Caleb's Adoption Story

This is as it was told to friends and family that beautiful month of September in 2003:

Matt and I have experienced God at work in a very real, personal and incredible way. Many of you have known that Matt and I have been praying for a child for some time now. We have been diagnosed with "unexplained infertility". A few months ago, our doctor approached us with the possibility of pursuing fertility treatments. As Matt and I prayed about this, we realized that we really did not feel compelled to head down that road at this time. We had always discussed adoption, and knew from the beginning of our marriage that it was something that we wanted to do. We had imagined ourselves having a few biological children, and then possibly adopting one or two children. Since adoption was always something we had wanted to do, it seemed very natural to pursue that. Our search led us to pursue international adoption. We began the process about a month and a half ago. The paperwork process is so intense!!! But it was also an neat experience to share together. With an international adoption, the process was expected to take about a year. We were planning on adoption a baby from Haiti. The baby would have been between 6 months to 1 year old. As part of any adoption process, domestic, or international, we had to complete a homestudy through a local INS approved agency. We hired Hawaii International Child (HIC) to complete our homestudy. We were about 2 weeks away from being "paperwork ready" when we received a call from our Social worker at HIC. The call came "out of the blue" on Tuesday September 16th. Our social worker explained that she knew that we were pursuing an international adoption, but wanted to know if we were at all "flexible" with those plans. I asked what she meant. She informed me that she had just been contacted by a local girl here on the Island who was pregnant, due to give birth that Friday, and wanted to make an adoption plan for her baby. She needed to choose a family for the baby, and the social worker wanted to know if we would want them to show her our profile. The social worker really down played the chances of anything actually happening with this, since the birth mom would have a selection of families to choose from, and also because the birth mom is half Hawaiian. It is commonly known in the Islands, that local girls rarely end up making adoption plans because families rarely allow for it. Often, family members will show up at the hospital, and tell the birth mom not to do, and offer their help to raise the child. Our social worker really wanted to prepare us for the very real possibility that nothing would come of this. I of course told her that I needed to discuss it with Matt. I will admit that I did not want to pursue this. I feared the seemingly inevitable disappointment that would come from it. When I called Matt, he said "Christine, this is what we have been praying for", but he wanted to discuss it with his parents before saying anything for sure. He called home and received great words of wisdom, some of which came from Mom when she said "Matt, how will you know if this is God's plan if you just immediately close the door. Let Him make the decision." Matt called me back, and said "Ya, let's do it." We had to provide more pictures of ourselves and a short biography. The birth mom would be making her decision the next day, and the social worker was going to call me either way. We slept very little that night. I was sure that she was not going to choose us, Matt was sure she would. The next day, Wednesday September 17th, the social worker called us and said "I want you to know that she made her decision very quickly." In a disappointed tone I said. "Oh, she did..." the social worker further explained "She looked at your picture and said, 'Oh, their cute.'" I still needed clarification.... "Does that mean she picked us??" "Once she read your profile, she was sure that you were the right family for the baby." I stood up at work and proclaimed "I gotta go... I think I'm gonna be a mom this weekend!" We knew that the birth mom was due that Friday, but we thought for sure that she may go even a week or so past. The next day, Thursday morning, we had an appointment with the social worker to sign some papers. About five minutes into it, the social worker got called out. She came back in the room and said that she had to go. The birth mom was just admitted into the hospital in labor. Our hearts began to palpitate! She told us that we needed to get to our attorney right away to have him draw up the appropriate paperwork. (We had just "hired" an attorney the night before from a list of references from the agency. He was the only one that we were able to get in contact with and "happened" to be an incredible Christian man.) We raced over to his office. We were a little early for our appointment and found it quite convenient that Toys R Us was across the street. We raced over and bought a car seat. Just as we were finishing up with the attorney, we received a call from the hospital. The birth mom wanted to invite us to the hospital. My first thought was "Oh my goodness! I don't have my camera!" We bolted over to Kmart and bought a disposable camera. Though we still did not know what to expect once we got there, or if the birth mother would really go through with signing the papers. Once we arrived, she actually invited us into the delivery room! Once things really got going, her dad (who was the only family member there with her) got a bit squeamish. So, Matt and I coached her through the entire labor! Matt held the cool rag on her head, and I held her hand and echoed the nurses words... "Breath" and "Push" were the most common phrases in those moments. At 12:24 on Thursday afternoon September 18th (less than 48 hours from the very first call regarding our miracle) we witnessed the birth of our beautiful baby boy, Caleb Matthew Maikalani Jorgens (Maikalani -pronounced 'my-ka-law-nee'- is Hawaiian, meaning: From Heaven.) He weighed in at 7lbs. 7.5 ozs. and was 20 in. long.. He is gorgeous and healthy! Matt cut the cord in the delivery room, and I was the first one to hold him. We were there for his first bath, and first bottle! And yes, birth mom did sign the papers. She never wavered in her decision. She knew in her heart that she was making the right decision. What a gift! My wonderful sister in law, Tammie, put it best when she said "Christine, you received more than I would have ever thought to pray for!" You are so right, my Dear! We brought our little Caleb home on Friday night, and all are doing well! We have totally fallen in love with our beautiful son. Caleb is quite a little melting pot, being a mix of Hawaiian, Japanese and Caucasian. We are in such awe over the gift the Lord has given us. To Him be the Glory!