Into Faith We Go

What. A. Whirlwind.

If you would have told me that I (Melissa) would be spending the first minutes of my 33rd birthday bleary eyed in a rocking chair feeding a 12 day old baby that we had the privilege of adopting, I would have called you insane.

Yet, here we are.

As we were driving baby J home from the hospital after saying goodbye to his birth mama, I was listening to a song that left me in tears. Here's a piece of it"

"I've never been good at change

If I'm honest, it's always scared me

But I can't deny this stirring deep inside me

Now I know it's time to stop resisting

'Cause I'm not getting any younger

Fear is a such a sad way to live a life

So face to the wind, I'm jumping out, I'm walking in

Every single thing You want to show me

To the ups and downs, the highs and lows

The taking in, the letting go

To tears and laughter, the great unknown

To the open journey, into faith, I go

Into faith, I go

So when I feel like giving up

When I feel like throwing it all away

I look back over my shoulder

And I can see Your goodness every single step that I have taken

And it beats like a drum

And it rings like a bell

And it sings like a choir

And it's leading me on my way

Oh, You lead me on my way

To the ups and downs, the highs and lows

The taking in, the letting go

To tears and laughter, the great unknown

To the open journey, into faith, I go

Into faith, I go"

God is faithful. We are a family of 4.

All of the prayers, all of the financial investment, all of the time, sweat, and tons of tears you all have poured into this journey- God heard us. He waited (and waited and waited) for His always-perfect timing to bless us with the most handsome baby boy we have ever met.

Our sweet J was born on August 18 at 4:24am at 8 pounds, 3 ounces. I was was honored to be there for the birth where every emotion took place- rejoicing, mourning, love and heartbreak. We have been blessed to have a birth mama who has, without a doubt, changed our lives. Her kindness will forever be etched on our hearts and her strength will be stamped in our souls. She is truly 1 in a million. We are prayerful and hopeful she is willing to continue the open adoption process, which means we will get to see her and her other child when we are all able.

We also know that one of our very best days of our family’s little life was one of the worst days for our birth mama. The decision she had to make to release her son to us was an painfully difficult one. She is an incredibly smart girl who has amazing potential and who was put in a very tough situation in either raising this child or trusting him to us. We are so grateful she did, but we will never, ever, ever take the decision she made for granted.

For now, we are settling in at home. We are all adjusting to lots of feedings, diapers, swaddles, and snuggles. Baby J has NO idea the story that has been written for him through prayers, courage, strength, and faith. Please know that when we do tell him - you will be a chapter of that story. The intricate support system only God could have created is miraculous and baby J deserves to know how loved he was before he was ever born.

Our cups are pouring over from the love you have shown us in the past few weeks. I know we use the word “grateful” on here a lot, but seriously - we are just so grateful. Thank you for believing in God’s plan with us. Thank you for carrying us on the days that we wanted to give up. Thank you for every prayer you prayed for the good of this baby, this birth mama, and our family.

Please, please, please continue to pray! Please be praying we continue to adjust to being a family of 4. The next step in the legal part of the journey for us is in 6-8 months we will have a court date to finalize the adoption. This means that J will legally be ours with a new birth certificate, etc. Please also be praying for our birth mama’s heart, for her healing, and for her future. She has a lot of beautiful opportunities on the horizon and we are cheering her on and praying those opportunities are even better than what she can imagine!!

I’m going to get back to snuggling our sweet boy. We love you.

Into faith we go,

Melissa