What One Prayer Can Do

   WOW! We are so blown away by ALL of the love and support we have received since sharing our news. Thank you all SOOOO much!! We have been asked tons of questions from "Was this an embryo adoption?" to "Was this planned with medical intervention?" to "How did we find out?" We will gladly answer any questions but first we want to share something with you that happened 1 week before we found out we had a baby baking :-)
Every Monday night, we have family night. We start our family night with singing a fun song and having a prayer.  Then we'll have some kind of life lesson on kindness, sharing, courage, or something along those lines. Then we do some kind of fun activity like play a game, make a craft, do service, have a dance party, or go do something fun somewhere. We all make dessert and eat it afterwards. We end family night with singing another song and a prayer. This is our routine every Monday night and the kids LOVE it!

     On February 2 we started family night just like any other family night. Brett was in charge of the lesson this time and he chose to share a true story with the boys about another boy named Nephi that lived a long time ago. One day he was hunting with a steel bow and arrow in the wilderness and suddenly his bow broke. His family was starving and this bow was the only tool they had left that could help them hunt for food. His brothers were so upset with him because they were dependent on him with his sharp hunting skills to save them and the rest of the family from starvation. They were in desperate need of a miracle and some help. Being stranded in the wilderness, alone, didn't give them anywhere to turn. This boy had a choice to make. He could either be sorrowful and murmur against God as his family was or do something about it. He did not murmur as his family did.  He didn't just sit there and wait for a new bow to appear out of nowhere. Instead he faithfully went to work on and search for something he could use that would be strong enough to make a new bow. He was patient and listened for guidance. Finally he succeeded and found a rare nabwood that was strong enough to make a new bow. From there he was prayerfully led to a top of a mountain where he was able to hunt a large animal to feed his entire family. I'm sure it took a lot of energy from this boy to climb this mountain in his fatigued state, but he persevered and did it anyway.  Afterwords everyone in his family humbled themselves and gave thanks to God for what had just happened. 
So why did we share this story with them??? There are a few lessons to be learned here. 

1) When times get rough... keep the faith. 
2) Be patient and listen.
3) Have a willing heart.
4) Be grateful for the good and the bad. 

    A few days from then, we were going to be meeting with our adoption attorney. We had been feeling like our new baby was "SO CLOSE" but we just didn't know how to find "him/her". We had lots of hope that meeting with our attorney would give us more leads and guidance on our journey to grow our family. So this night we did as this boy in the story did and checked in to see if we were doing all that we could do on our end. It had been a very long and rough road this time on our journey to grow our family and we were feeling tired. Had we given it our all? Were we starting to murmur or were we hanging on to the faith? So as a family we decided we were going to work on our faith side. Just like the boy in the story, we wanted to show God that we were willing to do the work. We decided to set some family goals. The boys were going to work on sharing more and being more kind to each other. I (Candace) was going to work on having more patience and Brett was going to work on managing his time more wisely. In addition we were going to be more faithful in saying our prayers and showing gratitude for the things we have been given. We finished family night and it was time for bed.

    That night after we tucked the boys in bed, little did we know that Sawyer had his own question for God. We weren't there, and we didn't hear it, but he decided to crawl out of bed and say a very humble little prayer.

    A week later it was family night again and earlier that day, I found out I was pregnant. We sat down with the boys and told them that Mommy had a baby in her tummy. Sawyer very sweetly looked at me and said "Mommy, I already know." Puzzled I looked at him and said "Really? How did you know?" He replied, "Mommy, I said a prayer that your tummy wouldn't be broken anymore. That's how I know." I just started watering in the eyes.  What faith that little 5 year old must have had to get out of bed on that cold night and say such a sweet prayer for his Momma. 

    I later asked him why he prayed for my tummy to be fixed instead of praying for another baby to adopt. He said he didn't know... he just wanted to.  I was very surprised when he said that. We gave up the idea of ever having biological children a long time ago and praying for a pregnancy was not something that we have prayed for in YEARS. Once we adopted our boys, we knew that it was never about biology for us. It wasn't DNA that I craved, it was pregnancy. That may sound strange to crave stretch marks and vomiting but it was something that I ached for. After our boys came, that ache faded and was replaced with so much gratitude than I ever thought possible. I became grateful for the infertility because without it, I wouldn't have ever had my boys. Getting there didn't happen over night... I just had to get to a place where I had to "let go" of what I thought I wanted and trust that God knew better. That came with a lot of peace and relief. 

    Over the months we have felt SO much love and felt so many prayers from others. We have had many people fast and pray for us on our behalf and we are so thankful for each and every one of you. There is no doubt in our minds that God listened to every petition on our behalf from you.  Thank you so so so so incredibly much. From the bottom of our hearts.... We love you!
Love, 
Brett, Candace, Sawyer, Jamison, and Baby