Hello friends and family!
It has been over 3 months since we last posted a blog and I know that’s WAYYYY TOOOO LONGGGG!
Our last post was centered around 2 things-
ONE: Our New Home
TWO: An adoption opportunity
To make a very long story short, we ended up putting a contract on 3 different homes and for various reasons NONE of them ended up being ours. We also never received a follow-up about the adoption opportunity. With all that said, we were definitely discouraged and felt like it would be best if we laid low for a bit and didn’t share any updates!
Fast forward to January 1, 2019! I woke up that morning with a VERY specific facebook post the Lord had put on my heart. He even showed me the pictures to use! I immediately got on my laptop and created the post; however, there was a glitch. Facebook kept denying me to “boost” the post. For those who aren’t FB savvy, if you have a page like “Finding Baby Dew”, for a fee, FB allows you to runs a post like an “ad” to people in your local area who aren’t your friends or have no connections to your page. For some reason that morning FB kept denying my post. I felt frustrated about this because I knew that my post would only go to my FB friends and those that already liked the page….clearly ya’ll already know we’re trying to adopt, so what good would that do?!?!?! In my mind, I needed to “boost” the page so others could see the post. BUT GOD……But God is bigger than a Facebook post!
Thank you to the person who SHARED that exact post! It was because of YOU, whoever you are! Your shared post was seen by someone that was your friend and not mine. It’s because of that post that we received a phone call January 2nd! The call was from a lady (let’s call her Molly) who had a dear friend that was and pregnant (let’s call her Lori) and considering adoption. At one point, Lori had set a date for an abortion. Thank God the clinic shutdown the day before the appointment!!! At the time, we knew Lori was 36 years old, Caucasian, had a habit of drug use, and an expected due date of May 2nd. Molly was able to encourage Lori to go the adoption route rather than aborting or parenting. We are so grateful that Lori knew parenting wasn’t an option due to her current circumstance and she made the BRAVE decision to place her baby for adoption. Molly and Lori were both in Nashville, TN and we were the only family Lori had considered as adoptive parents. She hadn’t reached out to any agency, lawyer, or adoption consultant.
Also during that time, we learned that Lori was in the hospital with pneumonia. Once again to make a LONG story as SHORT as possible, Lori ended up having surgery on her lungs. On January 22nd she had the surgery and that evening she went into labor! Our sweet BABY BOY was born at 25 weeks!!! I bet you weren’t expecting that!! Benaiah James was born January 23rd at 2 lbs and 12.8 inches long. When we received the text message saying he had been born, we were beyond surprised! We’d actually received the news right before Wednesday night service. Shout out to GRANT for preaching, even though your thoughts were on the fact that you were a DADDY!
We flew to Nashville on January 31st and had the honor of meeting Lori and our sweet bundle of joy. I’m sure you have questions, so here are a few facts:
It has been over 3 months since we last posted a blog and I know that’s WAYYYY TOOOO LONGGGG!
Our last post was centered around 2 things-
ONE: Our New Home
TWO: An adoption opportunity
To make a very long story short, we ended up putting a contract on 3 different homes and for various reasons NONE of them ended up being ours. We also never received a follow-up about the adoption opportunity. With all that said, we were definitely discouraged and felt like it would be best if we laid low for a bit and didn’t share any updates!
Fast forward to January 1, 2019! I woke up that morning with a VERY specific facebook post the Lord had put on my heart. He even showed me the pictures to use! I immediately got on my laptop and created the post; however, there was a glitch. Facebook kept denying me to “boost” the post. For those who aren’t FB savvy, if you have a page like “Finding Baby Dew”, for a fee, FB allows you to runs a post like an “ad” to people in your local area who aren’t your friends or have no connections to your page. For some reason that morning FB kept denying my post. I felt frustrated about this because I knew that my post would only go to my FB friends and those that already liked the page….clearly ya’ll already know we’re trying to adopt, so what good would that do?!?!?! In my mind, I needed to “boost” the page so others could see the post. BUT GOD……But God is bigger than a Facebook post!
Thank you to the person who SHARED that exact post! It was because of YOU, whoever you are! Your shared post was seen by someone that was your friend and not mine. It’s because of that post that we received a phone call January 2nd! The call was from a lady (let’s call her Molly) who had a dear friend that was and pregnant (let’s call her Lori) and considering adoption. At one point, Lori had set a date for an abortion. Thank God the clinic shutdown the day before the appointment!!! At the time, we knew Lori was 36 years old, Caucasian, had a habit of drug use, and an expected due date of May 2nd. Molly was able to encourage Lori to go the adoption route rather than aborting or parenting. We are so grateful that Lori knew parenting wasn’t an option due to her current circumstance and she made the BRAVE decision to place her baby for adoption. Molly and Lori were both in Nashville, TN and we were the only family Lori had considered as adoptive parents. She hadn’t reached out to any agency, lawyer, or adoption consultant.
Also during that time, we learned that Lori was in the hospital with pneumonia. Once again to make a LONG story as SHORT as possible, Lori ended up having surgery on her lungs. On January 22nd she had the surgery and that evening she went into labor! Our sweet BABY BOY was born at 25 weeks!!! I bet you weren’t expecting that!! Benaiah James was born January 23rd at 2 lbs and 12.8 inches long. When we received the text message saying he had been born, we were beyond surprised! We’d actually received the news right before Wednesday night service. Shout out to GRANT for preaching, even though your thoughts were on the fact that you were a DADDY!
We flew to Nashville on January 31st and had the honor of meeting Lori and our sweet bundle of joy. I’m sure you have questions, so here are a few facts:
- Benaiah is doing GREAT! As of Saturday, he’s been taken off oxygen and is breathing on his own!
- Lori had been using drugs while pregnant, but she has agreed to enroll in a rehab program once she is released from the hospital!
- It was so great to meet Lori! She is smart, beautiful, a little feisty, and very brave! She made the most courageous decision to place for adoption and we are so thankful that she has made us PARENTS!
- Benaiah is going to be in the hospital for 8 weeks or so, but he is improving everyday!
- Lori signed the Power of Attorney meaning Grant and I are able to make all medical decisions.
- We have an attorney in Tennessee and Florida! Both parties are working hard to pull together all the paperwork needed so we can move forward with the adoption process!
- Costs: The legal side of the adoption is going to cost $10,000! We also have fees to update our home study and travel expenses.
- At this time, we’ve received $1,000 grant and a sweet family made a $5,000 donation!! GOD IS SO GOOD!
- Benaiah is Caucasian, that being the case, our heart is to have a family that looks like heaven (were not done yet!!)
- We just moved into a rental home this past week and we are so excited to prepare for Benaiah's arrival!
Should you feel led to invest financially in our adoption journey, our PayPal account is under [email protected]. We’re also needing to make trips back and forth. Should you have flyer miles you can donate, that would be a tremendous help as well! Here are some specific prayer requests:
God has revealed Himself in such a powerful way in the last couple months. We began the journey of adoption thinking that this was about us finding the child that God ordained, but we are finding out its more than that. When something is redeemed it has more than an isolated impact. Rather, it effects everyone who is attached to that redemption, whether that’s a business transaction, a relationship, or most importantly a life changed by the Savior. No matter the content of the redemption, the fact is that the residual parts of what has taken place spread and impact those that are connected. It changes confusion into certainty, pain into healing, ultimately brokenness into wholeness. Our journey of finding Benaiah has not been about the redemption of one life but of lives that have now been connected. In our finite minds, we think of success as getting what we desire or accomplishing our goal but with God there is no end point. Once initiated, His redemptive power flows from one person to the next. Resulting in testimony after testimony that intertwine and intermingle, each having its own details but all achieving the same result, complete awe of how God works despite us. God is not only redeeming a baby boy in this process; it’s a piece of God’s much greater redemptive picture for us all. The story of our adoption isn’t really even “our’s”; it’s the realization of a gracious Father working behind the scenes, painting a masterpiece for us all!
Thank you all for being part of our journey!
- Benaiah’s health— He has been such a trooper and we want to continue praying for a speedy recovery and that he would develop with no lack/deficiency in his body.
- We’ve had many people share their concerns with us not being there with him. Babies can sometimes have attachment issues. We are thankful for the wisdom of what can happen but we are believing that God will work in spite of the possibility. Our heat is to be right in that room, but we have been advised by medical staff to use our time off wisely, as it is most imperative in the transition from hospital to home. Even though Grant and I can’t be there to hold him, we ask that you believe with us that God’s arms be wrapped around him and that there wouldn’t be a hint of detachment!
- Pray for Lori— Not only for her health, but also for the courage to step into this rehab program with a determined mind to break any bad habits! Declare with us that the enemy has no hold on her and that addiction will be broken!
God has revealed Himself in such a powerful way in the last couple months. We began the journey of adoption thinking that this was about us finding the child that God ordained, but we are finding out its more than that. When something is redeemed it has more than an isolated impact. Rather, it effects everyone who is attached to that redemption, whether that’s a business transaction, a relationship, or most importantly a life changed by the Savior. No matter the content of the redemption, the fact is that the residual parts of what has taken place spread and impact those that are connected. It changes confusion into certainty, pain into healing, ultimately brokenness into wholeness. Our journey of finding Benaiah has not been about the redemption of one life but of lives that have now been connected. In our finite minds, we think of success as getting what we desire or accomplishing our goal but with God there is no end point. Once initiated, His redemptive power flows from one person to the next. Resulting in testimony after testimony that intertwine and intermingle, each having its own details but all achieving the same result, complete awe of how God works despite us. God is not only redeeming a baby boy in this process; it’s a piece of God’s much greater redemptive picture for us all. The story of our adoption isn’t really even “our’s”; it’s the realization of a gracious Father working behind the scenes, painting a masterpiece for us all!
Thank you all for being part of our journey!