Adoption Awareness Month: Meet Nicki

Let me introduce you to an a new acquaintance...Nicki.  I only met Nicki recently through the blogging world, and already have two very important things in common:  teenagers, and adoption.  I love Nicki's perspective on things, and her ability to advocate for those who are helpless.  Her words give a much needed voice to those who don't have one.  Thank you, Nicki!

Hi, I'm Nicki. I'm the mum of three homegrown boys and one gorgeous little girl, Nicole, adopted from the Philippines. I am, in no particular order, 37, Married, Christian and passionate about practical mission work because it distresses me to know that children are eating dirt for lack of food. We are an Aussie family which makes Nicole our little Phaussie!

The desire to adopt had been with me from a very young age but I managed to push it aside for many years, too caught up in having our bio kids and then continuing to push it aside due to adoption being a very difficult and expensive process in Australia. I remember calling my mum one day in tears, as you do, saying that I wanted to adopt but that it was too expensive. I'd like to say she said 'Oh, there there, everything will be ok, come over and I'll bake you something.' What she actually did say changed our life. She said 'If you want something badly enough you'll find a way to make it happen.' Ouch.

So began our three year journey of form after form, social workers visiting our home, medicals, TB testing, psych testing and waiting and waiting, and waiting, and waiting. You see, when our file finally made it to the Philippines all communication stopped. All we knew was that when we were allocated a child we would get a phone call. I'll tell you this, I carried my mobile phone around with me everywhere I went. There were many times that I turned the car around half way to town to retrieve that phone - just.in.case.

Eighteen months and three weeks of phone carrying later I waved my husband off on a  6am plane to Bali where he was going to lead a team of young people to work in the slum areas of dempasar. Tossing my phone onto the fridge when I arrived home I thought to myself 'God won't let us get the call while Paul is away, I may as well just relax for a couple of weeks.'

3.45pm the same day.

Ring Ring
Hello
Is this Nicki?
Yes it is.
Nicki, It's Rebecca calling from DOCS. We have an allocation for you. You have a baby girl!

SOB.

I couldn't speak for crying - so much so that she offered to call back when I could talk! What followed was a mad flurry of running around sharing the news with the boys, then extended family and FINALLY with Paul who was standing in the customs line at Dempasar airport when he found out he was a Daddy again!

Our adoption experience has been a real rollercoaster from the highs of deciding to adopt, to the lows of the wait, to the high of meeting our baby girl, to the lows of not sleeping for a year. But the whole experience has been wonderful. The most unique part of our adoption is that our daughter was named by her birthmum long before we knew her. Why she chose Nicole I will possibly never know. My name is Nicole too. I figure there must be a reason for that which will unfold in the future.

We haven't had too many odd comments but we do get 'the look' as people try to figure out if she's 'ours' or not. Ah - yeah - she is! Probably the funniest is when a well meaning stranger delightfully declared 'She looks like you!' Hmm, not so much - but thanks!

Adoption is wonderful. Yes, it's hard, but so, so worth it!

My blog, Coming Home, shares our adoption journey from when we left the orphanage with Nicole. If you look at the blog archive the story starts in April with the post Peanutbutter Kisses followed by In the Beginning and Running away 1 mm at at time. Just keep going chronologically from there! I hope you enjoy the ride as much as we did.

Hi, it's me again.  I started reading Nicole's story and couldn't stop.  I'm recommending a few more posts because Nicki does such a great job of bringing awareness to the plight of literally millions of children and families who suffer every day.  It makes me wish I had billions of dollars and all the time and emotional energy in the world to help.  A few posts I loved:  What value can be placed? and a more recent post that really tugged at my heart titled Broken Hearted.  


Thank you Nicki for introducing us to the world of international adoption.