Welcome, friends, to our adoption story: the beginning.
People ask how the decision to adopt all got started for Matt and me, and the best way to describe it is this: it all came down to one cold night in January 2019 (after months of prayer and conversations and dreaming and more conversations and even more prayer) when Matt grabbed my face and said, “I can see it in your eyes that God has called you to do this… called us to do this. And I will do hard things with you.”
That was our yes.
Adoption has always been on my heart. In fact, my sweet cousin remembered me saying I would love to adopt children even as a girl, so when we actually got a chance to chat about this decision for our family, she had a deja vu moment. My husband has been surrounded by adoption his entire life, so although making the decision for our family was a humbling and weighty one, it was not a new concept for him either.
It really came down to knowing if God had this for US — or not. And we prayed hard that He would give us a “red light” if it wasn’t supposed to be.
But from the time we started pursuing this road — from our time in prayer and conversation, finding the home study agency to working with our consultants — it was only green light after green light. We had some speed bumps along the way but no signs that this wasn’t for us. God was guiding the road, even through the hard.
So since that night in January, our anthem has been to say yes, take a step, and LET GOD.
That step has been toward domestic infant adoption.
We went through the home study process through Adoption Option Wisconsin and created a profile book of our family to present to expectant mothers here in the USA considering adoption for their child. We signed on with Faithful Adoption Consultants, spent 77 days as active clients, and poured our hearts into praying for the dozens of expectant mothers that came into our inbox.
On September 6, 2019, we were chosen by the bravest mama to become the parents of her little boy.
The details that God orchestrated in Mama A’s life to bring us together blows our mind. She is the strongest person in the world to us. Our role as a family now — as we wait until baby boy’s birth — is to love her from afar and support her as much as we possibly can.
I knew I would be instantly in love with the baby that God matched us with, but what I wasn’t expecting was to fall equally in love with the mother who chose us from a pile of other families to raise her child. Our hearts are forever connected; we can’t wait to see what God continues to do in this relationship. We hope to have a healthy, open relationship with her as baby boy grows because even now, she feels like a real part of our family.
At this point, we are looking at delivery sooner than initially expected. Though we were matched relatively quickly in the adoption world, we were chosen by Mama A early in her pregnancy (whereas some situations we saw were such that mothers were considering adoption late in their pregnancies & babies were due very soon).
Going from an active wait with no date on the table this summer, to a match with a wait of 4 months to delivery this fall, and now to a wait in which any day could be the day that sweet boy comes into the world, is definitely stretching us to lean on the Lord every single moment.
It has stretched me as a woman and a mother.
It has stretched me as a business owner and service provider.
It has made me realize that life goes on even when you really have no plan for anything — except to be as ready as you can for the unexpected!
People have reached out to see how they can support us on this road, and we have felt the love from so many individuals and avenues. Your prayer is the best kind of support we could receive right now, but financially, adoption is no small thing. For months and months, Matt and I felt God holding us back from any kind of fundraising. We didn’t exactly know how we would pull off the expense, which will be pushing $60,000 when all is said and done, but we have watched Him provide time and time again for what we need.
Through the encouragement of a few key players (friends, you know who you are), we came to realize that this isn’t just about us, what is comfortable for us on the receiving end. It has been more about the testament of how God uses his people to rise up and come together for His good and His glory. Even though we much prefer to be on the end of GIVING support vs receiving support, we are seeing through a different perspective now of how God provides.
As God keeps paving the way for us, including fundraising when we really didn’t want nor planned to, we wanted to share something that really spoke to this: God paving the way.
I designed this tee shirt and sweatshirt to help fund expenses as a nod to some of the things we’re experiencing on the road to hopefully growing our family adoption:
- to slow down and really wait on the Lord for every single need
- to give thanks for every way He has shown himself real for us
- to show up — for our family, for the expectant mother who has chosen us to raise her child, and for the sweet baby boy we are welcoming into our family forever
- to love big and to love well, regardless of the outcome we may receive
Our Slow Down, Give Thanks Shirt Campaign:
The thing is: these things aren’t true ONLY in adoption.
They are real for each one of us when we slow down in everyday life, when we remember to give thanks, when we show up for the people God has us doing life with, and when we LOVE BIG in any situation — not for what we might get out of it.
The shirt campaign goes through November 5, 2019, if you want to check it out and get a tee or sweatshirt of your own.
This is vulnerable, you guys. It’s all a bit scary. Uncomfortable. Humbling. What Jesus is calling our family to is all of these things and more, but ultimately WORTH IT because this sweet baby boy is WORTH IT.
Thank you for encouraging us, being involved in our story, supporting us financially and through prayer. We wait and watch what God will do and, with excited anticipation, know He is going to blow our minds again.