I’ve been asked to share the story of our adoptions several times lately after I mentioned how Aiden’s story is the perfect reminder of God’s faithfulness and how God answers prayers in his perfect timing. I need to go way back to the beginning of when I met Bob and then Jesus for people to understand how it all works together. I blogged briefly during Bella’s adoption, but don’t consider myself a writer really. I felt a nudge from the Holy Spirit to share freely about God’s faithfulness in my life, so here I am creating this blog and beginning to tell our story.
I met Bob when I was a freshman in high school. He was a senior. I went to church with my friend and we first met at a youth group meeting. I was in the marching band and he was an athletic trainer for the football team. It seemed he was hanging out while we were practicing a lot. The first year of our dating was really just going to church together. It was during this time that I put my faith in Jesus and was saved and baptized. It took him a while to know that I was the one, but I knew early on. I know that sounds corny, but it’s my truth. However, the first year had many ups and downs and we’d break up and then get back together numerous times. He was a flirt and a typical teenage boy. When he left to go to college the fall after my freshman year, he broke up with me. I was heartbroken. He wanted to go to college and didn’t want to be tied down. That didn’t last long thankfully. I wrote him letters while he was away and he realized he missed me and we got back together.
We dated long distance for most of the next 3 years except when he would come home over holiday breaks and summers. We wrote lots of letters back and forth and talked on the phone when we could. We got engaged when I was a junior in high school. I went to college at WKU when I graduated because that is where he was, and I had a few scholarships there as well. My mom was adamant that I had to have a year of college finished before we could get married, so that’s what we did. After 5 years of dating, we were married on July 3, 1993. We honeymooned in Gulf Shores, Alabama. We lived in a little one bedroom apartment in the basement of my best friend’s grandmother’s house. Bob quit college and worked at Hardee’s as a manager while I continued going to college and worked part time at a retail clothing store. We didn’t have much money, but we had each other and the Lord provided for our needs. We were young and naive.
The next few years saw job changes and a couple of moves. Bob started driving a truck and we bought a mobile home and put it on my grandma and grandpa’s farm. I graduated college with my elementary education degree in 1996. At this time, Bob was sick but we didn’t know it yet. He had lost tons of weight, was tired all the time, and had a distended abdomen. He was stubborn and wouldn’t go to the doctor. Finally one Saturday I convinced him that he had to go to the doctor while he was home for the weekend. The next morning we got a call that shook us to our core.
