Sunday, April 10, 2011

Re-Adoption

It is official. We re-adopted William on Wednesday, March 30 in the Fayette Family Court in downtown Lexington, Kentucky. It was a wonderful event. We learned that our judge was a follower of Christ who had been on several mission trips to Ethiopia. He was awesome with our children. My younger brother, Chris, was the lawyer representing our family. When asked by the judge how much we were paying him for his services, he responded with, "lots of cookies." Classic Chris. It was a great blessing for my little bro to serve us in this way. To top it all off, both sets of grandparents were there to celebrate the day as well.

We were given a two page document titled the "Judgment of Adoption."
Here is my favorite part of the document:

"The respondent/adoptee, William Dagem Coffman, from and after the date hereof shall be deemed the child of the Petitioners, William Barrett Coffman and Karen Nicholson Coffman, and shall be considered for all purposes of inheritance and succession, and for all other legal considerations, the natural and legitimate child and heir-in-law of the Petitioners, the same as if child by birth and blood of the Petitioners, with all the obligations, rights and privileges of such a natural child and heir."

Wow. The glory of adoption.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Gulf Coast Getaway 2011

I was asked to share our adoption story to about 1500 college students last weekend at the Gulf Coast Getaway in Panama City. A puzzle piece was used to represent the theme for the weekend. The puzzle piece symbolized how each one of us is a broken, imperfect person with a part to play in God's big picture. My story is that the love of Jesus Christ has connected an imperfect father from the United States with a little boy from a broken home in Ethiopia. What is your story? How do you fit into God's big picture? God may want to connect you with a child on the other side of the world who needs a parent as well. God may want to connect you with the neighbor on the other side of your street who needs a friend. Who is God wanting to connect you with?

The GCG photographers asked to take this photo of William following the Sunday morning session. Check out their post about the weekend on their blog at tomorrowsmemoriesphotography.

Below is the video made by the GCG team telling our adoption story through pictures.