A Ray of Light

Posted by Traci at 11:13 PM

You know how there’s that radiance of light around the whole birth experience?  How you remember exactly what you ate the night before the big event, who you talked with on the phone, the exact route you took to the hospital, what your nurse looked like, the goofy thing your husband said while “coaching”, who was waiting at the house when you got home.  I love listening to birth stories because people are so funny in their details – “and right after we went to Office Depot to get more envelopes we shared the nacho grande at Taco Bell and then my water broke”.  

It’s like the nuclear explosion of welcoming a person into the world sends radiant beams forward and backward, and everything that happens gets caught up in the fallout and becomes crystalized in time forever.  Well turns out that the regular old way of birthin’ does not have a monopoly on this phenomenon.   We are adopting two children from China.  A three year old girl and a one year old boy, both deaf.  The girl we are naming Rosalee Jane and the boy we are naming after my husband, Charles III (we’ll call him Trey). 

We found out about Trey on October 11, 2011, around 11 pm.  The next four days were a haze of emails, phone calls, paperwork and more paperwork.  But I remember everything.  Sending my mom his picture, staying up until 2 am with Chip just being excited and dreaming of our boy in China, the next morning spent cursing mountain time because it is two freaking hours behind where we live and his adoption agency doesn't open until 9 am anyway, the next 48 hours spent pawning E off on family and friends (thanks Clay) so that we could complete two weeks worth of paperwork in two days.  And then Friday afternoon, when we heard the most awesome words in the dictionary – “locked in”.  Meaning he’s ours, foreva, don’t even bother clicking on the listing lady cause that boy’s a Parker now!  Our church was having revival that weekend, so Josh and Joni came to lead and speak, and they were both so sweet to be so excited with us.  And our deaf church – where do I start?  They were just plain giddy.  Ms. Mildred and Ms. Flo (both senior saints) duking it out over who would get the first hug.  I swear I think I had a permanent smile on my face that whole weekend.

Chip signs "I love you Trey"

And Rosalee…sweet Rosalee.  Doesn’t the name just make you smile?  All along we were thinking we would be getting two boys because that’s just how adoptions in China were going.  But my parents came to visit and my mom brought a boatload of clothes from when I was a baby/little girl.  And that was it, I wanted a girl.  And on November 28^th I got one.  So 47 days after the “birth” of my second child I had my third.  Another round of hazy goodness – the 9 pm call from Beth at the adoption agency (10 am in China) asking if we wanted her (uh duh!), the vp call to Chip’s very surprised Dad letting him know he was a grandfather again, the sweet calls and emails from Kirby Woods ministers and staff wives, our celebration dinner at PF Chang’s where I swear on a stack of Bibles my fortune cookie said “a small gift can bring joy to the whole family”.

I’m so thankful for the blessing of my three children.  I just can’t wait to get all the chicks in the nest.  What’s that Tom Petty song…”waiting is the hardest part”.  Amen to that.