This is the adoption story of the Carla Breeding. Carla received a Show Hope adoption aid grant during her journey of adoption, made possible by Show Hope sponsors.
“She reached out her little left hand and grabbed my neck. I was prepared for tears, a need for soothing, but she seemed to be soothing me instead. I never wanted to move my cheek from the top of her head. Eventually, I made my way to a mirror across the room so I could see her face without moving her. In the hotel room where we spent our first days together, I made a bottle for her and sang, ‘God is so Good’, adding ‘God made us a family’ as our own made-for-the-occasion verse. We were a family. Finally. Those precious first hours together quickly turned into days, weeks, years of learning and loving each other, not as in a fairy tale, but in the work and love that intertwine in building a real family, with the ebb and flow of frustration and ecstasy.
“Two years later, when she had grown to be a chubby toddler, we received into our hands and hearts the tiniest, most active baby I had ever seen. Our second little one wouldn’t have any of this snuggling like her older sister… she wanted to experience every adventure as quickly as possible. We soaked up slobbery kisses until months later she finally allowed me to hold her in that snuggly way. She finally let me in. When a rough patch comes, I say to the girls, ‘We are a family. All three of us. God took something that could have been bad, and made it into something better than we could imagine. We are family forever and ever! Always! There is nothing that could ever happen that would make us NOT a family.‘
“And now, as life is lived in the typical routine of church, visits to the public library, ballet lessons, basketball teams, gymnastics, lunch boxes and school. There is also the not-so-typical routine of explaining that not all babies come from the airport but some from a hospital, annual reunion trips with those who began their lives together in the same orphanage, and culture camp. I understand that my life truly began when those little fingers first grabbed my neck and never let go. It’s the three of us—a beautiful family built in a miraculous way through adoption.”
