Adoption Story: David and Sarah (Being Still Before God)

(Photo Credit: Kristen Anne Photography)

Being a part of David and Sarah's adoption journey has been one of the highlights of my experiences as an adoption consultant and a huge encouragement to my faith in God's beautiful mysterious plans. If you were on social media at all last summer, chances are you saw the beautiful photos of this family meeting their daughter for the first time. One of their dear friends, Kristen, went with them to photograph their first moments together, posted it to her photography page on FaceBook, and overnight it had struck a chord with thousands of people all over the world. Suddenly they had all kinds of news sources like ABC News, Today, People, and Buzz Feed (to name a few) sharing their story. Within a few days, over 300,000 people had seen their photos on Facebook alone.

The photos are stunning and the way that God’s heart of love was spread through them has been breathtaking to see. But the news articles aren't what make them so special to me. I’m not sure any story can do justice to the beauty found in this incredible couple. David and Sarah live life wide awake, loving even when it hurts, serving, giving, believing because they know that Jesus is worth it.

(Photo Credit: Kristen Anne Photography)

You've seen the photos of what meeting their daughter was like. Now hear a bit more about what God was doing in their hearts before that incredible day they met their daughter. David shares...

"Adoption is not for the faint of heart, but it is totally worth it.  Every day I look at our daughter, I recall the journey and thank God for every step it took to get there.

We finished our home study in February 2015.  We had to do some more fundraising, then partnered with Katie Fenska... in April.  Almost immediately, we had situations come our way.  It is incredible to recall the emotional rollercoaster of those situations.  We’d get the email from Katie (mostly followed up with a phone call too!), and we would submit our name to be matched.  Each and every time we felt like God was calling us to put our name in the hat (so to speak).  We texted our friends and family, got prayers going like crazy and waited for a decision to come on Monday or Tuesday of the next week.   Well, we received a “NO” four times.  There are few ways to describe the heartache of being emotionally invested to take this unknown child into your forever family, only to be declined.  It is like a miscarriage.  Heartbreaking.

After the fourth go-around, we were met with silence.  There was a season of zero situations.  After being declined four times, we had nothing.  That may have been the most frustrating season of our journey.  There was nothing we could do but wait.  And pray.  So we did that.

Two things came to mind when we were in that season of silence.  Every day we teach our kids, “I can trust God no matter what.”  We pray about that, weave it into our conversation, and have the kids repeat that back to us.  We had to look at ourselves and remember that WE can trust God no matter what, even when it feels like silence.  Sometimes God has big things up his sleeves and we just don’t know what He is up to.  Secondly, the Bible is rich with examples of provision, but I think of the story of Abraham.  When you catch up with his story in the book of Genesis, it was when he was the young age of about 75 that God made a promise, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” [Genesis 17:5].  It was about 25 years later that this promise began to come to fruition.  Can you imagine 25 years of waiting?  I can’t fathom how Abraham endured his season of silence.

After our season of silence, I will never forget when Katie called us on July 20th and said, “Are you ready for a miracle…”  A baby girl was born and needed a family.  We flew out the next morning and met our daughter, Tilly Pearl, for the first time. Life will never be the same.  God is so good!"

Psalm 46 tells us to, “Be still and know that I am God.” I love that passage.  Did you know that the words SILENT and LISTEN have the same letters, re-arranged?  Maybe God wants to use this season to speak to you.  So wherever you are at in your journey, whether you are in the beginning of your process, having finalized your adoption, or are in that season of silence… my prayer is that you would be able to trust God no matter what, that you would be able listen to what God is saying to you, and that you could do as Psalm 46 says, “Be still and know that I am God.”

David and Sarah, I stand in awe at God’s work in your family. I'm so glad you said "yes" to Him!

----------------------------------------------------------

For more information about domestic adoption, please contact me!