Our First Meeting

After over 13 months of waiting we finally got to meet the latest addition to our family, Trey Teepop Beeson (formerly know as Teepop Buadepresert). We initially found out about him last November of 2008 when we got a call out of the blue from Holt Adoption Agency (the agency that had handled our two previous son's adoptions) saying that they had just found out that RJ's (my eldest son) mother had given birth to another baby and were wondering if we wanted to adopt again. After I got over my initial shock, I started to get excited, as I had felt the Lord was preparing my heart to the possibility of going back for a little girl just before we had gotten the call. At the risk of sounding like a horrible person, you can imagine I was quite dissapointed when I was told it was another little boy. My disappointment quickly faded, and I began to get excited about the possibility of adopting another child into our home. Lance however, did not initially share my same excitement but we decided to have them send us the information about the child for our review. It took us many hours of prayer and discussion with friends and family before we decided how to proceed. In the end, we felt that the miracles that had to occur for this little child to even find us were all just a sign from the Lord that he was meant to be part of our family. I had further reassurance from the social worker today who actually told me that they (meaning the Thai Holt Adoption agency) were not even sure that they should even tell us about Trey since we already had our hands full with two other boys. I mean think about this, Bangkok is a town of over 10 million people and the fact that Trey's mother happened to give birth at the same hospital where RJ had been born, and that someone happened to recognize her and know that she had given up her previous child for adoption, and that that particular person happened to notify Holt (a very samll adoption agency in this huge country and city), and Holt finally decided to notify us, could only have been divine intervention and I tear up everytime I think about how many hurdles this little boy had to overcome just to meet in my arms today! God is so good!

I will post a couple of videos of our first meeting below. As his brothers before him, he was not too excited about the idea of having all of us around him most of the day. He didn't start out crying but just staring at us like, "what in the world is going on and who are all these funny looking people?" He only cried when either Lance or I touched or held him. He was able to get over his shock however, and eat a good lunch with us and his social workers around. He even let me feed him for a while, then he decided that eating his little blanket was much more fun. After lunch we wnet up to our hotel room for an hour, chaperoned by his social worker. He seemed to really enjoy throwing the ball and having RJ go chase it down for him.

We then had the pleasure of going to meet his foster family, who happened to be the same foster family as RJ's, yet another "coincidence", out of hundreds maybe thousands of foster families around the Bangkok area. Once in his home enviroment he became a more happy and playful child and it was nice to see and exchange gifts with RJ and Trey's foster family, who were more than gracious to give us drinks and presents even though I know that just taking care of Trey for the past two years has likely been a financial burden upon them (the foster family system is all voluntary here, they do not get paid like they do in the US). I really felt that no gift I could give them would be adequate and left there feeling almost ashamed and guilty of all that I have at home, as it seems like so much and all so unecessary, as all I really need are my four "boys", Lance, RJ, Jack and now Trey to be truly blessed and happy.

Well, so sorry for all the sappy rhetoric, but it really is humbling being halfway across the world and being witness to the true generosity of the human spirit. I will forever be grateful to the Poontip family for taking such good care of first RJ and now Trey, as well as to their birth mother who made the ultimate scarifice of giving up her children so that they could have a better life, and although she didn't know it at the time, so that I could have the wonderous joy of being their mother! Stay tuned, we have many adventures (although may not be truly exciting adventures) still to come.