When my husband, James, and I got married we knew we wanted children. After trying to conceive for nearly a year, we opted for fertility drugs for a couple years, when those didn't work we then tried a minor surgery.

For the past several years we have tossed around the idea of adoption. We knew we would love an adopted child just like they came from us. We researched the different types of adoption, you would be surprised at the various options facing couples who decide to adopt.

We decided to adopt through the Arkansas Department of Human Services, or simply, we would adopt a child who had been through foster care and were up for adoption. We decided this was the best route for us, because these children deserve a loving home with loving parents. And we knew we could give both.

We started filling out the mountains of paper work in September of 2007. I am not exaggerating about the paperwork at all, I was amazed. Basically we gave up any privacy about our personal, professional, financial and family life and let the State of Arkansas into every aspect of our lives, just for the chance to be parents. In November we started parenting classes, learned CPR and first aid, were fingerprinted and had background checks ran through local, state and FBI data bases. In March our home was declared open and ready for a child, or children, to be placed in it for adoption.

The hard part was waiting for our child. Our worker, who deserves a medal for putting up with my phone calls on an every other day basis, was so helpful and worked with us to find our child. Three and a half months is a relatively short wait when you are going this route. Each day was so stressful because I knew at any time we could get a phone call about our child. It was so hard because I knew our child was in a foster home somewhere just waiting for us to become their parents.

Last Thursday, June 12, we received a call about two children who fit our family profile and were asked if we were interested in them. Of course we were and the paper work, always paperwork, was put into motion to get them moved into our home. We were told it may take several days to get them.

We went into cleaning mode, preparing rooms for them. We have a four bedroom house, but I didn't want any of the rooms to be set up as children's bedrooms, because it would have just been to upsetting for me to see on a daily basis. We decided to convert the toy room to our new daughter's room and the guest room to our son's room.

If you are a reader of my column you know how much we love our nephews, Rives, Garner and Fischer. They had a playroom full of toys, I mean full. Plus there was a TV cabinet, desk and other items I now had no place for. We worked like crazy cleaning out this room on Thursday night and were at Wal-Mart at 10:30 p.m. to paint it and didn't finish painting until after 1 a.m. Now all their toys have been condensed into a big tub in the closet. But I think they have enjoyed their new cousins too much to be upset about losing their playroom.

We were on our way to Jonesboro Friday morning to buy new bedroom furniture when we received a call that some things had fell into place and we could come right them and get our children. We didn't have anything ready or prepared, but we turned around threw some things into a bag and headed out of town. We didn't tell anyone where we were going or what we were doing. We wanted to wait until we had them in our arms before we told anyone. We have had a couple children in the past we thought we would get and it didn't happen, so we didn't want to get everyone excited and then not get them.

The moment I saw my two angels, I absolutely fell in love with them. They are just beautiful, precious little children.

We chose to rename them and chose to use family names. Our sweet little girl is named Leah Elizabeth McClung. She is four. My middle name is Leah and James' grandmother is named Elizabeth. We talked about changing her name with her and told her several names and then let her pick what she wanted her new name to be. Leah will turn 5 on Sept. 1, which just happens to be my birthday and her Pop's, Randy McClung's, birthday as well.

My precious baby boy is named, James Campbell McClung. We named him James, after his new daddy, and Campbell is James' grandmother's last name. He just turned two on May 19.

I can not describe what it was like for us to pull up to our home at last and bring in our children. I have shed more tears, than I thought I could possibly have in my head. But happy tears are the best kind.

Of course we brought them home without anything but a bag of clothes and we couldn't not have a better family or group of friends. Our children are so lucky, we have had people coming over to meet them non stop. Our friends and families have brought over clothes, toys, food and congratulations. Every time someone new comes in I tear up again. And the kids are so great they are sleeping through the night in their own beds and eating good. I am just in awe at how much, everyone has rallied around us, and really helped us, so we could spend as much time with our babies instead of scrambling around to get the necessities.

Children truly are the best gifts, and James certainly had the best father's day of his life!!