Heartache, pain, rejection and disappointment filled our lives and our journey to parenthood from the time we were married. We had always wanted to have a family and eventually hoped for a large family. So when we received closed doors and unexplained reasons for not having a baby, our hearts were challenged and God began to move on our hearts. My wife had always had the God given desire to adopt children as long as she can remember, but me—I was the lone hold out. I was the selfish one; I wanted a little me in this world, like I wasn’t enough already. I was hurt that our family was not going to come from us. When I finally began to listen to God and my wife, we began the path to adopting. We fell in love with Colombia as a country and the opportunity for us to bring home a little baby boy.
Our paperwork moved rather quickly and we began to feel God opening our hearts to a sibling group of two; then one day Children’s Hope asked us, “Would you guys be open to a sibling group of three?” With a gulp and a time of prayer we found God saying to us, “I will give you strength, I will give you the skills, and I will walk beside you. ”Four months ago we found ourselves celebrating our sixth anniversary in a foreign country, with three new children that had become part of our family. On our fifth anniversary our children were but a twinkle in our eyes and we knew very little about the foreign land of Colombia. We are now home and the proud parents of three Colombian children.
Colombia offered us many opportunities to enjoy getting to know the culture, share a meal in our translator’s home, and take our kids around to explore their beautiful country. The taxi cab drivers were all very professional; the hotel, very helpful; and the afternoon siesta, something I think we should adopt in the US.Four months together and we spend most of our days laughing with them and at the funny things they do and how they have been able to get along so well. The doctor visits have been taken in stride, we have bandaged the skinned knees from falling while learning to ride a bike, and the first time our children had s’mores was on our Memorial Day weekend camping trip. Our little one has learned to say more two-syllable words and can now say sorry...when he wants to.
We see them learning the English language and growing more confident in their abilities each day. Just yesterday my wife brought my 6-year-old daughter in to my office because my daughter needed to hear that I will always love her and always be her papi. They bring joy to our lives and within the first few months of being together, we are slowly forgetting what life as a childless couple felt like. We are seeing God work in our lives and the lives of our children.Now that I have two boys at home with me, I have begun to understand that not all similarities between biological children and parents are genetically transferred. We have felt God walking alongside us the entire way. We think back at the financial burden that this could have been and because God is God and He loves His people and calls them to give, we don’t have that financial burden, and we know that we are not deserving of His grace through finances but like a good father, He does always know what’s best. It has been a truly incredible ride that gets better with every twist and turn.
--Jose Huerta, husband of Megan and father of Luis, 8, Ana, 6, and Jeison, 4 (Kentucky)
Published in the Children's Hope Newsletter, Summer 2007
