Our Gianna forever teaches us that the most beautiful gifts in life are found in the most broken of places.
*****You can hear the podcast conversation here on the web
or here on apple podcasts.***
I am so thankful that, in God’s grace, our fear and desire for self-preservation did not make us miss our treasures. How easy it almost was to choose the safe and predictable course for our family. But, it’s been in the most fearful and broken moments of surrender that God’s power and faithfulness have been most magnified.
Brian and I are sharing more of our messy hearts and story on Davey Blackburn’s NOTHING IS WASTED PODCAST this week. Davey is an incredible host who also knows the depths of loss and grief. His podcast is doing a series on adoption this month and we’re so thankful for the way Davey and his awesome podcast team have gently and lovingly come alongside us with the desire to help us steward God’s story in our own lives through the journey of adoption, love, grief, sorrow, joy, fear, miracles, and trust in God’s faithfulness (when everything feels so broken).
Adoption is a beautiful miracle but it is not the romantic or pretty, bow-tied picture that we sometimes see reflected in blogs, instagram squares, gotcha day videos and vlogs. I know I have been guilty of this too, because we all love to share the highlight reels. Yes, there is SO much joy in adoption, but to fully honor the joy, one must also honor the layers of pain, brokenness, trauma and fears too.
And, adoption is not an invitation for us to fix what is broken and make it all better. Rather, it is a response to a broken world that wasn’t supposed to be that way at all… and a response to what’s ultimately been done for us.
Adoption is God’s gracious invitation for us to walk a broken road, carry a broken heart and witness a redeeming God who can take what’s broken and make something beautiful. Adoption is a brave response to come near to the most brokenhearted where we get to fully see His loving heart.
Adoption is not about us but about a God who chases down our own broken hearts and remakes them into something new.
When our family started on the road to adoption we had no idea the story that God was going to weave with our “Yes” to his sacred invitations. I am so grateful that we had no idea….all we knew was that our hearts were broken for the orphan and surrendered to God’s leading in a way that they had never been before…and that changed EVERYTHING. It also meant trusting Him with growing our imperfect family and giving Him the pen to write our story for our lives as He grew our hearts too. What we did not realize was that the way He was going to grow our hearts was to deeply break them even further. And, while our story holds great sorrow, we would never give up the pain that we’ve experienced if it meant that we would not know the abundant joy of being on this journey to His heart. Love is always worth the risk of great pain.
We aren’t special or super strong…. we are just weak and imperfect people who have learned that You just can’t be afraid of “Broken.” … Because God’s presence is most deeply felt in the most broken of places.
I hope you will take the time to listen and lean in to our story of both joy and sorrow. This interview with Davey is just a small glimpse into a greater narrative and deeper mystery that we can not ever fully understand, fully share or even ever reconcile on this side of the veil. His ways are so much higher and beyond comprehension. And though we may not be the most eloquent, it is our hope that our raw and honest testimony will cause others’ hearts to break for what breaks his and also give others Hope in their own broken stories. We also hope that your heart breaks in a new way for those who are closest to His heart, the orphan.
Afterall, adoption is the gospel story for us all.
*****You can hear the podcast conversation here on the web
or here on apple podcasts.
And to read more about our Sparkly Gianna’s forever light, click here
#liveGiaGrowForever
