Big News from The Hamby’s – We’re Adopting!
For all of you who have been following our journey with infertility…We have some really big news and the Lord has been seriously doing amazing things lately that I’ve been dying to share! This is by far the biggest announcement I’ve shared on my blog so thank you for reading along! I know this is longer than my normal blog post but I promise you it’s worth reading until the end!
I’ll just start way back from the beginning… I have always LOVED children…it was common knowledge to people who knew me that I loved babies and children and we joked that I was born with baby fever. Growing up, I helped my mom in the nursery at church and babysat as early as any parents would let me. I’ve always loved kids and was very excited to have a family of my own after finding Mr. Right. From the beginning my husband and I had talked about wanting kids and the ideal situation for us was to have a couple naturally and then adopt one..I know the Lord laughs at our plans as I’m sure he was when we discussed that years ago. As the “responsible planners” we are, my husband and I waited a while to start “trying”. We wanted to be in a larger house and know that our finances were in order and then decided it was as good of a time as any.
We had no reason to think we would have problems but as many of you already know, we did. After several months with no luck, I began seeing doctors and several months later we did some fertility treatments and truthfully there is no solid medical reason that we should not have gotten pregnant. But now I can see why, the Lord had other plans for our family!
After finding out that our 4th fertility treatment failed on Day 2 of our 21 days of prayer at church we both decided it was the perfect time to take a break from treatments, focus on praying about where God wanted us to go next and really….just BREATHE. The stress of fertility treatments is high and we both needed a break! On the first Saturday of 21 days of prayer I saw a dad and his adopted daughter (who I have seen tons of times) walking around the room together praying and I just felt a tug on my heart to move towards adoption. As I mentioned above, I’ve always had a heart for adoption but never felt that was where the Lord was leading us during this journey to start a family. I’ve told many people this but I don’t believe adoption is a backup plan…I believe the Lord specifically calls people to adopt and I just hadn’t felt him calling us there at any point of time during our journey to start a family until this Saturday.
I am sure you probably see where this is going…
I told my husband after that Saturday that I just felt something change during the prayer service but I would continue to pray for the Lord’s guidance. It remained on my heart all week and I just kept praying that the Lord would lead us, not me lead us because of my desire for a family. I spoke with a friend and Bryant that Thursday night and just sharing how I wished the Lord would make it clear to us that adoption is the path he wanted for us if that was his plan. Bryant made the comment that the Lord would probably have to smack us in the face with it…sorry God but we’re stubborn and you know it!
That Friday morning we woke up late and decided to do our prayer service at home. I’ll never forget this morning because the Preacher that day shared a story about a couple in the church that had tried for years and went through all kinds of fertility treatments with no luck and got a call from a church member about a mother who was looking for adoptive parents. They made the adoption arrangements and then shortly after found out they were pregnant and now have two beautiful girls that are very close in age! PRAISE GOD! I remember thinking, Lord, is this you speaking through him and sending us a sign or could this really just be a coincidence? It is so hard to tell sometimes! I had a few minutes before the corporate closing prayer time began and logged onto facebook real quick and an old friend of Bryant’s had tagged me in a facebook post of her friends. The post was about how great God was and what the Lord taught them through their painful journey of infertility and blessed them with this baby girl…through ADOPTION. I just SOBBED!!! It was just impossible to ignore those two events happening within a matter of 30 minutes and right after our conversation the night before and me praying all week and asking God to show me where he was leading us.
By this time I was about 75% sure, adoption was where we were heading. I talked to a couple friends who have adopted and just started getting some information, all while I continued to pray that the Lord would just send me a sign and make it known that this is where he was leading us! I’m stubborn, remember?!
Bryant was out with a friend and I was on my way home from Lowes when I was stopped at a stop light and looked over and saw THE SIGN!! LITERALLY, the Lord SENT ME A SIGN!!! He has such a sense of humor sometimes doesn’t he?! Bryant called me on his way home from dinner and I told him that we were going to adopt. He asked why and I said I would show him when he got home! I snapped this quick picture while I was sitting at the light because I couldn’t even believe what I was seeing! I’ve driven down this busy road a million times, I’ve never seen a sign like this…EVER, and the chance of me getting stopped at this light with no cars in between me and the sign…you just can’t deny that the Lord was sending me THE SIGN I’ve been praying for for weeks! Since then the sign has been moved and is no longer there but I just know in my heart that sign was for me.
So here we are…being obedient to where the Lord has called us and almost done filling out tons of paperwork and our home visit is next weekend!
Since then the Lord has sent me another sign through another unusual and random facebook post (shared to us specifically) to remind me and give me the confidence I needed to know we are following his plan for us. I want to encourage you, if you are praying for answers or a sign..EXPECT THEM! I think it’s easy to ask for answers but you have to be open and looking for him to respond!
My Aunt had some awesome advice from when she went through the adoption process, she said she just kept going as long as the Lord gave her green lights. So here we are….going through all the green lights that he allows and trusting he will pave the way for our journey!
So..it has been a crazy month or two and I can’t believe I’m even writing this myself but WE ARE ADOPTING!!
Please Please Please keep your eyes and ears out for any situations that may be happening around you that may lead to our baby girl or boy! We know the Lord already has a baby chosen for us and we hope and pray that by spreading the word we may meet this baby of ours so your part in this is crucial! A large percentage of adoptive families are connected with birth parents through mutual friends and networking and that is our prayer so please do us a favor and be our eyes and ears all over the US!
For my prayer warriors, here is where we could use the prayers!
- Prepare our hearts for all the emotions to come, the stress, worry, fear, love, joy, excitement, all of it.
- Prepare the heart of the birth parents, that they will know the Lord and have peace and confidence about their BIG decision for their lives and that baby’s life.
- Funds! Obviously adoption can be very expensive but we’re believing that the Lord would not lead us down this path without providing us with all the tools necessary.
Have you adopted before? I’d love to hear from you about your experience, advice, etc. This is all still very new so I may not be able to answer any questions about this process so far but I hope to share as much as possible with you all!