Crazy April Adoption Family + The Maas’

Introducing the Maas Family “Blog.”  I met Rebecca (mom) in adoption bloggy land.  I’m thrilled to feature this beautiful colorful family this April!!  Please take the time to leave the Maas’ a special comment to spread some crazy love!

Four years ago God began impressing upon us the frugality of trying to live the “American Dream”.  We had built a large home and filled it with nice furniture.  We were a two income family with two children and a dog.  While I was pregnant with our second child we began to think about our future and what that would look like.  Honestly, we did not like what we saw.  I never wanted to work full time but I would need to work to pay for our comfortable lifestyle.  So we began to make drastic changes in our lifestyles.  We sold our large home and bought a smaller one that we could afford on one income.  After our son was born I did not return to work but stayed home to raise our family.  A few months after our son was born we began the adoption process in China.

We mailed our dossier to China in February 2006.  At that time, the estimated wait to be matched with a child was between six and nine months.  One day in March 2006 I was standing in the kitchen, I think I was fixing lunch.  I got cold chills and God said, “Your daughter was born today”.  Well, I thought that was really cool and starting counting the days of how old she would be when we got our referral.  As the wait got longer and longer I began to think that day in March was just wishful thinking.  If she was born on that day she would be two or older before we finally got her and we had specifically requested a child younger than nine months of age.  OK, skip forward to September 2007.  We had decided after much prayer that we felt God leading us to apply for a child with a special medical need.  Finally, on October 4, 2007 we got THE CALL from our adoption agency.  We had been matched with Faith.  I just fell to my knees and cried like a baby.  At the time I did not make the connection back to that day in March 2006.  A few days later we were on our way home from church and suddenly it all clicked.  Faith was born on March 20, 2006.  She was the little girl God told me was born in China that day in March 2006.  WOW!!!  In December 2007 we traveled to China to pick up our sweet Faith.

On the plane ride home from China I leaned over and told my husband, “you know you have a son in Africa”.    Two months after being home with our beautiful Faith we began looking for Gabriel.  We knew that we wanted to adopt a child from a waiting child list..  We looked for about 2-3 weeks when we saw Gabriel.  We immediately knew it was him and began the adoption process.

On that same list was a little boy named Jacob.  Jacob was 6 months old and his medical report said that he had Hepatitis B.  I inquired as to what my husband would think about adopting two boys.  His response was that we had just adopted a child that was considered to have special needs and that was enough for us right now.   A month or two passed and I continued to watch the children on the waiting list.  As I was reviewing the list one day I was horrified when I saw a picture of Jacob.   Jacob at nine months old had dwindled away to 10 pounds and looked very weak.  I told my husband that we had to do something or he was going to die.  So I contacted the adoption agency to inquire about Jacob.  Neither of us had any doubt that we would adopt Jacob so we added Jacob to our dossier.

The agency took Jacob in for a medical evaluation to try to figure out why he had gotten so weak.  Our adoption agency would not allow us to officially accept Jacob’s referral until a medical report was received.  It seemed like it was taking forever and our paperwork was just sitting in Ethiopia waiting for Jacob’s papers to be completed.  We begged and pleaded with our agency to please let us go ahead and adopt Jacob.  We did not care about his diagnosis and would adopt him regardless of what his medical needs turned out to be.  Finally, they allowed us to officially accept his referral but not before we signed some extra documents stating that we knew his medical information was unknown and that there was a possibility that he would pass away before the adoption was completed.  A few days later we received a medical report for Jacob.  They mentioned things like a mass on his brain, cerebral palsy, fluid on his brain, and failure to thrive.   It turns out he was not positive for Hepatitis B.

Well, we brought Gabriel and Jacob home on July 31, 2008 on Jacob’s 1^st birthday.  Jacob has been diagnosed with Quadriplegia Cerebral Palsy.  It is funny to think back to the day we saw a little boy that was positive for Hepatitis and we thought we could not handle another child with a health issue.   We are so glad that God knows what we can handle and what is best for us.  Jacob is such a joy and we cannot imagine not having him as a part of our family.

Our family was growing quickly but our hearts continued to ache for those children left behind.  So in March 2009 we completed our dossier to adopt two more children from Ethiopia.  This adoption was a rollercoaster of a ride and way to long of a story to tell here.  In January 2010 we finally brought home our two new daughters, Grace & Sera.  Both girls were on a waiting list, Grace because of her age and Sera has several birth defects including polydactyl of her hands & feet, and multiple issues with her eyes.

Here we are three months home with our newest family members.  Life is always busy, most of the time crazy, and sometimes scary!  Are we going to adopt again?  YES!!  As long as there is room in our hearts there will ALWAYS be room in our home.  However, we are currently at an impasse as our home study agency will not approve us until we have a larger home.  God’s provisions and timing are perfect!   Please keep our family in your prayers as we look for a home, which fits within our budget, and will fit a growing family of 9 AND that is handicap accessible.

GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME!
Darren & Rebecca Maas
Miranda,Grace, Ethan, Faith, Gabriel, Jacob, & Sera

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