Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Meet Olive

 I will never forget the first time I talked with Megan and David. Their heart for adoption, connecting with a birth family, and walking the adoption road with ethics at the front was beautiful. With each step of their journey I saw how they put their faith into action and truly put their trust in Jesus. They leaned in, showed up, and truly took each step with reverence. One day I heard the phone ring and picked up; and it was Megan and David on the other end letting me know they were chosen to be parents to a little girl who's brave and incredible mom picked them. They were humbled, overwhelmed with gratitude, and knew their lives were about to change in the most incredible way. Here is their story in their own words.

From the heart of David and Megan and their journey to Olive

Our daughter, Olive, is sleeping in my wife’s arms next to me. It’s hard to believe that we are here now, with a baby, after so many years of waiting and wondering.


Megan and I had a whirlwind romance. We met, fell in love and married all in the span of 6 months. The way the Lord knit our stories together was beautiful and powerful, and our eyes were bright with hope for our future. We wanted to have a family together. Our vows had sprinklings of this hope written throughout. But we would come to find, only 6 months into our marriage, that growing our family would not be so easy for us after all. We worked, dieted, researched, saw doctors, and cried. No matter how hard we tried or what we did, no baby came. 

 

Our story with infertility is long. After 9 years of trying our hopes had all but been buried. We busied ourselves with other things, but the longing wouldn’t leave. We wondered why the Lord would give us these desires, but leave us with no way to fulfill them.  We were confronted with the bitter realities of this broken world. We worked to tell ourselves the truth, that God is good, but still, we hurt. Our hearts were broken and our home had a hole which we simply could not fill. Little did we know then the amount of love we would experience


Over the course of these years we felt led to pursue adoption many times. But over and over again we felt overwhelmed by the cost, the requirements, the process, and a general feeling of inability.  What stood before us felt like a huge mountain, another roadblock on our journey to growing our family. 

 

In 2020 Megan and I heard about CAC. We had all but given up on the dream of growing our family at that time. After talking with Fallon we felt so hopeful in all that could be waiting on the other side of our fears. But God wasn’t giving up on us. We decided to step out in faith. And one by one God provided for each major hurdle, from the paperwork to finances. Finally we felt that maybe the waiting and yearning would be over soon. We were so glad to have Fallon by our side helping us through each step and praying for our family. 

 

We received adoption stories and prayed and presented. One by one we were told that these amazing expecting moms had chosen another family. This was such a faith stretching time for us, but we knew even more that when we read about these expecting women it gave us a glimpse into their story and life and how we could genuinely pray for each one of them. 

 

At time we wondered if Jesus had forgotten our story.  We cried and asked what God was doing. After years of waiting, we found ourselves waiting in a new way. So close to realized promises, and yet somehow so far.



We kept saying yes in faith that a mom would see something in our family that spoke to her heart and would feel comfort in knowing that we would love her child and love her with our entire lives. But the waiting was heavy and we kept moving forward in faith. 

 

We cried out to God. Can you see me? Can you help me? Will you do something?

 

After struggling through these feelings and and processing with Fallon,  we presented to an expecting mom who we felt so connected to her life and story.  We were a little weary, but we were working to remember the truth that God works good for His people. We were working to trust His promises. 



We heard back that she liked us a lot and was considering us. We were trying to guard our hearts at the news, knowing that we still might not be chosen.  We learned later that she knew immediately that we were the ones, and when expecting dad saw our profile he knew immediately too. We found out on July 20 that she had chosen us and we wept and struggled to receive this goodness. Her baby was due Aug 18 and our hearts leaped with expectation but also with heaviness knowing the pain this family was about to walk through. 

 

Two days later, July 22, Megan and I shared with each other that we felt it was a girl. Our hearts were suddenly beating for a baby girl. We discussed names and we both felt that the name of our daughter would be Olive Josephine. Olive derived from the olive branch which for millennia has represented peace. Josephine derived from Joseph which means Yahweh will increase. We prayed even then that God would increase His peace in and through the child we would receive. A child we felt would be a girl. 



The next day, July 23 we got a call from the case worker. She asked how we were. This call became a life changing moment when she said that our baby had been born that morning. A baby girl. A month early. Our hearts instantly went to her mom and knew today would be a day filled with more emotions that we could even begin to understand. 

 

We waited for just under 10 years for a child, and God decided to give us our baby with 3 days heads up. I mean, yeah we were in the adoption process but let’s be real, our house was in the last stages of a renovation chain reaction from doing the babies room. It was a whirlwind of work on the 23rd. Friends came over and helped us finish our renovation in one day. On the 24th we walked into that NICU without having slept for 24 hours...it was perfect, she was perfect. 



When I saw my daughter for the first time, there was an inexpressible feeling. A coming home. This was our daughter. Since the foundation of the world, God had set His eyes upon her. When we were mourning the death of a dream God was working to bring life to our barrenness. There was never a time, in the scope of eternity, where her amazing life did not exist. I had wondered years before if infant adoption needed us. I realize that as much as Olive needed us, we needed her. We both needed each other, and our unification was the birth that our family was always meant to experience first. Her birth family was our family and her daughter was now our daughter together.

 

Friends, I realized in that moment that 10 years of suffering and loss do not disappear when your child comes home. Suffering does not stop being suffering. If you are struggling right now, it is not trivial and I do not want you to feel like you have to lie to yourself and to others about it. No. What happens though, is that suffering and loss are given meaning in that moment. They are given value. The person whom you’ve suffered for is before your eyes and you will realize, she/he is worth it. You would do it again, twice over, to look into their eyes. To hold them in your arms.


Try not to loose heart. It IS hard. It’s hard to wait. It’s hard to wonder. It’s hard to get that no, when you long so desperately for a yes. The thing is that there is a yes reserved for you. It is not a random yes. It is not a throwaway yes. There is a child crafted with you in mind. A child who will be given to you to be stewarded and loved with the Love of God and the heart of their family. A child whom God is bringing into your home so that they might come to know Him through you. There is a purpose behind it all. This doesn’t take away the difficulties of adoption, and they are many. It will though, give all those difficulties meaning. It will sanctify your suffering and make it holy. Cling to the One who is working all this for good. If you cannot see the good yet, trust that HE is good. Your heart will be moved by the greatest love of a birth family and you will feel humbled and honored beyond words. 

 

I am confident brothers and sisters, that even though we suffer now, our suffering is given a meaning that makes it worth it. We will see it all one day. In this adoption, we’ve see the meaning of this particular suffering in the eyes of Olive. God has designed the night to give way to the dawn. Wait for the dawn and His light will shine upon your face.

 

Praying for your Impending Joy,

David, Megan, and Olive

 

Ps. Olive it will make sense one day…. See what I did there… dad joke

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