Enjoy this awesome journey of faith!
“We are Dale and Dana Stuber, son & daughter-in-law of Ken & Pauline Stuber. We live in Tremont, Illinois and have three sons. Sam is 15, Max is 12 and Calvin is 10. Three years ago, after coming home from Midwest Camp, Dale & I were talking one night and sharing with each other that God had individually told us it was time to pursue adoption. We had discussed if for a couple of years, but had never both felt the green light at the same time. Now God was saying "it's time" to both of us. We asked each other why? And felt the answer was because we have a family to share with a child, a house and yard and resources to provide and Dale wanted to bless me with a daughter. We were kind of scared and excited. Over the next few months we discussed it often and searched the internet for direction. We know many couples from our church and others that have adopted, so we had a great team of resources. We felt led to choose one or two daughters, ages 3-7. I talked to Mo Thompson (mother of 10 children adopted from CLM) and told her of our desire. She had just read the CLM Prayer Warrior e-mail which told of a girl, age 4, that would be a good candidate for adoption and that the court could free up at any time. Mo said God had put us in her mind when reading of this girl. We e-mailed Mary Gibson and asked about Elaininha and she told us all she knew. Then we prayed, and asked God if this was from Him. We were convicted that we were to follow Elaininha (whom we had named Nina) to the end of her story, no matter what the outcome.
We prepared our papers and waited for her to be free for adoption. We celebrated her 5th birthday at our home, without her, with cupcakes, and singing. We kept waiting, and Mary thought she could be released soon, so a year later, as she turned 6 we sent our dossier papers down to Brazil. We celebrated her birthday again, without her, with singing, missing her and wishing she was already in our family. We knew Brazilian families had first priority over International couples pursuing adoption of Brazilian children. We loved Nina and felt committed to seeing this through until the end. We did commit to enjoying our already great life with our three boys, keeping busy with their lives, and ours. Summer 2008 came and went; Nina was freed for adoption in September. We were so excited! We read different e-mails Mary would send, as different Brazilian families came to CLM to visit her. In October, Nina's guardianship was given to a Brazilian family, with the intention of adoption. She went home to live with them. Oh, how our hearts ached. We cried, and grieved. But we had always asked God to shut the door if this wasn't for us, so we did trust in His sovereignty, fully.
In January, 2009, we received an e-mail from Mary telling us the family came to visit CLM with Nina. Things weren't going so well, the mother and oldest son were rejecting her as their daughter/sister. The father was heartbroken. Mary encouraged the mother to just decide that this was her daughter, a decision, not a feeling. We slightly got our hopes up, but mostly were just sad for Nina. We felt so terrible for her. Our youngest son, Calvin says he knew for sure at that point that Nina would be ours. Dale and I would not let our minds go there, mostly to protect our hearts.
In March, Dale was ready to start pursuing another adoption, and started asking me to pray about it. I was not ready, but said I would pray about it. It had been a 2 1/2year journey and I didn't know if I could start over, plus I was getting old!!!!! We started planning to remodel our kitchen and life just went on. Then seemingly out of the CLEAR blue, I received an e-mail on April 8th from Mary Gibson, saying she wanted to call me, but didn't have my phone number. Could I e-mail it to her? Oh my! I thought either something terrible had happened to Nina, or something amazing was going on. Mary had never phoned me before. She called some minutes later, with Calvin and I being the only two at home. She told me Nina (still Elaininha at this time, of course) was being returned to CLM soon, the family had made their decision and it just wasn't going to work out. Mary had asked the judge about supporting us to adopt her, he was aware of our desire for her. Mary had just heard from the judge that YES, he would recommend that she be ours!!!!! That is why she had called. Her words were, "Your daughter is coming home!" I couldn’t really believe this. Calvin was amazed too! Some of my first words were, "We have a wild God!" I phoned Dale at work sobbing, and we were just shocked that whole evening. What a turn of events. Just as we were letting her go and moving on!
Well, we began more paperwork, and celebrated her birthday in April for a third time, without her at home, with cupcakes, candle and singing. Adoption is equal to patience! So we tried to be patient, waiting for Brazil to invite us to come and spend the 30 days cohabitation. With paperwork and travel, the trip would be 47 days total. It was hard for Dale to keep juggling work responsibilities, wondering exactly when he would be leaving for such a long time! In July, we received the invitation, applied for our visas, packed and left for Brazil on Aug 7th. How wonderful it would be to finally meet our daughter!!! We had sent her pictures of us and our home. We were wondering how she would receive the news of her adoption and have praised the Lord that she received it with excitement! On Aug 8th, we met Nina at the Curitiba airport. How fun!
At this writing, we are now in Brazil doing our cohabitation period, staying at CLM with our 3 boys and new daughter. It is going really well. She is really loving and warm toward us, as she figures out this new way of living and new language! We can see now why God has chosen Nina to be in our family. Nina's speech and learning disabilities will receive much one on one attention and some excellent therapy in Illinois. While still in Brazil, we have taken advantage of traveling with her in between court appointments and have seen this wonderful country! We are now 2 1/2 weeks into our 6 1/2 week trip. We have already made memories to last forever! We look forward to bringing her home to meet our families and helping her transition to her new life. Nina Ann Stuber - we are amazed and glorify God for how He has worked to let us be your parents!”
