We spent our first 15 years of married life without children, despite our desire and effort to grow our family. Then, to our complete amazement and awe, years after we had acclimated to our believed realization that we would never experience pregnancy or the birth of biological children, God left us overjoyed and astonished as we found out that Amber, at age 39,  was pregnant with our oldest son, Luke.  And, after Luke was born, we saw everything through a completely different lens.  Never before had we known a love like the one that we experienced as we were ushered into parenthood. That pregnancy and the birth of Luke was an absolute miracle from the hand of God, but we had no idea how limitless God could be in His showering of miracles upon our family until the next few years unfolded.

 

In October of 2021, our family experienced Covid, with progressively worsening symptoms.  In the midst of our worst days with the virus, we unexpectantly received a text from a distant cousin, with the picture of a 3lb 5oz baby in the NICU, and a question…”Will you adopt?”  The answer was easy.  We responded immediately with, “We will take her.”  Over the 15 years of hoping and praying for children, we spoke many times of adoption.  We always had a joint desire to pursue adoption, but there had been hurdles in the way for starting and completing the process.  Now, completely unexpectedly, a sweet baby girl was being placed in our laps.  Three days after receiving the text, we were listening to a judge tell us that Lily was ours.  She had significant medical concerns during the first six months.  Her medical concerns even led to a 911 call for dropping heart rate and unconsciousness the second night she was in our care.  Her needs were great, but our God was greater.  As He promises in His Word, He supplied all our needs.  Family, friends, and even strangers made up a huge community of support for us, facilitating an adoption that, up until that point, had seemed impossible.  Another miracle.

 

With the adoption of our daughter, we also gained a relationship with her biological parents.  And, in October, 2022, a year after we had become a family of four, we received a call from Lily’s biological parents, asking us to adopt again.  Lily’s biological mother was pregnant and wanted the new baby to grow up knowing a sibling.  We walked through pregnancy with her and received a call in February 2023 that she was headed to the hospital with concerning symptoms at only 28 weeks pregnant.  We made our way to the hospital and Amber joined her in the surgery suite for an emergency C-section which brought our son, Caleb, into the world, weighing 2lbs 2oz.  Caleb was in the NICU for 56 days and we had the opportunity to see God’s hand at work as Caleb’s creator, protector, and provider.  In a sense, through our gentle touch and presence during those days of development in the NICU, we felt as though we had been given the opportunity to carry Caleb during his third trimester outside the womb.  We brought Caleb home, weighing 4lbs 13oz and we counted our blessings for another miracle.

 

We can see clearly that we have been blessed…through pregnancy, through adoption, and through the NICU experience.  But, through each season, we have also met many families that have experienced great sorrow and crippling hardship as they too walked through the journeys of pregnancy, adoption, and the NICU experience.  We have a heart for people who have a heart for children.  And, as we had a community of support to carry us through our challenges and over our hurdles, we want to make up part of the community of support to help others in the same way.