Simply::adoption {Haas part 1}

1999

I'm struggling to even begin this post. I don't know where to begin because there is so much I want to share. I think we should start at the beginning. The year; 1999. The place; Denver Colorado. I was a recent high school graduate and my father a recent transferee at work.We spent the summer in his corporate apartment and then moved my parents into their new house in the Denver suburbs. It was a rotten summer. To be fair, my parents did everything they could to help me, but I was in between high school and college and thought I had left everything I loved behind.
Towards the end of the summer I got my letter from school telling me my roommate assignment. I don't know if I had ever been as nervous to open a piece of paper in my life to that point. I was terrified. What if she was crazy? What if she snored? What if she partied? what if... oh my goodness, heaven forbid.. What if she was a cheerleader? Looking back I laugh at myself knowing what God planned, but at the time it was difficult to see past the nose on my face. Looking at the interest sheet the school sent me I noticed that she had noted, just as I had, that she was a Christian. Her name was Dawn (aren't all cheerleaders named Dawn?) but I somehow got the nerve up to call her and we had a great first conversation. We immediately seemed to get along well and when we met at welcome weekend I immediately knew that things would work out great.

1999, before a Rams game

2000, one of many late night ice cream runs
Who needs a man when you have Ben and Jerry's?

When people ask me what to pray for as they enter college, or their child does... I say pray for a Dawn. Pray for the roommate you need. Pray for who will push you, and grow you, and love you. That first day of college is one of those "I'll always remember what I was wearing" kind of days (khaki cargo skirt and Hawaiian shirt). After moving in and kicking our parents out we headed out for welcome week activities. Unlike Texas schools where welcome week is all about the brain washing (just kidding... or am I....) loyalty building, school spirit initiation, ours was more of a Greek week "join us!" kind of deal, so she called a friend from home who was an older student and we bailed. We ate walrus Ice cream. My life was changed.
Later that night I would get a phone call from my mother telling me that my brother in laws sister, just a few years older than I, had died in a car accident. Dawn let me cry and didn't act like it was craziness to be helping your brand new roommate grieve. This was only the beginning. We spent the year celebrating highs and lows, connected in ways that only God could have ordained. We both came into our freshman year with high school sweethearts back at home. We both left the year without without them. We hilariously choreographed nsync dance numbers and preformed them nightly. We practiced walking down the aisle, aka, the dorm hallway to Jim Brickman music. (I have to admit here that when it came time to plan my own wedding I did use ALL Jim Brickman music for my entire ceremony, I LOVED it). We had one of those friendships that was just so special. Anne Voskamp wrote this week of a beautiful friendship turned sour. I cant tell you how many times sour pickles were thrown at our friendship. We've had years pass with near silence. But this Christmas I got to go see her, share a morning playing with our kids and then that evening share a meal with her and her husband. It felt like nothing had changed between our hearts. The day to day details were missing, but THANKS to facebook and blog land we at least had some understanding of the details of each others lives. A detail that I was not prepared for... Adoption. The same friend I shared history classes, biology lab, broken hearts, secret nicknames,a love for memory keeping, a love for Jesus.... God has also given us the same heart for adoption. For his lost ones. For a daughter. I had no idea how far in to her adoption she was though. "Ready to receive referrals" what? already? I had been so focused on Becky and Briggs and thinking the trip this Christmas was to celebrate our Ethiopian Prince that i was not prepared to realize that a Chinese Princess was about to be claimed! My heart jumps just thinking about it! So soon, within weeks hopefully, Dawn and her husband Matt will be accepting a referral. A child. They will claim a child as theirs and submit paperwork formally to China requesting that they be given the privilege of raising her. The joy of bringing her home. I am so excited, and since Dawn does not blog I get to bring this to you! I got to sing at her wedding, but for some reason i feel even more honored to be a part of this. In the next few days I'll be sharing lots more about my sweet friend and letting you in on an easy and fun way you can help be a part of her story too! So come back soon!! You won't want to miss this!

2011

2011