The Body of Christ in Action

My son's story wouldn’t be complete without sharing about the amazing support I received from our family, friends, church family, co-workers, our whole community, and some people I have never met. He may be the most prayed for, anticipated child I know.

I hope and pray he knows just how loved he is now and will never forget it when he grows older. My life has been touched by so many that rallied around as I waited to be matched, got ready for my son, traveled to get him, and returned home. I am simply overwhelmed. Every time I think about it I feel so undeserving but so very grateful.

I have to first start with the support of my church family. They have such a heart for adoption and following God’s command to take care of the orphans and widows. I have never seen a church with such drive to carry out that mandate. They made that very clear as they helped significantly financially and in every other way possible. I could never say thank you enough.

A couple that are great friends of mine in my church family took it upon themselves to plan and coordinate a benefit concert in our honor. They invited Contemporary Christian artist, Andrew Peterson, to perform. They worked hard to acquire sponsors for the event so that all ticket sales would go to the adoption fund. They spent many hours working on every detail from the location, parking, to publicity. I simply had to show up and tell my story. What an incredible blessing.

The night of the concert will forever be a sweet memory for me. People from all parts of my life came out to be a support. Old high-school and college friends, co-workers, church family, family, community members, students I work with, and people I have never met but were so blessed to worship with.

As I stood on stage sharing my story, really His story, of this journey to adoption and the great news that I was expecting my little guy any day now I was overwhelmed. I scanned the room and saw the face of former students I worked with, my boss and his family,  co-workers, most of our church family, my neighbor and her daughter, close friends who I hold dear, strangers that I prayed our story would impact. I could barely keep it together.

I were so touched and so blessed. All these people were here to number one, worship God, and number two support us, support Ben, support adoption. It was incredible. Simply beautiful. That dimly lit room filled with so many precious people will be a picture that does not soon leave my mind. I wish I had words to express how much the body of Christ meant to us in that moment. I was not only overwhelmed at the outpouring of love for my family but at the passion and drive surrounding adoption and orphan care.

Everyone was so eager to give, to help, to learn more. My prayer through this whole process has been that God would be glorified and that He would place a passion to care for orphans in the hearts of my community, friends, and family. It seems He is doing just that and we are blessed to be a very small part of it.
There are so many more people that I would love to thank individually but it would take pages to do so.

I am putting a puzzle in the baby’s room that has Jeremiah 29:11 on the front and the name of every single person that donated in some way from time, to items, to talent, to finances on the back. I have over 500 names to write on the back of that puzzle. Over 500 people helped bring my son home in some capacity. That number does not even include those who were silent prayer warriors. If I knew all of their names I would reserve special pieces of the puzzle for them too. Over 500 people helped answer the mandate of James 1:27. I pray this baby boy knows just how loved he is and how many people took time to be a part of his life.

A side shot of the community members that came out to suppor.

A sweet friend who raffled off a free photo shoot from her photography business to help raise money