Adoption Story: Jerry and Gayla (again!)

You’ve met Jerry and Gayla before when they adopted their first son. When they reached out to me again last summer I was thrilled that they were thinking about adding to their family again through adoption. It was amazing (again) to see Jerry and Gayla’s faith in a God that writes the best stories. In the midst of the wait, the uncertainty, and a roller coaster the week their son was born, I watched as they patiently waited for God to move, trusting Him to care personally for their family and the birth family…

As I sit down to document our second adoption story I feel so grateful yet humbled once again at how big our God is! He truly has been so good to us over the last few weeks and it’s obvious He holds us in the hollow of His hand. We are so so thankful to Him as well as Susan who was such a support for us as we walked this journey.

After updating our home study and signing on with Christian Adoption Consultants and Susan we started receiving situations of expectant mamas. For four months we read over many different situations of expectant mamas, praying over them and for wisdom. We presented our profile different times only to hear, “it’s not your time yet.” In November, another email, another mama making an adoption plan. My heart skipped a beat as I glanced over it and I thought, could this be the one?! We presented our profile once again. A couple of weeks later we received word that “Mama R” was drawn to our profile and wanted to talk with us. From the very beginning of that first phone call we fell in love with her and felt like we had found a long-lost friend. Conversation came easy and we found different things we had in common with her. Before we ended that first call she told us, “You’re it!” Our feelings were of so much excitement and gratefulness but at the same time disbelief that someone would trust us with such a precious gift. We had approximately five weeks to build a relationship with her and to prepare for another little boy to join our family.

Adoption is beautiful, messy, exciting, and scary all at once. Our faith was stretched the week our son was born and all we could do was trust the One who writes these stories and pray His will would be done for everyone involved. A phrase of the song that was so impressive to us at the time of our first son’s adoption became very meaningful once again: “God is bigger than any mountain that I can or cannot see!” Truly we witnessed mountains moved and miracles performed allowing this sweet little boy to be placed in our arms. We will be forever grateful to his brave birth family and we’re thankful to have an open adoption with them. Having open communication with our sons’ birth mamas was the very thing that worried us the most before we adopted but has turned into one of the biggest unexpected blessings!