My friend Kristin Hill Taylor was so kind to share this good word with us today.  Her new book is an inspiration!  Kristin’s family came together through not one, but two, wonderful adoption stories.  Beyond the beauty that is revealed in the hearts of the birth mothers (get out your kleenex), Kristin reveals her own heart’s journey, and that might have been my favorite part.  You can see this verse at work in her life: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).  

On Saturday, November 21, 2009, my sister-in-law Angela asked me what my perfect timing would be for Ben to be born. Leigh, my son’s birth mom, had been on bed rest because he’d threatened to come early, so we were glad he was still inside growing at 38-plus weeks. I answered Angela’s question honestly: Sunday or Monday.

Well, Monday started with me going with Leigh to a check-up appointment. We learned she was 5-6 centimeters dilated. Given that she had initially dilated two months earlier, we were happy to be just eight days from his due date. Our doctor friend was confident he’d deliver our son soon and wanted Leigh to get ready for delivery.

Turns out, he was right.

After Leigh and I made necessary arrangements met at the hospital.

Benjamin Lucas was born November 23, 2009, three blocks from our house. His sister, who was almost 31 months old, was thrilled to welcome him into our family. Once again God knew the desires of our heart and fulfilled them in his time. He showed us his faithfulness in such a tangible way. This time it came into the world at 2:56 p.m. the Monday before Thanksgiving, weighing 7 pound 10 ounces and with a head full of dark hair.

Leigh was a champ. She was holding my hand during delivery, but she rarely really squeezed it. I could tell a couple times leading up to the delivery she was really hurting, but she grinned and beared it. She never complained and told me thank you a couple of times.

Really.

Um, no, thank you. Really, that’s all I kept thinking. THANK YOU, Leigh. THANK YOU, God.

Once Ben was born, the nurse took him to a neighboring room to clean him up, which was Leigh’s preference. After hugging Leigh multiple times, Greg and I followed the nurse, who carried our son. She tended to him and then we held him. This great nurse even was good with the camera and took a picture that turned out to my favorite from the day.

Even with the celebration, I knew there was heartache for Leigh: “I grieved as any mother would do after delivery and losing her child. It was a feeling of being torn apart because even though I knew it was the right decision, it was still hard to let him go. I cried for many days and still do every now and then, but I still know it was the right thing and wouldn’t change my decision for anything,” Leigh said years later. “I think that adoption is a great idea for any mother who might have reservations about having a child at a bad time in their life. I’ve never believed in abortion, and to give someone a child that might not be able to have one or that might be able to give them better opportunities in life is wonderful.”

The nursing staff arranged for us to have a room, so we went there while the nursery staff did the things they do to newborns. A nurse who had been Greg’s elementary school bus driver years earlier brought Ben to us and then Greg’s parents brought Cate to meet her brother.

A family of four. How blessed we truly were … and are.

Five years ago, Ben’s first outing was on Thanksgiving to my in-law’s house, where the turkey was 2.75 times my boy’s weight. After being unsure if I would become a momma, having a second child in a way only God could orchestrate makes me especially thankful. He’ll forever be my Thanksgiving baby – which is quite appropriate, really. Ben’s birth story is an excerpt from “Peace in the Process: How Adoption Built My Faith & My Family,” which is available on Amazon and tells about the hard season of infertility that led to two adoption processes and the days since.

Kristin Hill Taylor lives in Murray, Kentucky, with her college sweetheart husband and their two kids. She believes in taking road trips, living in community, and seeking God as the author of every story – many of which she shares at www.kristinhilltaylor.com.