Faith As Small As a Mustard Seed

At the request of BFFE, which by the way now has her own blog, I am going to post my testimony that i gave a couple weeks ago. I'm also realizing that God has other plans for me in getting out and sharing this message. If you have a MOPS group, or any event, that needs stories of faith, let me know. My testimony here is very short, well it got kind of long in b/w the sobs of joy of course, but we were supposed to keep it @ 3-5 min. I could expound tremendously if i had had the time. With the help of my Pastor this is what I gave:
My testimony is one of faith that grew through the process God worked in Jeff and my life as we hoped and prayed for a family of our own when it seemed unlikely to happen.
After going through several futile attempts of having a baby naturally we considered adoption. It was always something near and dear to my heart since my sister was adopted. Little did we know that that was how our first child was going to come to us.
I did tell Pastor Sheryl we were going to adopt and the prayers from her and those from family and close friends that knew, began. Those mustard seeds sure took off.
We breezed right thru the adoption process of the home study, interviews, questionnaires, making of our profile book and collecting the references from family, friends, employers and Pastors. I had never felt at such peace as I did when I turned in our profile that prospective birth moms would be looking at. This book held the story of our life from how we met, to our house and what life was like for us. We included important things in our life such as our church, music, farming and our animals. It gave the BM an idea of where her child would be raised and the plans we had for our child. I turned the book in and relied on my faith, that God would place our profile in the hands of the BM He would want for us. This was one of the first times in years that I felt I had given complete faith and trust to God. Maybe it was b/c it wasn’t IF we’d have a child but WHEN.
Within weeks of turning in our profile we were told we had been chosen. WOW the 1 yr wait they told us to plan on was only one month.
Our BM was 6 months along and at our first meeting we hit it off. She was, still is, an amazing young lady who made such a grown up decision. She herself had taken a huge leap of faith and one that was looked down on by many. While we were answering questions of our own from others about the process, she was getting her own set of questions. Like how can you DO this? Don’t you love this child? She would confidently reply that she loved this child but knew she could not provide for him the way another family could. She wanted him to have opportunities in life that she never had, nor ever will.
Not being a Christian herself we really had to make sure we kept God ‘talk’ to a min. and trust that our actions would speak for our faith in God. She couldn’t wait for us to meet her mother saying ‘my mom is going to LOVE you guys and so do I’. At our 2nd meeting we met her mom and hit it off too. It really was just beautiful.
We told her our plans for our son and she smiled with such pride to know that he was going to experience life like she’d never known. Even though she questioned Gods existence she knew that she wanted her son to know who he is.
On December 13th our son, Carson David, was born in to this world. With each push she gave I literally cried to God for strength for her. It was a blessing b/c her labor was quick. I mean REALLY quick. And she did it all without an epidural.
I can not begin to tell you how great our church family was from the moment we told them of our match, lots of clapping and even a few tears, to the first time we brought Carson to church. Joel & Mary Tyler, his Godparents, are true prayer warriors. Apart of the entire process, we appreciated all the silent prayers they offered. Gerane Schneckloth had the most amazing smile on her face the moment she saw us and those smiles still haven’t stopped. The comments of how beautiful our family is and the words of encouragement do not go unnoticed. The church ladies who thru a baby shower for us and all those that attended. That was just amazing. This little mustard seed was in full bloom not only for Jeff and me, but in our families and church family.

Believe it or not, Carson looks a lot like his ‘papa’ Law when he was this age. He and Papa are the best of buds. Checking cows together, fixing fences and eating cookies are just some of the favorite activities for the 2 of themJ I can tell you I’ve never seen Bill happier then when he and Carson are together. I’m sure our church family can attest to that seeing them 2 in person.
Can you see right here how great our God is? What a little testimony Carson is in and of himself?
Just when I thought our mustard seed was flourishing after Carson turning one, I learned God had planted another seed. This one was the surprise pregnancy of ME. You should have seen the amazement when I realized I was pregnant and over 6 weeks at that. Really, this is happening in my life? Listen carefully, statistically speaking, this happens only 3% where you adopt and get pregnant and had been thru what we had. Wow God had me even thinking what the heck.
For the most part, the pregnancy was textbook. Probably the only think in my life that was. Aug 9, 2006 Addison Johanna was born. Our kids are 20 months apart. She is a chip off the ol’ block of her mother I’m afraid. She has a contagious smile and loved to be in charge.
I don’t look back to the years of struggles we had to have our family as dark and sad years, b/c I know that if I didn’t have those years I wouldn’t have the faith and trust in God that I have today. My journey thru infertility is a part of my life. It is who I am and who God made me to be.
The day we were discharged from the hospital with Carson, his BM gave me a special gift. This is what she gave me. It’s a necklace with mustard seeds in it. She had remembered me telling her that I had to have faith as small as a mustard seed. Life is what it is, but in your life it can be so much more when you trust God. This is my testimony of God’s faithfulness.