Zachary Has Arrived

Let me just say right off the bat--I have missed blogging the past several weeks. Life has just been entirely too crazy to sit down in front of the computer and try to weave my thoughts into a pattern coherent enough for people to read. Since it's been a while and A LOT has happened over the past couple of months, you'll have to excuse the length of this post.

As some of you may (or may not) know, Amanda and I have been interested in pursuing a child through adoption for some time. About 3 years ago we went to an orientation meeting at an agency in Dallas, but God never gave us peace about pursuing it further. We then went through the entire application and approval process with Depelchin, but quickly discovered that also was not God's calling on our lives. So we kind of gave up hope for a while.

In January of this year we felt the yearning again, so we requested some information from an agency that some of our friends have adopted through. It's called New Life Pregnancy Center and is located in Tomball, TX. If you click on the link, there is a bar at the bottom with photos of families. The couple to the far left are our friends Dave and Alicia. They're the ones who originally told us about New Life. I won't go into all the detail here, but our experience with New Life has been absolutely amazing. If you are considering adoption, please talk to us and we'll get you all the information we have about New Life.

In February we turned in our initial application and were told it would be June before we would do the next phase. June came and we interviewed with New Life and received the big application (30 pages or so). But every time we started working on it, we just got depressed and couldn't do anything. In September, we got a call from New Life saying there were 2 birth moms that looked to be a good match for us and we were asked to step on it and get our application done. One of these birth moms was due in November! We completed the entire process, including home study, in the next few weeks. How's that for motivation!

On Wednesday, October 14, we found out we had been chosen by a birth mom...and that she was due November 16! Words couldn't begin to come close to adequately describing the emotion we felt. I was having lunch with my mentor and friend, Rene Rivera, when I got the call from Amanda and it was so cool that he was there when I got the call because he had been praying through all of this with me for some time (thanks, Rene!).

Then the reality settled in that we had a month to prepare for this baby. While we were unbelievably excited, we didn't want to tell too many people because a birth mom can easily change her mind. Nothing is certain until you take that baby home. So in order to protect our emotions as much as we could, we chose not to tell many people.

We got to meet with our birth mom 4 times before the placement which was an absolute blessing. She is a wonderful young lady and we are so blessed to have gotten to know her. Unlike some adoptive parents, we will not have to candy-coat who she is with our son. We can tell him the full truth about her and not feel like we have to hide anything.

So we frantically spent the next month preparing our home for a baby. We knew it was going to be a boy, so that was good. We slowly started telling more people the more certain we got that this was actually going to happen. The due date came and went and we were told the doctors would induce on November 23 if the baby had not come by then. The wait was excruciating but worth it because we got to spend a lot of time praying for the birth mom and our son. Zachary Bradon Camp was born at 11:18 AM on November 23, 2009. He was 7 lbs, 4 ounces, 20 1/2" and perfectly healthy.

We gave him the name Zachary and the birth mom gave him the name Bradon. We chose Zachary because it means "the Lord remembers"--very fitting for our journey through this process.

On November 25, we went to the hospital and spent a couple of hours with the birth mom and her family. She placed Zachary in Amanda's arms and while crying told us how happy she was that we were going to provide a loving home for her son. We cried together for a while, said our goodbyes, and left the hospital.

I know I've said a lot, but I would also like the summarize this whole post and the whole experience. God is a great and graceful God. He is our Redeemer who has adopted us as His own and I have such a greater understanding of that now. Zachary will be a constant reminder that the Lord remembers.

More posts will be coming soon, but you have no idea how good it feels to be able to talk about this openly now. Here are some pictures of our new little man and a very happy new mom and dad!