"...There Are Angels Among Us..."

Dave sez,

Hi! We're Cathy and Dave! Thanks for taking the time to get to know us, and letting us share our story with you!

This coming Sunday, May 6th is our 22nd anniversary. That's "Purple Heart", isn't it? Twenty-two years of Cathy putting up with me! She's an amazing woman isn't she? Because what most people don't realize is that on top of being a GEEK, I'm kind of a JERK. Shocking, yes, I know, but we're not all perfect. What she saw was a lump of clay that she could mold and shape into a fine work of art. Little did she realize that I was a LIFE-LONG project. She's going to improve on me - even if it kills ME! We're hoping it doesn't come to that.

Twenty-two years.

A lot of those years are made up of trying to start a family, have children and live happily ever after.

We were married fourteen years when we saw a fertility specialist. Most of the time leading up to that point was spent getting our careers going. And when I say "OUR", I mean "MINE".

The fertility specialist diagnosed Cathy with cancer, and she went in immediately for surgery. The cancer she had was life-threatening. It also changed our option to adoption.

The next seven years we spent on one waiting list or another trying to adopt.

Just when we were about to give up hope, God answered our prayers and every prayer on our behalf, and Justin came into our lives.

Last Monday, April 23rd marked six months that he's been home for good.

I am always reminded of how thankful and grateful Cathy and I are for every prayer, every word of encouragement, every gesture of kindness and generosity from people that have been touched by Justin's story. There ARE angels among us.

My cell phone ran at bedtime the other night. I listened to the message the next morning and called the woman who left the message back. Her brother had passed away and she was going through his papers and found my business card. She wanted to talk to me about him. She wanted me to talk to her about him. I'm sad that I didn't recognize his name when she first mentioned it. But then she said I'd written on the back of the card, "Cathy And Dave's Adoption Journey on Facebook" on the back.

Then it all clicked.

Her brother had invited us to breakfast one morning because he had heard about us and wanted to hear more. We met at Old Country Buffet. He brought more than a half dozen photo albums, full of pictures he had taken on trips to Russia. Where he visited orphanages. Offering his time. Humanitarian aid. Here in the states, he had organized a system of shipping care packages with clothes...shoes for the children in the orphanages. It was something on the scale of what high school students do for our service men and women stationed overseas defending our freedom on foreign soil.

Little did we realize when we had breakfast with him that he was being treated for lymphoma.

He passed away, just a few weeks ago, at the end of March.

There have been moments over the last seven years when I couldn't see the forest for the trees, as my dad always said. I've thought that our adoption journey was all about ME. The one that WASN'T diagnosed with cancer. Our story has NEVER been about me. It's been about Cathy. It's been about Justin. It's also about his cousin, who will soon be his brother, Ethan (Shani) It's about every person, like you, that has been touched by Justin's journey to us, too.

Thank you for joining us on our journey. Our adventure in parenthood.Thank you for letting us share our story with you. Our ups and downs, our successes and misteaks - yes, that WAS intentional.

My good friend, Craig, who runs Book Review here in town is one of the many people touched by our story. The day before our 22nd anniversary, is the annual Free Comic Book Day. He is donating what he makes on Saturday at his store, Book Review, in the Hillcrest Shopping Center off the 19th Street exit of highway 52, to help us bring Shani home. I've been looking through some of the stuff I've been hoarding to see what I can part with on Saturday to add to that.

If you can make it, great. If you can't, we hope that you will still join us as we share our adventures with our boys.

Thanks for letting us share our story with you.