I sat in our hospital room with tears in my eyes and a heavy heart.
How can something so broken, be so beautiful?
My whole family was sleeping.
I watched her mince as she changed positions and found a more comfortable way to rest. Her poor body had endured much with this pregnancy. And in the last 48 hours, she delivered our son. Brandon was taking a much needed nap from sleeping sitting up the whole night. He insisted that I have the couch. The room was filled with the sounds of rhythmic breathing. And a blanket of heaviness covered us all.
I looked down in my arms and studied the lines of my son’s little face. He too asleep, unaware of all the love held in that room for him. I wished for him. Years ago, when that
showed up again after months of hoping. I prayed for him, like I did his sister. Prayed he would find his way into our family. Little did I know during our
last summer, God was already growing him in Selah’s birth mom’s belly. What she considered a mistake, God redeemed, like He always does. What we thought was loss from our failed adoption, was only God’s kindness in
While the quiet lingered, my heart cried out to Him. “Do you see her? She’ll loose a son today, Lord. And what we have prayed for and wished for so long will finally happen. We’ll gain a son. How do we do this?”
The days our birth mom has signed, placing her children into our family, have been both the happiest and saddest days of my life. Happy, because without her, I would never be a mommy. I would never change diapers, watch first wobbly steps, get wet kisses, and hear that name. Sad, because she will miss those things. And even though right when it happens, I send her a message or video, the children that share her DNA, call me mom. “The magnitude of that tragedy and the depth of that privilege is not lost on me.”-Jody Landers
Right when the weight was too much to bear, I received a text from a dear friend, “This is a beautiful brokenness that will draw you both to Papa. His love covers.”
Did He see her? Absolutely. He is crazy about her, just like He is crazy about me. He watched our sweet son form in her inmost parts, and He was knitting him together right in her womb. He was preparing her heart for this day, the day she became a mom again. The day, she would love him so much she would sacrifice her feelings, for his future.
Did He see me there, grieving one second, and filled with complete joy in the next? Of course He did. And those tears I shed when the room was sleeping, He sat right there with me and caught every one.
His love covers. It covered us both. And still does.
Our adoption story is quite different from most. Never had I imagined I would have two children with extremely
. I wanted to adopt internationally so I wouldn’t have to “share” my children with a birth mom. Looking back, I see how selfish my motives were. I was thinking about me and the desire I had lived with for so long. Now, looking at all God has done in our story, I am humbled how God has grown our family. Not only do we now have a son and a daughter, but we have a dear sister, and her two boys in our extended family as well.
People ask me all the time how I “let” her be so involved in our lives. And although I understand their concern, it’s because it works for us. She respects me as mommy, and I respect her as the mom who gave my children life. We share a bond that is like no other. My children will never know the depths of our love.
But it also works, because we share a similar story. One of loss and brokenness. A story in great need of redemption. And right at the time in both of our lives when we experienced our darkest days, God picked up a pen and started writing.
And He wrote a story of beautiful brokenness…
A woman with a choice to make, and a woman with no choices left.
And throughout His story, He drew our hearts to His. In a way we both never imagined.
Welcome to our family, Micah Rand Satterfield.
You will never know how you are loved.