Cole's Story

On December 4, 1995, my sister gave birth to her 1st and only child. A boy. Sweet Cole Christopher. As soon as I held him in my arms, I fell in love.

Years went by. We saw Cole less and less. He had grown into a preteen. We had 4 children of our own. We still loved him dearly, but the bond wasn't as strong.

In August 2007 we found out that my sister had asked my parents to take care of Cole for a year. She felt she needed some time to try and pull herself together. She needed a break.

I remember the day Cory came to me. He said he felt like we should offer to have Cole come to live with us. Indefinitely. I heard nothing else he had to say. I was beyond irritated. We already had 4 kids. I was barely keeping it together as it was. How in the world could he even ask to take on another child??

I remember the day God came to me. I was cleaning the kids bathroom. I was washing the mirror. Instantly, EVERY. SINGLE. REASON. popped into my head of WHY we should have him with us. I searched my head and there were NO negatives. All I could find in there were the positives. We would be able to offer him stability that he had never had. We would be able to show him what a healthy family looks like. He would have Cory to teach him how to be a good man, father and husband. He would have siblings. He would be able to keep his grandparents as grandparents. We would be able to teach him about God. His love. And His best for us.

What I didn't find out until months later was that Cory had started praying as soon as I had told him "no". He prayed that if this was truly God's will for Cole that He would change my heart. He knew that he would not bring it up again. He would respect my feelings. He did exactly as He should. He took it to God and God was AMAZINGLY faithful.

We packed up the car and made the long trek across the state. Praying the entire time. Praying that if this was God's will that all would be in support of our plan. As soon as the words came out of our mouths, my sister started crying. She had always wanted a family for Cole. She told us that what we were offering was what she had always prayed for and never knew how to ask. When we told Cole, he gave us 2 thumbs up and a big ole' grin. Cole joined our family days after we got home from our trip.

Cole has fit right into our "little" family. We love him. The kids love him. Brenton adores him.

In December, Cory and I were both feeling like we should adopt Cole. I was talking to my friend one morning. Talking about how in the world we would be able to do that. Talking about how my sister would feel. Then the other line beeped in. It was my sister...

She wanted us to adopt Cole.

My jaw hit the floor. I could not believe that God had just answered that question right then and there. And although we were both feeling like God was absolutely leading us in that direction, we agreed to pray about it until we had a clear answer from God.

December came and I posted this and this. By December 31st we both felt like we didn't necessarily have a clear answer, but we had an overwhelming peace about the whole thing. We decided that we would adopt Cole.

The next day, my sister made some decisions that landed her in the hospital. We now, quite literally, had our writing on the wall. There was no question. God went ahead, answered our call, and then, as if to say, "just so you REALLY understand, here you go."

We took Cole out to dinner one night to talk to him about adoption. As we sat talking, I could barely get the words out of my mouth before he was smiling and saying "yes". He glowed from across the table. For days he was stuck to us. Snuggling. Talking. It was as if a wall had just been shattered. He knew we wanted him. He knew he was here to stay. He was an entirely different child.

Yesterday, our family grew. Permanently. Yesterday, Cole became our son. He was so excited. We were so excited. I want to shout it from the rooftops! God has so clearly walked with us through this part of our journey. He has guided us. He has been faithful.

Both Cole and Caden said that yesterday was the best day ever. We wanted to make it special. A celebration. After the hearing, we headed to ice cream and then on to the fantastic park downtown. It was a gorgeous day. We sat, eating ice cream, enjoying family. We then drove by our dream house. No one is living there and we wanted to take a closer look. The owner was doing some work on the property and told us we could walk around. He even showed us the inside. We love it. Our kids love it. There's even a tire swing under a great big tree right outside the kitchen window. Our kids offered the owner a dollar and asked if we could buy his house... sweet kids, if only that was enough! We then headed to one of Cole's favorite restaurants, had some delicious dinner and headed home to go to bed. It was absolutely perfect!

Our promise when Cole came to live with us was that we would always make our decisions regarding him by taking them to God. That we would pray that our decisions would be God's best for Cole. Our sweet boy has been through so much and we so desire God's absolute best for him.

Thank you Lord for guiding us. Thank you for loving Cole so very very much. Thank you for protecting him all these years. Thank you for bringing him into our home. Thank you for blessing our family with another son. Thank you!