November is National Adoption Month, and this year, we get to celebrate! We are so in love with our little Muffin, and are so thankful to God for bringing him into our family.

When I was a little girl, I overheard some adults talking about adoption, and later, I asked my mom what that word meant. As she explained, I cried because it made me so sad to think there were children out there who didn’t have the loving home I had. I remember asking my mama if we could adopt someone that needed a home. She told me that she had wanted to, but it just wasn’t something they had been able to do. I looked up at my mom and told her that I would adopt a kid when I grew up. She smiled at me and said maybe the Lord would let me do just that one day.

As a 5 or 6 year old girl, there was no way I could know that I would grow up and struggle with infertility for 10 years before God would miraculously add to our family through adoption, but God knew. He planted that seed in my heart a long time ago, and this summer, we saw the fulfillment of that dream.

And what a dream it is.

It took years of trying to reconcile my desire for children with a body that wouldn’t bear them before we began to pursue adoption.

It took two years of working with an agency and getting no where before telling them, “Goodbye,” and leaving it in God’s hands.

It took less than a month after leaving the agency before getting a call from a friend about a baby.

It took two weeks from that phone call before our son was born and placed in my arms.

Who else but God could have orchestrated that so perfectly?!

Friends, He knows what He is doing even when we have no idea what He’s up to. He sees the end from the beginning even when we can’t see what’s right in front of us.

One day, we will be able to tell our son his story, even the hard, messy bits, and tell him that even though some of it is unpleasant and sad, God specializes in making trophies of grace from those hard, messy bits.

I’ve had some ask about Mac’s adoption story, and I’ve shared some details with a few close friends, but his story is just that: his. Mac is going to be the first one to hear the whole thing, and he gets to decide what to do with it.

I will say this: Our adoption experience has been unlike any other I’d heard or read about. There are many horror stories out there, but our experience has been overall very positive. Many of the things I feared concerning adoption were a complete nonissue. God worked out everything. We love his birth mom and her family, and our little guy has lots of people who love him…and that’s always a good thing.

When we began considering adoption, I was terrified because my mind tends to follow the “What ifs” to the worst case scenario, but God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7) During those two weeks leading up to Mac’s birth, I was a little nervous, but God kept me so calm and just reassured me that He was doing this and everything would be okay. He reminded me that “Perfect love casteth out fear.” (1 John 4:18) It’s amazing the peace that accompanies knowing the will of God!

Life is full of those hard, messy bits, but they are not the end of the story…not Mac’s, not mine, and not yours. They are necessary plot twists placed perfectly by the Author of our lives who knows how to work all things together for good to them that love Him.

There is redemption to be found in a God who cares about the little and big things in our lives….even a seemingly insignificant conversation between a little girl and her mama. God heard that. He was in our kitchen with us that day, and almost 30 years later, He brought that moment back to my mind and reminded me of how much He cares for me.

Adoption is a beautiful, hard, happy, sad, amazing, scary, and completely worthwhile thing, and we will celebrate it not only this month, but every day, week, and month we have left on this earth because it brought us our son. Family isn’t made from blood, but it is made from love….and we have plenty of that in the White house!

From our family to yours, Happy National Adoption Month! 💙