Learning about Jonathan

After we decided to adopt him, we learned more about Jonathan. His mom was 20 and it was his grandmother who asked about giving him up for adoption. He was born on August 9, 2006, at around 6:00 in the morning. He was three weeks old when we was brought to HIS Home and he weighed 5 lbs! He was just a little guy! Other than being slightly malnourished and dirty, he seemed to be doing fairly well. After several baths, he was much cleaner and after getting formula, started gaining weight.

We never got a chance to meet his biological mom, but we did get some pictures. Her name was Nathalie - when we found that out, we knew that this little guy who was entering our hearts in a big way was truly a gift from God. She was visiting him for a while, but stopped after finding out "the news".

Jonathan with his birth mom and his biological grandmother

After more prayer, and peaceful confirmation from God, we signed the adoption agreement, sent in our first installment for the payment and started working on our dossier.

On November 11th, 2006, exactly one month after we were approved to adopt, we got some news we weren't expecting. His medical tests came back and he tested positive for HIV. For babies up to 18 months, we learned, there is a good chance they will sero-convert, or end up testing negative. They are merely carrying the antibodies they got from their mommas. The orphanage gave us a choice - keep going with him not knowing what would happen, or choose another child. To say the news shocked us would be an understatement. We were completely and totally devestated. We cried all that day, and then cried some more. And oh how we prayed! We prayed for God's leading and direction. We prayed for a miracle. We prayed that when we decided, we would do the right thing. About a week later, it was cleart that God had one plan and only one plan for us and Jonathan...we were his parents, and we were in it for the long haul. We decided that Jonathan is OUR son and we love him, NO MATTER WHAT.

To say that our decision was embraced by our families would also be an understatement. Most of our family members were supportive of our desire to adopt. Most of our family members were supportive of us adopting a little boy from Haiti - who would be black. But when we told them we were going to go ahead with an adoption involving a little boy testing HIV+...well that's another story. Some of our co-workers didn't understand why either. We learned later that it was more than likely ignorance of what being HIV+ was and is. For us, all we knew is that God was leading us and we wanted to follow him. We knew that he would guide each step we took and each direction we faced. We knew that he would give us strength when we needed to get through tough times and rest when we had a chance to take a breath. We knew that he wanted us to adopt Jonathan. And so, we kept right on going...