Your Sister Circle: Story of Faith.

**Stories Of Faith**

After a miscarriage and years of infertility we came to a fork in the road. Our two options were to try invitro or begin the adoption process. I had been feeling very strong impressions that our baby was coming to us through adoption. My doctor had told me he felt I would have great success with invitro but it just didn't feel right. My husband and I talked things over and both decided that adoption was the road we would take. We were very excited to start our new journey because it gave us so much hope; which we had felt we were slowly losing as time went on and we still couldn't get pregnant.

The process in all took about 5 months to get all the paperwork, home study and profile done. It was much longer than I expected it to take and it was frustrating but again we knew this was where we were supposed to be. Once it was official and our profile was up online we were so excited to see where this adoption journey would take us that we could hardly wait any longer! Three months went by and not much had happened.

I know that's not long but to us it felt like an eternity after everything we had already been through. Then of course you hear of people going through multiple failed adoptions before they finally had a successful one (which you have to understand that a failed adoption is like a miscarriage-very painful). Needless to say our nerves were pretty shot at this point in the journey of trying to grow our family. Well after about 6 months we started to wonder if we had made the right decision and if we were where our Father in Heaven wanted us to be.

To make a long story short, we were shown MANY tender mercies by The Lord during this process. They all came when we needed them most and they kept us on the right track. I prayed a lot. A LOT! If you don't read or remember anything else from this story... Remember this... Our Heavenly Father is REAL. He literally showed me sweet tender mercies and signs that we were in the right place by doing adoption EVERY time I asked Him in prayer. I prayed for them twice a month sometimes.
I told Him that I'm kind of dense and need things to hit me in the head so that I would understand what he wanted me to do. Let me say again, I have never felt my Father in Heaven is as real as I do now. I felt him right by my side.

I knew that he was keenly aware of me and my family's needs and righteous desires. Eight months into our profile being up and official, it happened! We were chosen by a birthmom!! Oh my goodness we were over the moon excited! The birthmom was great and the baby was going to be beautiful. Our whole community rallied together and helped with a yard/bake sale to help us raise some extra money. It was a BIG deal that our baby was finally coming. Well after about 3 weeks everything came crashing down. We. Were. Devastated.

The birthmom said she couldn't bring herself to go through with it. We tried to be as nice and understanding as possible towards her. But we were just crushed, defeated, deflated... Whatever word you can imagine someone feeling when this happens, that's how we felt. Honestly after the failed adoption happened, I just felt numb.
I refused to think about what just happened because it was too painful. I have never wanted to give up on having another baby so bad. I felt I had nothing left in me to keep going.

After a few days what did I do? I prayed and asked for another tender mercy from Him. I asked for more strength even though I knew I was down to the wire. I knew he could buoy me up even when I couldn't keep going. Right after my prayer, no joke, I got on my Instagram and I had a comment on my post about the pain of our failed adoption. She told me this

"I am a total stranger, just saw your post through a hash tag search. Just thought I'd send positive vibes to you and your family and say, never give up. It took the family I chose to place with 2 failed adoptions to find the one that was meant to be. Keep hope alive!"

She could have easily just not commented or said anything but Heavenly Father knew I needed to hear what she had to say. This was my answer to buck up and keep going. Our baby was coming. Even though things get so hard, you can never give up on having a family. One other thing that helped immensely was a quote I came across. I'm a total quote freak. It said this "Let go of the thoughts that don't make you strong." This was such a powerful reminder to me! Bad and negative thoughts come from Satan himself. Satan's influence is there just like Christ's. It can be powerful and consume us if we let it.

I needed to let go of those bad thoughts and let the hopeful ones prevail!

Lucky for us and by God's grace we were matched again with another birthmom just a short month later. Our sweet miracle boy, Quinton, was born September 15. Our birthmom never ceases to amaze us at how in tune she is and how perfect her outlook on this adoption is.

She told us as soon as she saw our profile she knew we were Quinton's family. She never was hurt or sad after that. She was filled with incredible peace. We thought at the time of our failed adoption that we had lost our baby and a great birthmom. We could not have been more wrong. We have never known a stronger, smarter, sweeter woman than our angel, Rachael. When we met our miracle baby Quinton for the first time it took our breath away.
He looked familiar. We KNEW him. HE was the one we had waited 4 years for and the one destined to be ours. (Not to mention he is the most beautiful baby boy you will ever see along with his brother!). When one door closes a better one opens. Never look at your trials as bad things or punishments.

Look at them as The Lord putting you in the exact right place you need to be to receive the most precious and sacred blessings you never even knew existed. ❤