You all were such an encouragement to the Blandford family (and me!) last month. I am more than excited to bless another family and share their story with you...
__________________________________________________________________________________
Brandon is from the Boston, Ky area and I am from Louisville. We now live in Bowling Green. We met at work in 2009 when Brandon was completing a physical therapy rotation at the clinic in which I was working. We have a really interesting love story, we met in July 2009, began dating a month later, got engaged in October 2009 and were married in April 2010. Most people give us that wide-eyed look when we tell them our story, but for us, we knew and trusted that God had brought us together.
Our adoption story really began when we started dating. My nephew was adopted from Guatemala in 2008 and after that experience, I felt God pressing on my heart to adopt a child someday. When I brought this passion of mine to Brandon, he agreed. We contacted our agency (Lifeline) in March 2014 and are now waiting to be matched with a birth-mother/birth-parents.
Most difficult (Nichole's perspective):
The most difficult thing has been reading over birth-parent profiles and knowing there is a child who needs a home and falling in love with every one, then hearing that we weren't chosen. Through each one, we prayed that God would provide the best parents for the child and He has. We also pray for the birth-parents and birth-family who will love this child and for their hearts to be comforted.
Most difficult (Brandon's perspective):
I found the homestudy process to be relatively easy. I was expecting it to be more difficult based on other people's statements and feelings about the homestudy process. I would say that the most difficult thing for me has been trying to raise the money for the adoption by ourselves. I had to come to the realization that we are not going to be able to raise the money without the help of God. Another difficult part has been hearing back from our social worker that we have not been chosen by the birthparents. We read the profiles, pray about them, and start to picture them as part of our family. Then, we get an email stating that we have not been chosen.
Most amazing:
We have been so impressed with how God keeps opening and changing our hearts with each birth-parent profile we read and pray over. We have so much love for these children and their first families, and it is easy for our thoughts and emotions to focus solely on what we are feeling But, as we pray for the children, their families and the adopting family, God reveals to us just how much adoption is a ministry, not just a personal event. For us, praying for the birth-family keeps our thoughts and emotions off of our personal feelings and points them to God.
I (Nichole) also love how God has spoken to Brandon's heart during our journey. Going in, I did not have a positive view of open adoption, in which the birth-parents are involved. I had heard and read the stories and I was so afraid of what could happen. Brandon's heart for these birth-families is beautiful. He was immediately concerned with what they would be going through in making this adoption plan and leaving the hospital without a child. He said it would be cool to have a relationship with them. God has used Brandon to grow my own heart for the birth-parents. I look forward to being able to show the love of Jesus to them, and encouraging them.
Why we said "Yes" to God:
We knew that we wanted to grow our family through adoption, but the experience is different for each family, so it's hard to imagine what the journey will look like. It would be easy to say that we bllindly trusted God wholely and completely from the start, but that's not our story. God has provided just the right amount of faith, trust and strength as we have needed them. We have realized that God doesn't give us all we need for the journey at the beginning, but in small doses so we continue to follow Him for direction. we gain small glimpses of God's love for us as we have need. I think we have realized this more in raising the money for our adoption. There was time when we were doubtful that this was what God wanted because the idea of raising so much seemed impossible. But, it was God who provided again and built our faith up even more by showing us we were on the right path. If we had all the money at the start, I'm not sure our faith and trust would be as deep as it is now.
__________________________________________________________________________________
If you would like to hear more from Nichole and Brandon, you can read updates
on their blog {
PrayLoveAct.blogspot.com} or give directly to their adoption {
here}
100% of the profit
from the November give scarf will go directly to help fund the Davis family's
adoption journey.
Click
{here}
to purchase a
give scarf from my Etsy shop and share with your friends!
