About a year or so after Elliott was born Ann suffered a miscarriage. After that she was not able to get pregnant. We began to talk about adoption. Elliott had prayed for a baby sister, and when that didn’t happen he started praying for a baby brother or a baby sister. We started working on a private adoption, but it fell through, and that was devastating to Elliott. We had talked to him about it and he was excited. He stopped saying his prayers. He said, “I don’t have anything to say to God.”
We started seeing a gynecologist to try to find out if there was something we could do about the fertility problem, and we both started on medication that would hopefully reverse the condition. In the meantime a friend told us about a child to be born who would be placed for adoption. We agreed to work on the adoption even as we continued medications.
This time we chose not to talk with Elliott about it until it became a reality. We didn’t discuss it at church, although we did talk with Charles and Joyce about it. I think we probably also discussed it with Jim and Nona Sue. We told Ann’s mother, but no one else knew about it in advance except for the people who were working on the adoption. When the time came, we told Elliott that Mom and Dad would be taking a trip out of town, and that he would be staying with the Williams family.
We were to go to West Virginia because we needed to be there when the baby went home from the hospital. We already knew that the baby was a boy, and we chose the name James Charles. We named him after my two co-workers. As it turned out, we needed to leave for West Virginia on a Sunday afternoon. The church in Erie, Pennsylvania was between preachers, and the three of us were taking turns preaching at Erie. It was my turn to go to Erie. We told the brothers what was happening, and we left right after services on Sunday morning to go to West Virginia.
We arrived in Clarksburg sometime in the early evening, and went to a motel. Of course when we got that close we were anxiously awaiting the arrival of our son. I don’t remember how well we slept that night, but I do remember getting up early and waiting for a knock on the door. Sometime around 10 in the morning, the couple helping us with the adoption showed up with a baby wrapped in a red stocking. The 1965 were printed on it. Jim had been born on December 1, 1965 and all December babies went home in a red stocking. I immediately took a picture of Ann holding Jim for the very first time.
Sometimes people wonder how long it takes for adoptive parents to feel like a child is really theirs. I can tell you that bonding took place in less than five seconds. I quickly grabbed our suitcases. Ann walked out with Jim in her arms, and we headed back to Jamestown. Somewhere in the middle of West Virginia, it started snowing and it snowed on us all the way home, but that was all right. We had a baby son in tow, so we were very careful.
As soon as we arrived in Jamestown, we went directly to the home of Charles and Joyce. I took another picture – a picture of Elliott holding his baby brother for the first time. We grabbed Elliott’s things and drove home. Although we had not talked to Elliott about the new baby, we had left the baby bed up after the previous adoption fell through. We put Jim in the bed, and Ann asked Elliott if he wanted to say his prayers. He talked to God and thanked him for his new brother. Of course we expected Jim to wake up in the night needing a bottle. At about 5:00 A.M. Ann got up to see if Jim was alive. He slept all night. That would continue to be the pattern most nights. Jim has always been an orderly person. It almost seems like he was born with an inward clock.
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