A Big Team Twenty One Update
As Josie’s picture reflects, Team Twenty One has yet again another reason to rejoice! Much to our delight and surprise there will be another plus one, Lord willing this October. We are humbled and give God all the glory for this precious gift of life.
Yesterday began National Infertility Awareness Week, and I clearly remember sharing a very different perspective this time last year, as I had for the last 4 years. Which is the reason why I’m sharing all of this in a separate post. We want to share and celebrate God’s kind providence in our lives at the moment, but I still ache and stand for women (dear friends) walking through infertility. Too many times I have felt that sucker-punch when scrolling through social media to see yet-another pregnancy announcement. Hear me when I say this, they are beautiful and wonderful celebrations of life, and not at all wrong, life is always a reason to rejoice; yet, God has placed me in a position to walk with great compassion and empathy of those whose arms have not yet held a child of their own (whether biologically or through adoption), or still struggling to grow their family. I cannot and will not forget where God has brought me from. Even still, I hope those who are in this season will find Jesus to be their all-in-all, baby or not. Because babies (marriage, houses, money, etc) will never fill the void only He can.
All that being said, I have only one more housekeeping item heavy on my heart. It shouldn’t be surprising to know the most common thing we hear after “Congratulations” is, “You hear about stories like this all the time!” And while this may appear to be true, I want to gently encourage anyone who knows someone with a story like ours not to use us as anecdotal “evidence” that if “you just adopt you’ll get pregnant”. Because the hard fact is, that’s not how God works. This didn’t happen because we’re “good people” or because we adopted. No, it’s because of the gracious and undeserving love of the Father, and something we simply can’t explain with simple if-then logic. Sure, maybe there’s something to what happens in a women’s body when she’s focused on bringing home a child through adoption. I don’t know, and I know this sounds so negative, but too often we seek to comfort the sorrowing with stories of others that were never meant to be up for comparison or offered as a solution to someone’s infertility, and I stand lovingly firm on that. So while we welcome you to rejoice and enjoy the shock and wonder of it all, we politely ask that you refrain from telling us this is all a result of something we did. Truly, it’s all glory to God for writing a story we never dared imagine possible.
Still, we pray that those walking the road of infertility would hold fast to the One who promises to comfort, to always give hope and who is acquainted with your every grief. We also thank all of you for your rejoicing and celebrating with us!
Joyfully in Christ,
