This is a guest post by Shelly Hollon. Shelly is a “domestic engineer, living the dream as a wife and mother, who loves to serve her Lord and family. She also is an incredible cook and baker.” You can connect with her on Facebook. If you are interested in writing a post for us, visit our Guest Post page. You can also view other guest posts by clicking here.
My husband and I were married in June 2003. By 2005 we decided it was time to start our family. After a year of not conceiving we decided to visit several of the top infertility doctors in DFW. No one had any answers. Unexplained infertility was our diagnosis. This is when my husband started talking about adoption. I was pretty adamant that we would do this our way. I even said on multiple occasions “we can do this on our own.”
We would say we were Christian to people who asked, but we were not living a Christ centered life. After one of my husbands co-workers told him about our home church, 121 Community Church, we decided to check it out in 2009. The service centered around this passage…
“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” – 2 Corinthians 5:20
I was struggling with the infertility. It seemed that everyone else was able to conceive a child and I was envious of people who were pregnant. After this service I knew that this was where I needed to be. It was as if God was speaking straight through our preacher to me.
I would say that I am normally a very cheerful person. One day I went to work in a particular foul mood. I had just found out that my best friend was pregnant. We had been trying for 6 years by this time. My boss wanted to know what was wrong with me. I told her how upset I was that God gave precious angels to everyone but us. She knew how long we had been trying and she knew exactly the pain of infertility. After the conversation all of the anger, rage, envy and jealousy I had been feeling was gone.
My boss told me that God had other plans for me and I needed to really listen to what He was telling me. I literally handed it off to God at that point. I finally admitted that I could not do this by myself or “on my own”. Not just to my boss, but I admitted it to myself and God. I gave it all to my Lord Jesus Christ as He is the only person in full control of everything. I fully accepted Jesus Christ into my heart as my savior for all of eternity.
Within a few hours my Grandmother had emailed me about my 8 year cousin, whom I have never met, who was in foster care. By the end of the phone call I knew what God wanted me to do. I was called to adopt. I feel that by admitting that I needed help and guidance God finally was able to fully enter my heart. He was there all along, but I could actually feel the warmth that only He can give. It did not work out with my 8 year old cousin, but it did open the door to the world of adoption.
We began the adoption process in September 2011. On May 3, 2012 we received the phone call that would forever change our world. A birth mom had chose us to raise her baby. On May 7th, our son was born. Just one more piece of proof that God loves us and is sovereign. We always say that God had to adopt us before we could adopt. After all we are all children of God.
“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” – Psalm 139:14
Do you have a story you would like to share with us? Comment below or write us a post. To see other stories, click here.
What a beautiful story. I adopted as a single mom. I was 43 years old and still unmarried, but I had a heart full of love for a precious child. I had harbored a desire to adopt for nearly ten years, but had never felt like God was giving me the go-ahead. Finally, He did. To make a long story short, I woke up one morning with no idea my life was about to change. less than 42 hours later, I held my precious daughter in my arms. The adoption itself took nearly another two years, but God finally made… Read more »
Thank you Julie for sharing. Adoption is SUCH a blessing. Just in the United States alone there are over 400,000 kids in the foster system and countless women who want to make an adoption plan for their unborn babies. I saw this somewhere and it really stuck out to me “there are no unwanted babies/children just unfound families.” God is good!