Psalm 72:18 

Bless the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things.

This would become our theme for 2017!  Trusting that whatever God would do, it is going to be wondrous.  It may be painful, it may take your breath away, but it is going to be wondrous.

Rewind to 4 years ago. We got a call that a little 6-month-old boy needed a family—would we like to submit? Yes, yes we would!!!! That Sunday morning we got a text that the mom had gone awol and the little boy would have to go into the system since an adoption plan had not been made….. hello heartbreak, more for him than for us. But, there was a little girl born in Florida, all we knew was that she was born on the 22nd and had been on morphine since then due to being born exposed to drugs.  We had no other info but decided to say yes. We were not sure whether or not to tell the kids, but decided that they had been a part of this entire journey, why stop now? We didn’t get their hopes up, we just let them know what was up.  

Best Sunday morning ever!

This part is funny, and I am sure my kids remember this vividly.  It was March 2nd, a Sunday and we were about to sit down for church, we got a call that our home study had somehow not been signed and could not be submitted for the little girl.  Hello, mad dash! Our amazing home study friend, Debra never checks her phone on Sundays, but guess who miraculously checked her Facebook messages! She signed the home study and sent it over! Now we wait, again. They said to stay by the phone, they may have questions. We were standing to sing and I noticed my phone ringing, I grabbed it and tried to sneak out, I knocked over my water bottle, it clunked to the floor, then I proceeded to knock Evan (our oldest) right off his chair as I jumped past him! Sorry dude!

I answered the phone and a wonderful English accent was on the other end. I thought they had questions but instead, she said, would you like to meet your daughter? Hang on, wait… I don’t trust this! I said, please don’t tell me something that hasn’t happened, we just can’t take it. She knew our story and with so much compassion let me know that this was a done deal and she was ours and waiting to meet us. “No take-backs,” I whispered through the phone – she laughed, no take-backs.  She started to tell me all these details that made my head spin, I asked her to wait so I could get Marc. I snuck back in church way better than I snuck out and caught Marc’s eye, I couldn’t help it – SHE IS OURS! I still remember the praise that erupted from our little church! Marc was crying and praising and I was thinking, you can’t loose it,  you have talk to her! He said that when he finally got on the phone, she was crying. She heard everything and had to compose herself, she said it was beautiful.  Everyone was so excited but I can still remember that bit of fear and doubt in Sophie’s little eyes.  We didn’t have a girl’s name, only a boy’s name.  Before we left church we knew her name, Olivia Hope.

Meeting Livey

We drove to the hospital alone (I would have loved to have brought all the kids but that just wasn’t doable) Plus, you just never know what you are walking into.  We had to fill out paperwork before we could even go up to meet her. SO. MUCH. PAPERWORK.  One of the papers that we signed was that basically, this was a site unseen adoption—we had to acknowledge that we didn’t know what we were walking into.  We also had to sign acknowledging that this was an at-risk adoption, which meant it could all fall apart at any given moment.  We signed. They took us upstairs and through huge double doors, we had to wash our hands before going in. My heart was in my throat, we were so close to her, almost there.  I can still see her—so tiny in her isolette.  I wondered before then, how I would feel when we finally saw our baby, I played it over in my head a million times. This was way better than anything I could have imagined.  Isn’t God’s will always better than we could ever imagine?  I held her first, she was so tiny. She smiled.  I felt like I had known her forever, loved her forever.  

Marc held her, and she snuggled right in.  The nurses were amazing, they knew how she loved to be held and told us all about her.  She was 9 days old. She was so perfect.  We spent 24 hours alone with her at the hospital, they wanted to make sure that we knew how to take care of her since she was born exposed.  It was a wonderful 24 hours. When we brought her home, we picked Sophie (our youngest till now) up from Granny’s.  I think that was such an amazing and unexpected moment. She held her and started to cry. She looked up at us and said, “I didn’t know I would love her this much.” I don’t think any of us could have anticipated how much instant love we would feel for her.

After bringing you home, we had to be careful what photos we showed, we couldn’t show her whole face and got creative! This went on for months.

Adoption Day!

I cannot even begin to explain how amazing it felt to finally stand before the judge with our family and friends and have her become an official Capps! It felt like it would never happen sometimes and I was so afraid that something would go wrong and we would lose her.  To finally not have to worry about that was such a relief. It was a beautiful day. We were surrounded by family and friends the entire day. Everyone that went through this journey with us was there to celebrate.

Thank you for going along with me down parts of our adoption journey. Amazingly enough, it is not done. I have one more part to share and his name is Henry! I know that adoption can be scary, emotional and expensive, but I can’t even imagine our life without Olivia & Henry. If adoption is tugging at your heart, reach out to Sunshine State Adoptions or A Step Ahead Adoptions and get some information. It all starts with a small speck of a desire, a dream and turns into a very large rollercoaster of an adventure!

Amanda Star

Part 1&2 of our adoption story can be found HERE.