Written by Erin Miller
The Millers Adoption Story
Sorrow. Sadness. Broken. Crushed. These thoughts and emotions flooded our minds and hearts as we heard the news. In the spring of 2008, six years into our marriage, doctors informed us that our desperately desired dream of having biological children was just that . . . a dream.
Although stricken with sadness at our news, we accepted the fact that God obviously had a different plan for us. Our trust increased and our faith grew. As we see in hindsight, God started preparing our hearts a long time ago for our 2008 news. Even during our dating months, our conversations illuminated a burden for orphans - for the many children without the TLC of a mom and a dad. We knew that one day we would like to adopt, we just didn't know when, where, and why. God always knew, though!
After taking time to process having a door slammed in our faces, God re-opened the door to a renovated dream . . . the dream of expanding our family through adoption. After moving states and changing jobs in 2009, we requested information from various agencies, specifically focusing on international infant adoption. With our quest came a burden for a particular country. In the fall of 2009, connections led us to an international orphan hosting program that reaches out to our burdened country. With an enormous leap of faith, we pursued the opportunity of hosting. Our original intent was to host one child, but God impressed us to host two children - two beautiful sisters.
We never knew how much we could love two people we had never met until we hugged "our girls" at the airport when picking them up from the airport the first hosting visit. At that moment we felt as if the love we had for our unborn children was really for our already born children. Hosting Princess #1 and Princess #2 during the winters of 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 led us to begin processing our paper pregnancy! Only about two weeks shy of submitting paper work to our girls' country for translation, we received word that they did not want to be adopted because their mother re-entered the picture, ending our paper pregnancy in a miscarriage.
Although broken-hearted once again, we still trusted in God, knowing that He has control, has our best interest in mind, and knows exactly what child(ren) He wants us to parent. We spent time in prayer and in God's Word, seeking His next step for us. Who knew that the next step would come from a simple conversation with a church member one night at a VBS meeting . . .
Over the course of the month following our news about our first adoption attempt, we requested information from several adoption agencies and contacted many people. We both have a heart for the nations, so we were first looking at other international adoption options. We found an international adoption agency that would help us in our pursuit of a Chinese adoption, but then found out that both adoptive parents must be at least 30. The age requirement did not work for Erin at that time! So, what next? We then proceeded to look at other international options as well as domestic options (America). Several years ago, when we first looked into adoption, we wanted to adopt an infant. God brought us back to that spot. Having two puppies even helped confirm that desire. Even though we had to clean up poop, lose sleep, and sacrifice our own desires to play with the dogs, they were still worth it.
On May 4th, 2011, a church member approached Erin to ask about our adoption process. Once hearing our latest news, she informed us of a wonderful, Christian adoption agency (Covenant Care Services) that she used for her son's adoption. After researching and praying, we are now in this friend's shoes. Our application and home study to Covenant Care was received and accepted. This agency was willing to accept our home study (which our case worker graciously updated for free)! This means we did not have to start completely over! Once our portfolio was distributed to case workers, we prayed and waited to see what little one God had for us to care for. We were excited about the next step - the baby step!
Our baby step seemed liked millions of baby steps. Our portfolio was out for about 14 months (Oct. 2011 - Dec. 2012). The waiting steps seemed unending at times, yet we chose to trust in God's perfect plan and perfect timing. On Dec. 18th we received the call we had longed to hear: "How do you feel about coming to Covenant Care this Friday for a placement?" Although the placement changed to Saturday, we were so excited about bringing home our son. On Dec. 22nd we were able to bring home our Christmas baby blessing! Elijah (Eli) was worth the wait!
Eli continues to be a blessing to our family! He is full of love, energy, and personality! During a trip to Israel in January 2014, God confirmed that it was time for Eli to be a brother! We began our journey to adopt another child through the same adoption agency that led us to sweet Eli.
In January 2015, we learned of the birth of what we thought would be our baby girl. The birthmother changed her mind that same week. Our hearts were broken again. We had already seen our daughter's picture and had a name for her: Faith. We held on to our faith in the Lord and continued to pray and wait.
In April 2015, we had the privilege of meeting with a birthmother who wanted us to parent her baby boy. She stayed true to her adoption plan, and we brought her little boy into our family as our own son the end of that month. Ezekiel (Zeke) was twelve days old when he came home with us. Four months into having him in our home, we found out that he has numerous special needs, eventually leading to his title of "medically fragile". For that reason, we are still in the process of adopting Zeke (already into December 2016). It has been a long road of ups and downs, but we are still in pursuit of our little man. Zeke will one day hear the words of "Miller Forever" just like Eli did.
Adoption can be a crazy journey, but it is well worth it! We anticipate adding even more children to our family through adoption one day. Eli wants 8 siblings and Erin has always wanted 12 children, so we will see what the Lord has in store for our adoption story!
