The day before Thanksgiving we completed the final legal step through the National Registry for Adoption (NRFA) for adopting our embyros. To say it made this Thanksgiving all the more meaningful is a tremendous understatement! Jeremy and I could not be happier to be moving forward as hopeful adoptive parents. We are so full of gratitude to Nate and Shelly for entrusting us with the lives of their biological children, and we are full of abundant hope for the future that lies ahead for our family.
1 Peter 5:7
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
It is with faith and trust that we lay our prayers at the foot of the cross. The peace I have experienced throughout this entire process – a process that has been moving rapidly forward from the moment we first learned about embryo adoption three months ago – has been only of God. I am a “what if” person; what if this happens, or what if that happens. I often run through every possible scenario, often worst case, to protect myself from the pain of disappointment or heartbreak. There are so many “what ifs” I could focus on throughout this entire journey but we have firmly fixed our eyes on God, and trusting that no matter what His will is for us in this journey, that He is walking before us and beside us, and He is good.
And so, as we celebrate this Thanksgiving, we focus on gratitude; gratitude for all that He has already restored in our lives, for all that He is healing in our souls, for the people (and animals!) we call family, for our son, Silas, who He selected us to raise here on earth, for Shelly and Nate – and their entire extended family – who He chose to knit together as our adopted family.
No matter what the outcome of the months and years ahead, our friendship and love for Shelly and Nate will be unwavering, and that is a blessing that words fail to describe. They are the friends and family we didn’t know we needed, when God knew just what our hearts longed for.