National Adoption Awareness Month

Evan's Re-Adoption Newton County Court House 2005

November is National Adoption Awareness Month. It’s a time to celebrate families touched by adoption, be thankful to birth mothers for their choice, and remember families and children who are waiting on their loving homes. Whether you've personally been touched by adoption or not, take a moment to pray for the families still waiting to be joined with their perfect family. Several of our friends have been waiting for several years for THEIR child to come home. The hurt is that they are experiencing is only imaginable. Please remember them, especially as yet another Christmas season approaches.


It is hard to believe that it has been over three years since Evan came home to live with his forever family. So much has changed since then, I still can't believe that not one but two children have since been added to our family. We certainly aren't the Hodges...family of 3 that we came to be known as in Russia for now it's the Hodges Five!


This is a little personal and in fact, I thought long and hard about sharing this with "the world", but here goes.

Our choice to pursue adoption began long long ago in 2003 when it wasn't "easy" for us to conceive. We had a few choices, do nothing, seek help through fertility treatments, or adopt. Our decision was an easy one and it was as clear as it could be...we chose to adopt! I went online and started doing research about various agencies. We signed up for an informational seminar at Bethany Christian Services. There, that day, we began the stacks of paperwork to adopt. The rest for us is history...We found out about Evan in February 2004, traveled to Russia in April 2004, adopted him in April 2005.

Our lives felt so complete and fulfilled by this small, timid Russian child, who quickly turned into this very Southern, rough and tough little boy.

Our plan (not God's) for child number 2 was always that I would return to teaching when Evan entered Kindergarten and save up the money for a second adoption. Our desire for another child began to grow quickly as we saw how fast Evan was growing. My fear was that he would be too old to fully appreciate having a baby brother or sister before we could afford it...so I began praying about it and planting the seed in Clay's mind. We certainly didn't have the money to adopt again but I so badly wanted to do rush out and get started.


We thought about fertility treatments since we'd never tried them but my heart kept wanting to adopt. Which direction should we turn to? After lots of prayer and thoughtful consideration, it hit us like a ton of bricks..."You know if we do fertility treatments and they work, that would certainly be much cheaper!" "Let's do it!" Our plan (again, not God's) was that we would get pregnant with number 2, then adopt number 3 but God went ahead and gave us numbers 2 &3!! What a blessing!

Through lots of prayers we chose to pursue fertility treatments basically because it was the cheaper route to take, and if any of you know Clay (and you all do) you know, he's all about the cheaper way. LOL

This is what I wish that everyone could understand. It wasn't our choice because I yearned to be pregnant, it wasn't our choice because I wanted to give birth, it wasn't our choice because we wanted "our own"(see side note), it was simply financial. I love being a Mommy but I did not have the yearning desire to be pregnant or to birth a child, I just wanted to be a Mommy to another child.

Okay, the side note...the "our own" comments burns me up!!!! Evan is our own, just as much as Ella and Elijah is our own!! There is NO DIFFERENCE!!! For your sake, (and mine) please don't EVER let those words come out of someone whom I love.

After our very first IUI, we found out that we were pregnant...a couple of weeks later...THERE'S TWO!

I can't believe that we have three children and I can't imagine having four children, but adoption is still very heavy on my heart. Oh how special it would be to take Evan on an adoption journey. Though he has often told us that when he grows up, he's going to adopt a child from Russia.

Galatians 4:5 and Romans 8: 14-17 talks about God adopting us as His children. Ephesians 1:5-6...having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

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