Called to Adopt: Hannah’s Story
Hi everyone! It’s Hannah Bunker here. It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post for Dancing Upon Barren Land. Since November is National Adoption Awareness, Lesli asked if I wanted to write up a little something to share a new chapter of my story.
My husband and I have been called to adopt. We’re in the middle of the process, scheduling our home study very soon, and on our way to approval to be put on the waiting list for birth moms to potentially pick us as the parents of her child.
It’s been an incredible journey up to this point – one that is filled with God’s divine appointments and favor. He’s been working on our hearts for a long time. In the middle of our four year battle with infertility, the Lord began to challenge our plans for how our family would come into fruition. After wrestling with God about the decision to adopt before we are blessed with biological children, we were filled with peace about that direction and said “YES” (all caps, too) to adoption and the calling we believe God has place on our lives.
People, amazing things happen when we say “yes” to God. He moves powerfully.
We felt led in the direction to pursue an open newborn adoption through a private agency but the $27k price tag intimidated us. We said, “God, we can afford to fill out the paper work but you’re going to have to do some Ephesians 3:20 miracle for us to be able to afford the rest for this adoption.”
Have you ever heard the phrase, “He’s a further-faster God?”
God can take us further, faster with just a small touch of His divine favor.
This story is about to take an Academy Award turn to the incredible. Listen…
The next night after our “YES” declaration and our prayer for God to provide what we financially needed, Aaron and I went out with a couple.
The four of us sat at the table, a devoured plate of fajitas in the center of us, full bellies, and laughter ringing from our table throughout the restaurant. It was dinner with a couple, a quality time habit we like to feed since our relationships with people, dear friends and acquaintances, are treasures we hold close to our heart.
Someone had just made a joke and we all laughed. Then the laughter died and a moment of silence followed. The kind of silence that initiates a shift in the tone of the conversation. A tone that says “you better listen because someone’s heart is about to show.”
He leaned in, initiating the tone shift.
“We actually asked you and Hannah out tonight with ulterior motives.” He cleared his throat. “Last summer we felt the Lord tell us to start saving for adoption. We didn’t know why because we weren’t even sure if adoption was in our future. But we obeyed.”
His voice had a subtle quiver. His hands shook slightly. He pulled something from his lap and held it in his hands.
“We’ve wanted to do this for a while but we never felt it was the right time. But we feel now’s the time to give this to you. We felt the Lord tell us, ‘You haven’t been saving for your adoption. You’ve been saving for Hannah and Aaron’s adoption.”
The item was a check. He slid it to Aaron face down.
“We want to give this to you guys and hope it helps with your adoption.”
Aaron turned over the check….
$14,000. Fourteen-thousand dollars! To bring our baby home!
Shock. Stunned, I quipped with “Is that THREE zeros on that check?!?!”
I’m still in shock when I tell this story.
Aaron and I sat at the table, speechless, in shock, the words “thank you” seeming so simple for such an exchange. I made a joke about doing an interpretive dance as a way to express the word-less emotions of gratitude in my heart. He joked that the only thing they ask in return is to name our baby after him.
Humbly, they replied, “Don’t thank us. Thank God. That was never our money in the first place.”
You know what BLOWS me away? God knew our need and had the answer before we ever even said “Yes” to adoption. He was working out a plan before we even considered adoption.
Did you hear me, friend? I want this to encourage you in whatever situation you are going through right now.
God knew the solution to your problem before you ever even knew there would be an obstacle! (Would you like to tweet that?)
That revelation will kick fear’s butt if you let it! I want that to encourage you where ever you are at right now. Infertility is a rough, rough place to be. I’ve walked the long, rocky road and I am still walking it even now. But God knows the solution to our heart’s desires and He knows how to fulfill our greatest need. We may not even know the need at the moment, but he’s ready to disperse the answer when the time is right.
This has become revelation to me and I hope that it encourages you where ever you are right now.
If you’d like to read more of our past and ongoing adoption story you can do so here on my blog. Adoption has become a passion of mine so if you’d like to talk about it, please feel free to contact me!
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Now we have more than half of what we need to bring our baby home!
We are doing several fundraisers to help raise the additional funds for our adoption and our first fundraiser has been custom made tshirts that we are selling. The design was offered to be done for us but I really wanted to do it myself since I felt like that was tending my garden, you know? So I designed this tshirt below and we have until December 2nd (this coming Monday) to sell as many as we can. Our goal is 100 shirts and we’re already at 86! Wow! If you would prayerfully consider purchasing one of our shirts to help bring our baby home, my heart would be so full and grateful!
You can purchase a shirt HERE.
Thank you!
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