And then there was Gabriel

Thank you all for all of your support during this difficult time. I have truly felt the love.

Over Thanks Giving and Christmas, Kaleb and I were blessed to have the company of a fantastic 15 (almost 16) year old boy that we will call Gabe. I first met Gabe at summer school this past summer. He came to one of the group homes about half way through the summer, and we had an instant connection. One of the first outings he attended with us was up to the top of a local “mountain”. I was a very foggy day and you could not see a thing off the top of the mountain, so a lot of kids were just climbing on rocks and resting after the long hike. Gabe came and sat by me and started asking me questions about God and how we could know that God is real and that He cares for us. We had an amazing talk that lasted the entire time we were up on that mountain. I  didn’t know then what God was doing in my heart and in Gabe’s.

We agreed to take Gabe for Thanks Giving weekend because we had had him over for some day visits during the summer, and Kaleb and Gabe really connected. During Thanks Giving we got to see how he interacted with our families and my little sister, who is only a few months older than Gabe. We wanted to see if he could be appropriate with an attractive young girl around. He passed with flying colors. He had some issues with one-upping and childish bad sportsmanship, but other than that, we had a fantastic weekend together.

At Christmas, we had the last minute opportunity to take Gabe with us to my Mom’s in another state. His caseworker miraculously gave us the thumbs us. Again, we had the opportunity to see how he would be around family. My family took to him immediately, and my brother in law especially took every opportunity to encourage him and build him up. It was amazing. I really started to see some very fatherly characteristics coming out in Kaleb as well, which really touched my heart. I started talking to God more about this boy, and what part he was supposed to be in our family.

You see, with the whole Grace drama, caseworkers didn’t want anyone to be placed with her because her behaviors are so unstable at times. This made us very sad, because we were really, truly beginning to love Gabe, but we had made a commitment to Gracie first. Eventually, Gabe’s caseworker was forced to start looking for another family for him. We let our caseworker know how heartbroken we were that we had to see this precious boy be placed somewhere else. He started making visits to a family in another town about an hour away, and it looked like the caseworker was pushing for long-term placement very quickly. This made us very sad. We knew in our hearts that if there was ever the opportunity, we would take him into our family in a moment.

Well, after last week’s events of Grace deciding she didn’t want to continue moving forward with the adoption, and us stepping out as gracefully as possible, we felt like we had just missed our chance with Gabe. We let our caseworker and the group home know that if there was any possibility, we would love for him to be placed with us.

Well, I got a call today from our caseworker asking if we would like to start taking Gabe on weekends. I said “Absolutely!” No reason to talk it over with Kaleb, I knew where he stood. We want this boy. He won’t be able to come this weekend because he apparently tantrummed or something and is majorly in the hole, but a Gabe tantrum just means he wouldn’t shut up during an argument. The kid has a big mouth, but Kaleb and I have bigger ones. No, we are just good at tellin’ him to cut it out, and he usually does. Anywho, Kaleb and I are thrilled with this second chance to bring this amazing young man into our lives.

Please pray that God will give all those involved wisdom as to what He has instore for us and this special kid. Pray that all necessary preparations and transitions will be made easily and smoothly. Pray God’s blessing on this son of His.

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