Ryleigh as well as my friends children and brought them to our house for lunch and naps. Well, needless to say, lunch was barely fed and naps were skipped.

If you are affiliated with Bethany Christian Services, you know about their LifeLines Magazine. It normally is published and mailed out every quarter. I love getting this...I still do to this day! I love reading about the children that have come home, equally as much as reading about the children waiting for their forever families to find them. They would write up a little blurb about waiting children...ones with special needs. Bethany referred to them as "Children of Promise".

Pulling into my house, I grabbed the mail and was surprised to see a LifeLines Magazine in my mailbox. "Weird", I thought to myself. I recalled just getting one the month previous.

 I had learned later that this was a special edition due to the large amount of waiting children with special needs.  This edition ONLY had children waiting for their FOREVER FAMILIES.

Carefully reading about each, not one grabbed my heart...until I turned to the very last page and saw him.  "Elliot".  No, Elliot was not his name, nor was it ever.  It was just a name that Bethany used to make him more "identifiable" should anyone inquire.

When I saw him...I KNEW.  I just KNEW!  If you have adopted children...you know exactly what I am talking about.  I immediately called our caseworker and confirmed; yes..he was from Korea, yes...he was still available.  When learning more about him in conversation with our caseworker, we learned that Kobe was born at 32 weeks and has a diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy.  Despite learning of his "diagnosis", I never once wavered at my first thought....MY SON!  MY SON! 

How perfect was God's plan that day...the day He brought the rain, that led me home, to a special edition LifeLines...to MY SON.  His sweet sweet Perfect Plan.

Kobe came with many unknowns.  We could not know how significant or severe his Cerebral Palsy would be...certainly not until we got him home...or maybe for years down the road.  What we knew back then was that we could offer him the world in medical care and love to make him the best Kobe God intended him to be.

Upon arriving home, Kobe was given an MRI and our doctor was very careful in his wording.  Kobe has abnormalities to his brain, consistent with those who have CP...but has zero CP tendencies.  Perfectly healthy, age appropriate, on target boy.

Today Kobe is an amazing student, a phenomenal athlete, a loyal friend, a deeply loving son and brother, but most importantly a committed Child of God.  We have always said we will never be surprised if Kobe grows up to be a pastor.  His love and knowledge of Jesus and his Heavenly Father is one we should all want to have.

Kobe has told us many times that he has three moms.  He has his birth mom, his foster mom and of course, me.  He also has three dads...he has his birth father, his dad (Nick) and his Heavenly Father.

So this time of year we love to celebrate Kobe!!  We love to celebrate the years of his LIFE that his birth mom so unselfishly gave to US!!  We will always be thankful!!

So, why now did I feel the need to share all of this back story with you?

I know MANY of you that read this have adoption in your hearts.  I have shared our journey with Sadie and all of the crazy unknowns we have with her (and will continue to have) but how God has been so faithful to us in all ways.  And you know now that Kobe too came full of question marks.  But even then, God never left us.  Our journey to Kobe and our life after is one full of amazing blessings, despite all of the unknowns he had.

Yesterday I was contacted by our caseworker on this very special girl.  For a moment we were considering.   We are open to growing our family, however, not at the cost of compromising Sadie's care.  This sweet unborn child (with lots of unknowns) would need more than what we could give at this time with Sadie.  But, as a good friend of mine put it this morning "CHURCH!  This IS where the rubber meets the road".  We are called to care for, love, nurture, provide for this baby.  I can talk scary unknowns with you until I am blue in the face.  I live it.  every.single.day.  But, I can tell you more miracles, amazement, awesomeness, love, provision..... 

Please read, please pray, please do!  This is an urgent case!

http://us5.campaign-archive.com/?u=f14884e6c88d4b68239654ec5&id=10480ef3cf&fb_action_ids=10201471165474024&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B236427096515929%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.likes%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D