Our Testimony we shared at church on October 6th

        Our adoption journey started in October 2009. We were faced with a life decision. We had recently found out that we will not be able to have a child naturally to our family. Our options were limited but we did have options, well two. We can meet with specialist or adoption. Both were very difficult for us to process and both had positives. We were in the shock but needed to move toward a decision in order to start the process with specialist.  We went into the appointment with an open mind (as open as we possibly could be) knowing that we were willing to take certain steps to procure a family. The appointment started off good with the doctor noting that the report from our local doctor was not as grim as original described, which boosted our spirits. We discussed our medical history and therapy options that would work for our situation. We spoke about the option we had in depth, yes we said "option". In most cases couples have several options however, we only have one. It is quite difficult to know why we found ourselves in this position or even why God would put this decision in front of us. This had been the hardest decision of our lives. The fact is that this decision is part of the path, part of the plan, set forth by God before we were ever born. How awesome it is to know that God is in control! This gives us peace. We had discussed before the appointment that we would rather adopt then go through an expensive and uncertain procedure.  It was at that point that our journey began.

            So, we started the process of looking for a respectable adoption agency. We started this journey with one agency and ended up at Lutheran Social Services.  We met initial with our social worker in the summer of 2011.We were hopeful that our little one was just around the corner but God had other plans. We started this journey with a verse we felt God had led us to: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11. We had hope but were beginning to wonder if plans we were pursuing were the ones He had for us.  We were walking a path that was dry and desolate.  We were sucking up every drop of nutrients we can find for our souls and some days we still felt malnourished.  So, as we waited, we wondered what God truly has in store for us.  We prayed and sought His guidance.  We had renewed our home study last October and were trying to decide what we would do that next October. So, because of the hurt and the pain the uncertainty this journey was causing we decided not to renew in October 2013.
            Then in March of this year, our church family caught wind of our decision and decided to earnestly pray for us. Those prayers were heard by God and the prayers bought little God moments to us, here are some Mandy blogged about some in May of this year.  She wrote; “This week has been a series of little messages from God.  First, off in of my devotions this week, when I was having a particularly hard time, The Solo devotional had me read Isaiah 54.  If you don't know it, the first verse of this chapter is;

“Sing, barren woman,

    you who never bore a child;

burst into song, shout for joy,

    you who were never in labor;

because more are the children of the desolate woman

    than of her who has a husband,”

says the Lord.

So...what do you say after that.  I just spent the morning having a very candid conversation with God about our journey and how I felt it was going.  I then sit down to do my devotions and pray that God would give me some way of breaking free from the fog I was walking through.  Ask and you shall receive, right?!  Then awhile back I prayed about blogging the song "Worn".  It is a powerful song that I feel really describes where Matt and I are emotionally.  So, I prayed that if I ever heard the song twice on the way to work I would know that I was supposed to blog it.  Bringing us to yesterday morning, I was on the way to work listening to the radio, I usually will flip between three local Christian channels, I don't like commercials. So, I was flipping through them and I stop on WBCL, who was playing "Worn".  They then went to a commercial and I flipped to The Pulse, who you guessed it, was playing "Worn".  Because I found this to be a little overwhelming, I turned off the radio for a little while and sat silent in God's presence.  I decided to turn it back on and The Pulse was on a commercial so I flipped it to WFRN, and guess what?! "Worn".  Now this blew my mind for two reasons....1. God is bigger than my imagination can comprehend and 2. I finally heard something in the song that I had heard before but was always frustrated by, but yesterday it gave me hope.  The chorus has a line that says, "...all that's dead inside can be reborn..." and it changes in the end to "all that's dead inside WILL be reborn".  It WILL be, it is a guarantee with God.  A guarantee....I am holding on to that promise. So, hear is the song for you.  It is a very honest representation of where Matt and I are right now, but it WILL be reborn.”

            That brings us to the beginning of our ‘rebirth’.  In the end June we received  a call from a social worker that was working with a birth mom who was to give birth to a baby with possible severe special needs on July 8^th and because the birth date was so close we needed to make a decision very quickly.  After a lot of research and as much prayer as you can cram into 24 hours, we said no.  Then the very next day I received a call from our social worker who said she had a birth mom who was interested in meeting us and another couple on July 8^th.  We waited for this meeting with anxious hearts.  The church prayed for us and the other couple. 

          Well, when we got there our social worker spoke with us before we met with the mother and told us the other family had emailed her and said they were not ready to adopt right now. Then we were taken back and introduced to the birthmother and she asked us questions and we talked about ourselves....well mostly I talked about us.  We talked, cried and laughed with one another for about an hour.  She told us how she would like Mandy, to go to the remaining Doctors appoinments with her, to be in the delivery room with her and be the first one to hold the baby.  We told her that we have had a name picked out.  She asked what it was, we told her and she started to cry.  The middle name we had picked is her middle name, her mother's middle name and her adult daughter's middle name.  God is truly amazing. We talked some more and then at the end of the meeting she turned to us and asked if we would like to adopt her baby girl.

          Then, on August 7^th we received a call that the birth mom had gone into labor.  We quickly got ourselves around and headed to the hospital.  And at 7:27pm we welcomed our 7lb 2oz baby girl into the world.

          Our adoption journey followed a longer path then we thought that it would and at times we did question the direction in which God was leading us.  But we don’t have those questions anymore.  We don’t have those questions for two reasons.  The first is because we truly believe God wanted us to be at LifePoint among this church family for the conclusion of this journey.  We did not know how much our lives could affect others.  We were reminded of the importance to stay faithful to God when reading the devotional “My Utmost for His Highest”.  On Monday the passage was talking about becoming God’s bread and wine for others and it ended the passage with this sentence, “Stay right with God and let Him do as He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children.”  We never understood this until after Stella and so many of you have expressed what God has revealed to you through our story.  Finally, when we look at Stella those questions about the wait are answered.  We waited for a baby girl that has her mother’s dark hair and button nose, my eye’s and feet.  How God did this we will never know, but we know He had us waiting for ‘our’ daughter.