August, You've Got a Way With Me

August, huh?


Those of you who have been around since the beginning of this journey know that August is what our (God sized) dreams are made of. You may have heard a rumor around these parts that the two littlest men in our family share a birthday month, nearly a birthday week. Shoot...nearly the same birthday year. We like to keep it fun.

So why is August such a big deal for our tribe? Well, sister, let’s chat.

In June 2010, after almost 3 years of marriage, we decided to forego the 5-year-plan (thanks to a leisurely reading of John Piper’s book, This Momentary Marriage) and dare to trust the Lord that His timing in growing our family was perfect. Over two years later our arms were unexplainably empty and our hearts longed for Heaven. If He gave us the desire for children, why wasn’t our house filled with the sounds of little feet? But what seemed like a hopelessly dark road, was just the place where Hope began to shine the brightest.

You ever been chased down by Jesus? You can’t hide anywhere, anytime...don’t even try. So after several months of chasing, we were face-to-face with our hard-headedness, and with the kindness of a Father who refused to leave us as we were. Like many American families, adoption was “in the plan.” But if we were wise we would wait until we could afford it. Wait until we had our (arg) “own” children. Wait until we had a home we could be proud of when a social worker perused her way through our American dream. That’s what they say at least. So there we were, chased down, walking, nah...crawling, through what felt like an endless wilderness, desperately clinging to Hope. But Hope lead us to one thing. Adoption or bust.

 

brothers

 

We called our prospective agency for the first time in September of 2012 and had a completed home study less than 3 months later. Some might say I’m like a dog with a bone. Give me a challenge and I’m on it. Throw the hope of a baby in there and heck, you couldn’t pry me away from that paperwork. The first week in December rolled around and so did our home study approval letter. But that’s not all. As if our approval wasn’t exciting enough, hello positive pregnancy test.

I’ll spare you the details of the emotional rollercoaster we rode over the next 9 months. Suffice it to say, lots of tears, lots of anxiety (not enough casting of said anxiety onto the One who cares for us...but grace), lots of questions, and lots of complete amazement. He was writing a better story for us than we could have written ourselves, that’s for certain. And August showers were about to rain two little gifts of grace on our lives.

In August of 2013 our little family grew to three, but boy were we just getting started. Three months later our home study was officially amended to include our littlest bundle and we were “waiting” and eager for the little one our hearts were knit to the minute we stepped foot into adoption. Our hearts were captured by one we had never met and so onward we marched.

 When our first son was 10 months old our agency contacted us to tell us that a birth mother was considering us as the forever family for the little boy she bravely carried. We were smitten (with a twinge of freak-out tossed in there, duh). The countdown was on.

 

family

 

Twelve months and eight days after welcoming our first bundle into the world, our second little man became ours. That wilderness road, the one that lasted much longer than we ever imagined, had lead us here. This little man was ours all along. But the waiting, oh the waiting. The tears, He bottled them. And He used them to water the soul hearts and our home for August.

August. Sons. Grace. Undeserved. If you are looking for us in August, you'll probably find us doing a little happy dance. What can we say.