This is a story I am incredibly grateful to write this morning. It's about my friends, Shane and Leah. We first met when they started coming to our Life Group (these people are literally our support "life" group- they have prayed us through so many seasons!). They told us they were waiting to adopt a baby- due to a back condition, Leah would not be able to have biological children. Seeing as Shawn and I had just started our adoption process, I was immediately connected with them- no matter the different circumstances- adoption is a unique journey, and one I am certainly glad I don't have to do alone! I knew that God had placed them in our lives for a very specific reason.
Almost two years passed- with no news. Then, one day, Leah said she met a birth mother who wanted to have Shane and Leah adopt her baby. We were all elated! The baby was a girl- which is what Shane and Leah had been praying for. They knew they wanted to have a baby girl and name her Kaydence.
Side note: Adoption is tough for a person who likes control (like myself). There is so much that you just cannot control. Timing, circumstances, paperwork, governments- all of these things depend so little on you and your abilities (despite my best efforts, haha), but still have such an effect on your journey. So, little things like the ability to select gender, age, even name- those are what you hold onto in times where it feels like the wait will never end.
Months passed, and Leah attended doctor's visits and shared life with the birth mother. A few weeks before the due date, though- everything screeched to a halt. The birth mother had decided to keep the baby.
This is the hard part. Though it is good for a child to be with their biological parent, we were crushed for Shane and Leah. I felt the same feelings for them I'd had when mourning a miscarriage- losing something you never really had. Such an empty feeling. To top off the pain, Leah had just had a hysterectomy in an effort to help relieve her back pain more effectively over the long term.
Our hearts were broken for them, and they grieved. After a while, Leah told us that they had decided to open up their gender preferences to boy or girl- though admittedly it was something they were still wrestling with. Their hearts still wanted a girl, but they also wanted to be obedient to whatever child God might have for them.
Then- out of nowhere it seemed- they were contacted by their agency. A birth mother was interested in them- and she was due in 3 weeks! They did say, however, that the baby was a boy. Trusting God, Shane and Leah met with the birth mother, who immediately selected them as the parents of her child. They attended every doctor visit she had left- and soon, they found themselves in a hospital room, awaiting the birth of their baby boy!
Back in Lubbock still sat a nursery full of girl things- "Kaydence" was still written on the wall. There had been no time to transition the room before the birth! So they'd packed the few boy things they had before leaving.
They wouldn't need those few things, though. Low and behold, when the baby was born, it was a baby GIRL! I still cry thinking about how incredible and evident God's promises must have been to them at that moment. God had given them the baby girl they'd prayed for for so long. Birth and adoption are truly miracles.
So, it was my honor and blessing to get to photograph these three. There hearts were ready...the room was ready...and God brought baby Kaydence at the perfect time.
