Congratulations Brandi and Bentley!

In May of 2013 we embarked on a long journey to grow our family. Over the next three years we sought multiple avenues including:fertility treatments, foster care to adopt, embryo adoption and private infant adoption. I shed many tears over that time of waiting and trial, but Romans 8:28 rings true in both mine and Bentley’s lives.

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“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.”

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The Lord used: our broken hearts over another failed fertility cycle, the struggle not to covet the lives of friends around us who seemed so easily to have children, the “no” from the foster agency that we could not be foster parents, the difficult news that we were not the best fit for an embryo to have a chance at life, and so many other things to remove the temptation to draw on our own strength. By removing the allusion of our ability to ‘do life’ without leaning on Him, God conformed us further into the image of Christ and brought us into closer relationship with Him.

After seeking counsel from friends and other adoptive parents, they took the plunge in late January with CAC, and were home study ready by March 20. Our designer Jason created the most gorgeous family profile book for them. Brandi and Bentley immediately began applying to agencies. They matched the very first time they presented to an expectant mom in their home state on a Friday afternoon, but then learned the following Monday morning they learned it was not to be.

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They persevered and kept going on other cases.

One day in late April, one of the adoption centers they’d applied to called and asked if they would consider a baby born born prematurely earlier that month. Since Brandi is a pediatric nurse, her medical background was a plus, in case there were medical needs. The baby was still in the hospital and the agency was working out legal details.

To make a long story short, after lots of phone calls, texts and exchanges, I got a surprise photo of Brandi holding sweet baby Noah, and on her birthday no less! He was finally here – after years of infertility, but thankfully just two months after becoming home study certified!

After a month alone in the hospital, while being well- loved by the nurses there, sweet Noah finally had a mommy and daddy to hold and feed him. He needed just a bit more hospital time before they were discharged and then sent back to their home state the next week.

I asked Brandi to share some thoughts for those parents still waiting for “the call.”

As Brandi shared,?“The adoption journey looks different for each person, but my advice is to cling to the Lord; He is the only One who can sustain us in our weakness. Seek His face daily and ask for His guidance. We are so grateful for His sweet blessing to us in fulfilling our desire for a child, but more than that, we are grateful for the trials that drew us nearer to our Father who loves us.”

Congratulations to this brave and beautiful couple, and their absolutely perfect son!