At the time of the accident, we were fostering a little baby whom we had left in respite care rather than making him endure the drive to Arizona. Because of my injury and subsequent surgery, we needed an extra week of respite, but the original family was unable to do it, so baby boy was sent to stay with another foster family. Enter the "M" Family. They loved that sweet baby like crazy, and our families became friends. Dawn and I would share our foster struggles together and encourage each other.
One year after they provided respite for us, baby boy left us. We were heartbroken, and Dawn was such an encouragement to me. Around the same time, her family received a new foster placement, a little boy who was about a year and a half old. I remember talking to her about her new little one and his back story.
When our baby boy had left, I began praying about taking in older kids than what we had been caring for which was three and under. I had also begun to ask God about switching to matched adoption rather than fostering in order to spare us the pain of losing another little one. I felt a peace about changing up our plan, and I had begun to discuss this with Ozzie when we got a call from our neighbor regarding a baby girl who needed a home. Isabella came to us two days later, and I was left thanking God but also wondering and praying about older kids because I really felt that was where He had been leading us before we received Isabella.
About six weeks later, Dawn texted me asking for the number of our first respite family, then on a whim (I believe a prompting from God), she asked if we would be interested in taking in her little guy's older brother, ages 3 and 5. She also informed me that most likely this would be an adoptive placement. I called Ozzie knowing for sure he would laugh me right off the phone, but his reply was simply "I'm open to it." That was the beginning of another whirlwind placement, and two sweet boys became ours.
As they've been with us we've uncovered a lot of pain in their past, and as it began to move more clearly to adoption, we asked the boys about changing their names. They were both very excited to have new names to go with their new life in our home. We gave them some names to choose from, and the older boy used different Bible stories as his inspiration. He liked the name David because David was brave and strong when he defeated Goliath. Our David was going through a time when he had to speak up about some things that required him to be brave and strong. We also had read about Joseph and all the bad things that had happened to him. But our David was encouraged by the verse Genesis 50:20 stating that God was able to bring about good from the harm that others inflicted on Joseph. So David Joseph is his new name.
Andrew was mistakenly called Andrew before we had even talked about changing names, and he had told me that he wished that his name was Andrew. Fast forward several months and it officially is. This was of course after we had convinced him that Wolverine was not a good name since his friends would probably be afraid of his hands and fingernails. He thought that reason was good enough to go with Andrew instead of Wolverine. Timothy is his middle name because in the Bible Timothy, although young, is wise and not to be discounted because of his youth. Andrew, although he is the younger brother, is the encourager and comforter. He is wise despite his youth. Plus it sounded like "TNT" which Andrew had convinced himself was going to be his new middle name.
The story of how the boys came to us begins with pain, but it is a great testimony of how God worked such a wonderful blessing(s) out of that. The boys' story is when that also begins with pain and hardship, but we are confident that God will use it to bring about His plan that will be far better that we could ever ask or imagine for these two sweet boys.
Happy smiles on adoption day!
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