It was the last week of out time
in Saskatoon. We were busy packing and pouting. Della was still upset that we
were leaving and would have to begin the adoption process all over again. I
wasn’t too happy about that myself, but we had both agreed it was in God’s
hands. Our friends the Tracie’s had both their adopted girls by then and we
were a little jealous, Of course, they had applied much earlier.
Betty Turnbull was going to be
hardest person to leave. She had taken that week off from nursing to help us
with anything we needed to be done. It was Monday afternoon and we were
scheduled to leave the following Monday. One week to go. There was not going to
be much church work that week. The movers were due on Friday. We had no place
to live when we would get to Vancouver, so out stuff was going into storage. We
planned a detour, the long way, to Vancouver. We left for the Chicago area to
view our friends Ron and Joan Gifford. Ron was at----------- and we were
fascinated by the job they had getting them through school. There were house
sitting and moving from place to place with no home of their own. When we
visited they were house parents at an elite private school. From there we would
go through Nebraska to visit my parents and then on to Vancouver.
We were all wrapping dishes and
packing them away when we got a call from Mrs. Mitchaluk. Could we be in Regina
Wednesday morning at 9:00? She had a baby girl for us. Della took the call and
almost fell on the floor. What? Who? I can’t believe it. She had been our
social worker when we got Rodney James. I’m in the background mouthing the
words she was saying right back to her. What is going on?
She had a small little squeal and
the biggest grin I had ever seen. I knew it was good news, but didn’t know
what. Would you just end the call and tell me what is going on? When she got
off the phone the first thing she said, was, “God answered prayer. We have a
daughter.” Our social worked knew how much we wanted a daughter and she said
she was determined to find us one before we moved.
We called the Roses first to see
if we could spend Tuesday night with them. She then called Darlene Tracie to
share the good news. She sure talked to Darlene a lot longer than to me. I just
got the facts. Darlene got the joy; I know we called several other people
including pastor Boldt to se if we could dedicate her on Sunday. He was going
to do it on Sunday. We hadn’t even seen her but wanted the congregation to
share out joy and meet our daughter before we left.
We could hardly contain ourselves.
Out baby had been born in Regina and we were taking her with us to BC. We could
barely get things packed on Tuesday, but knew we needed to be nearly done
before we left. We weren’t sure we would be much done before the movers arrived.
Betty stayed with Rod on Wednesday.
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| This is a fairly typical photo of the kids first year together. Rod ignored Rhonda and She was curious about him. |
On Wednesday we arrive in the
adoption waiting room and Mrs. Mitchaluk came in to meet us. “Do you want to
met your daughter.?” Absolutely! She came back into the room carrying this
beautiful and very happy baby dressed in a cute pink little dress and chewing
on her fist. She was laughing and smiling and we were thrilled. She arrive with
a diaper bag full of things we would need, small gifts from each of the
children as they home that had cared for her and a note from the family saying
how much they enjoyed and loved her and how happy they knew we would be with
this delightful child.
We signed all the paper work,
thanked Mrs. Mitchaluk and took her straight over to the meet grandma and
grandpa Rose. We drove home that afternoon and spent the rest of the day
showing her off to our friends. We received the greatest farewell gift ever as
a confirmation that we were making the right move.
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| Cute kids! |
Our last Sunday Rhonda Elisabeth
Walker was dedicated, we attended a farewell get together for us that night
(also a welcome for the Wylie's), and left Monday morning with a mix of tears
and joy. We were leaving many we loved and beginning a brand new adventure.
2 comments:
LW: Baby Dedication
The morning had been such a blur already. That tempo continued when we walked to the front doors of the church that morning in 1971. Someone greeted me with a very unusual request. “Would you like to have your baby dedicated this morning?” That was the last thing on my mind.
With a son only 14 months older than our baby, now just a few weeks old, Sunday mornings were really a scrabble. I was still adjusting to being the mother of two, and so a routine was still being formulated. Our son had a “Sunday outfit” which his grandmother had made so the choice of clothes was fairly simple that morning.
Our daughter had received a couple of cute outfits after she arrived. That morning, I had seriously considered dressing her in the pure white dress. At the last minute, I had decided on the mauve gingham dress, although less formal. With this individual waiting impatiently for my answer, I couldn’t help regretting choosing the mauve gingham. The white would have been much more suitable for her dedication day.
I also realized that, if we agreed, my family, who lived out of town, would not be present for this special event.
I desperately wished that I would postpone the baby dedication so that I was ready for this momentous event. It seemed wrong to just walk into church just as we were and have our precious little daughter presented to God so unprepared. However I didn’t have the courage to say no.
The service started with the Doxology, followed by some hymns. I tried to prepare for the moment when we would be called to the front.
Walter Boldt conducted a similar dedication ceremony that he had done for our son. I wished that I had a recorder in my head so I could listen to the prayer he prayed later on. It sounded somewhat prophetic as he blessed our tiny daughter. Another child was also dedicated, another irony since that father had been my husband’s roommate while they were in Bible College. In my preoccupation, I felt I’d missed some comment. Did I hear that this was one of their last services at University Drive? Two babies were dedicated that morning. The ceremony ended, and we returned to our seats. The service continued. We had paused to publicly dedicate our child to God in the middle of life’s blur.
THanks for sharing this story. Fleshed out the whole last Sunday morning,
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