In March, I shared Joshua's adoption story.  We received an incredible response and a number of comments following the feature.  A number of people even asked me to share our first adoption story - so here is Christie's story - I know you'll agree that it's just as special as Joshua's one...

I should start at the beginning - Athol and I were made for each other.  Before we met, I had my paperwork filled out and was planning to leave South Africa in order to do my masters in Midwifery at Guys Hospital in London.  A week after we met, we were strolling hand-in-hand along the beachfront.  Athol asked me what my future plans were.  I remember saying "last week I was going to London, this week I'm not sure..."  We met in the middle of October, were engaged at the end of November, and married in March.  We have an incredible relationship and marriage.  God has tested us many times during our 12 years of marriage, but He has also blessed us beyond measure.

From the start, we knew we wanted children.  After several years of trying, we turned to fertility specialists and went through the usual testing, procedures, fertility drugs and shots.  Still no success.  The problems were all on my side, and the result of endometriosis and endometrial TB, the latter of which was very rare.  Organ TB is tuberculosis which settles elsewhere in the body, and my lungs remained clear throughout the illness.  I'll spare you the details - the story would be too long and you'll have to wait for my book to come out...

By 2001, we were desperate for a baby.  Everyone  we knew was either pregnant or had children.  We had spoken briefly about adoption a few years before, but decided that we weren't ready for that route yet.  We were on a camping trip in Alabama when the subject came up again, and this time we decided to seriously start praying about this option.  In December 2001, we were back in the fertility specialist's office.  We were devastated to hear that we weren't good candidates for in vitro.  My condition had deteriorated to the stage where my quality of life was deteriorating each month, and I was living on painkillers.  We were told that our only option was a hysterectomy.  I cried and cried and cried. Every time I heard a Christmas carol, or saw a baby, or a pregnant woman, I'd cry some more!  Then Twila Paris came to town.  She has always been my favorite Christian artist, and I owned every CD she'd made - all except for one, which was her lullaby album.   She was singing in a Christmas concert at our church, and my husband bought us tickets in the hopes of cheering me up some.  During the concert, Twila shared her testimony, and how she and her husband has tried so hard for so many years to have a baby.  She showed a slide show of her new daughter, who'd finally been born the year before.  After the concert, I walked up to her and asked for her autograph.  I thanked her for her testimony, and shared that we were struggling with the same issues.  I also shared that I had just bought her Lullaby Album in faith.  She stood up and gave me a hug, telling me that God had a perfect future planned for us, and just to be patient.  Athol was standing nearby, and captured the moment with my camera.

We decided to continue with life, and I refused to have the hysterectomy until God made it abunduntly clear that this was the decision we needed to make.  We looked at various adoption agencies, and all were beyond our financial reach.  We handed out our profile and started praying for a private adoption.  I was climbing into the shower one morning in April, when the phone rang.  I ignored it, and saw the message light blinking when I got out of the shower.  I can still remember sitting there, dripping wet and covered in a towel, and hearing that a baby girl had been born at 06:17 that morning, and needed an adoptive family.  I immediately called Athol, pulling him from a meeting.  I told him that we might  have a baby girl.  He was delighted, and immediately said "that's great, when she's due - October, November?"  There was stunned silence when I told him that she'd been born already, and was waiting to meet us.  We immediately starting thinking logistics - I had a new job and no leave due.  He hung up and called his sister to tell her the great news, and I called my best friend.  She was in a meeting, and I left her 2 voicemails in the space of 5 minutes.  Athol called back to say that his sister Wendy was very excited, and wanted to look after our baby for the 3 days a week that I had to work.  What an immediate answer to prayer!  When my best friend called back, I was crying, and before I could even tell her what had happened, she asked whether we'd got a baby!  Beth said she could just hear it in my voice.  I told her that I didn't know if this would work out.  She told me not to worry, this baby was God's gift to us, and He would work everything out.  Within minutes, the phone started ringing - people in our church and Sunday-school calling to say they were on their way with baby supplies. 

Athol rushed home from work, and we picked up his sister Wendy on our way to the hospital.  Driving down, Athol asked me how I felt, and how he should be feeling.  I said I didn't know - I was just as scared as I was excited!  We got to hold our daughter before she was 12 hours old.  I finally handed her over to Athol.  She immediately turned into his chest and tried to snuggle closer - I started crying when I saw the instantaneous love in his eyes, and his face lit up like a Christmas tree.  We drove home on cloud 9, and stopped at a close friend's house to pick up a diaper bag and baby name book.  We never even opened the book, and decided on Christine Grace, while still standing on their front doorstep...The following morning, Beth and I were at Babies-R-Us when they opened their doors for business.  The company Athol worked for bought us our stroller and car seat.  God had blessed with some incredible family and friends, and we had everything we needed for our brand new baby in a matter of hours...

We brought our Christie Grace home with us on Saturday.  I had put on my make-up at least twice by the time we got home.  Pulling into the driveway, we saw that friends had decorated the mailbox and front door, and I started crying again!  Monday afternoon, my neigbor called and said she had something to show me.  As I walked out of her house about 20 minutes later, the street was filled with cars, and I found a crowd of people at our house for our surprise baby shower.  You know where this is going, and yep, you guessed it - I cried yet again!

The best part of the story, for me, was the fact that when I had bought Twila's lullaby album in faith in December, Christie had already been conceived.  She'd been chosen specifically for us, and Twila was right - we just had to be patient.  I typed out 2 of my favorite lullubies from the album, and put them in Christie's scrapbook, together with the picture of Twila with her arm around my shoulder.  I had my hysterectomy when Christie was 3 months old, and have never looked back, health-wise. 



Today marks the 6 year anniversary of this miracle in our lives, as Christie turns 6.  She's been an incredible child and she, like Joshua, will always be God's special gift to us...