First , I would like to give a little background of our family. My husband ( I will be giving everyone fake names to protect our children’s privacy), Henry and I have been married 28 years now and lost one baby early in the pregnancy and then gave birth to three wonderful healthy babies( a daughter,son and a son) over the course of 3 years. They have been the joy of our lives. They were around the ages of 10,11,14 years old and I began to feel a deep longing for another child. I, of course, started to talk to my husband about this desire and He, of course, had no interest in starting over again. We are a family who camps, hikes, bikes, swims, travels, and anything else that comes to mind, we keep pretty busy. Henry had no time for diaper bags and high chairs and such anymore. He was very much against the whole idea. I kept feeling this deep deep desire to have another baby, but any healthy marriage is not built on one person’s desires alone. It really does take two. I kept talking to my hubby and he kept saying No.This deep deep burning desire in my heart continued to burn stronger and with great intensity. I kept in prayer the whole time over the matter and was seeking to find answers in God’s Word. Some of my favorite scriptures that I leaned on heavily were as follows, Matthew:21-21 and 22. Matthew:7-7-11. Some people said to me that scripture doesn’t really mean what it says,( it leaves room for interpretation) but I will tell you from the depths of my heart , that what God says , He means, He is faithful and He never leaves His children forsaken nor does He ever break His promises. I am a very literal person and I take God’s word as it is written. But be cautioned, don’t pray for your will ,  always seek the will of the Father.

This desire just continued to grow and I was becoming overwhelmed with such a burning in my heart, with no answers in sight. To make it even harder, I began to have dreams.The dreams of a baby in a hospital cradle.The baby was always well,healthy,and taken care of. This baby was mine but I could not have it or touch it. First the dreams were only once a month then they increased to once a week and then every night . I was beginning to think I would loose my mind.( One night the baby in my dreams died.) I was devastated. The next night, there was a brand new baby and it was healthy and it was mine). The Lord began to really speak to my heart and asked me to pray for Henry’s heart. But Lord , I would say, Do you know who we are talking about here? He has a heart of steal over this matter and I can’t move him. The Lord said to me, I do know His heart ,” I Made His Heart! I began to pray and exactly 1 month after , God moved Henry’s heart to obedience and Henry then approached me and said, Honey let’s fill out the paper work, let’s get the home study done and see just where God is leading us. At this decision, the DREAMS STOPPED and we had such a peace come over our home. ( God’s peace that passes all understanding.)  We then pressed on with our seeking to find God’s will in all of this and were lead to get our home study done through the state in which we live. We then became  licensed through the state to adopt and foster. ( This was all free ). We were working on our home study and one of the social workers said to me, (You will never get an infant) ! I will tell you that God is not held back by mans rules or decisions!!! I became very discouraged over the matter however and began to pray for all of this stuff to just go away. I could not understand this intense desire only to be smashed to the ground.

One day I was with my mother-in-law and she had a magazine with her , she had to run into a store for a moment so I stayed behind and waited . I glanced down at her magazine that she had carelessly thrown onto the seat as she got out and I saw an article that caught my attention. The article read as follows, “When you are seeking the Lord with your whole heart ,when you want nothing but His will for your life,then those desires that remain and grow in your heart are His desires,His will for you”. I stopped praying for Him to take away this desire and knew without a doubt that God was at work. Henry and I had finished the last page of our home study and I had one more dream. In this dream, The Lord God showed me this precious bundle that was coming. I actually saw her all dressed in pink and she was finally ours. Three weeks later we received a call from an acquaintance of ours who attended our church. She is a social worker, counseling people at the local hospitals so they can make hard decisions when needed.( She even tried this day to not go to work because her child was ill. She only worked one day a month also. She was not afilliated with the state or the foster system). She knew that we were looking for a child , but was lead by the pull of the Holy Spirit on her heart to call us that day. There were other people in that maternity ward working that day who tried to claim this baby girl , but God once again came through. Something I need to tell you about this situation is that the Birth mom is a Crack cocaine user and if you will remember, earlier in my story I said that the one baby in my dreams died and that there was a new one?! The birth mother had lost a baby 20 weeks into her pregnancy and then conceived our miracle baby directly after. When birth mom delivered our miracle, she was high on crack but our baby had pure blood and NO signs of crack in her body at all. The whole time of doing our home study and longing so deeply for this child that God was preparing me for, I had many times of God’s sudden thumb dip deeply in my back and I felt the deep need to pray for this child that I did not know of or when, but I knew that I was to pray suddenly for this persons safety and I would fall to my knees there and then and pray.

I now understand why. God must have wrapped his hands around her in her Birth mothers womb and protected her through his guiding me to pray. It was a very long process over the next weekend as we waited to make sure that the Birth mother had made up her mind. Then we had to post through the newspapers for some 60 days to confirm that the biological father could not take the child as well. When my husband and I saw her for the first time, I said , Honey that is the baby I saw in my dreams exactly. As she was in my hubby’s arms I reached down to her little face and said her name to her and she smiled the largest and longest smile I have ever seen on a newborn of 2 days old. We were in love instantly and realized forever that God is listening to our prayers and He really does mean to ASK, SEEK , KNOCK !! He really does mean to take him at his word and have FAITH. I can only imagine the Store House of gifts that our Father has for us , if only we will trust , if only we would ask and believe in our hearts that He is working in our midst and loves us so much,that he wants to give us so many treasures that he has made for us. We must seek His will , not our own. We must wait on the Lord to make his move and please , pray, pray, pray ! Our little girl is 10 years old now and is one of the biggest blessings in our lives. She is so compassionate for others and their needs.

The story goes on… when our little miracle was 28 months old , God moved again. As my hubby and I and our little one were coming home from a business trip that we had been on, it was 8:28 PM and my hubby said , honey , don’t you think it would be nice to have another little girl to adopt so our little one would not have to grow up alone ! I said Yes , but He did not know that God had been preparing me for another baby. It was a Friday night when he said this and the very next morning, our friend called us and said, what are you guys up to today? Henry thought she was inviting us to go out to eat with her and her hubby. She said , there is this baby girl who was born last night at 8:28 and she is waiting for her mommy and daddy to come and meet her. She is our fabulous , beautiful 8 year old now and one of the biggest blessings in our lives. Last year God did it again ! We received a phone call from a local agency on a Winter night and they said , Birth mom has chosen you to adopt her two toddlers, ages 2 and 3 ! We had to stop and really think about this , but God has called and opened those doors and we must obey and follow. It is not for us to decide when to follow, we must follow when He calls. I will tell you that there are issues and challenges and blessings and joys and discouragements and frustrations and happiness !! I need to also say that God has designed a perfect plan with adoption being a very real option to build our family. When you give birth, you don’t know everything about that child and you would not send him or her back. Adoption is the same. We have a blessed family. Is it perfect? NO!

We are however enjoying knowing that we have obeyed and that God has richly Blessed us. On a funny note, Henry hopes that the adoption line from Heaven has closed. We now have our 7 children, 3 are grown and each married. We also have 2 fabulous grandchildren, our grandson is almost 2 and his baby sister is 9 weeks. By the way, three fertility specialist told our daughter and son-in-law that they would never conceive, they did not do any fertility help , they said that if the Lord chooses to give them children He will provide. We began to pray and fast, we now have these precious babies from the Lord and they are blessings. When you pray and seek, and ask and knock and seek Gods will, you will not be able to take in all that the Lord will provide to you !!!! Please note that the Birth Mothers among us are to be Thanked for the incredible gifts that they give. Thank you Birth Mothers for carrying your Babies to term and Loving them so much. You are Treasures from the Lord. You gave these babies Life, and then you Bless us with them and we give them Direction. Thank you ! We are Blessed  !!! Yours in the Lord, bb