The Story of Baby Bracci

Chapter One: The Beginning

On Monday, September 17th, 2018 Austin sent me a simple text message that read, “I’m in trouble. Outside of scripture, this chapter has easily been the most convicting chapter I’ve ever read.” Along with this text was a picture of the first page of the chapter “The Lonely in Families: The Gospel and Orphans and Widows” from David Platt’s book, Counter Culture. This one text marked the start of the awe-inspiring adoption journey that will hopefully unite us with our first child.

For the next couple weeks, I read what seemed like every adoption article and listened to numerous adoption and parenting podcasts. I needed to be educated in order to take the right next step, I thought. Would we adopt internationally, domestically, through an agency, or privately? This was the lack of clarity I felt was hindering us from making the next move. I prayed God would make it unmistakably clear who He had destined to be a part of our family. While we still plan to adopt internationally, for our first child, we truly desired the first few months with a newborn. I looked at adoptuskids.org daily, but the same strong desire for a newborn tugged on my heart. But how could we apply with an agency, to be put on a list next to parents who had tried for years to conceive and had likely spent months waiting on this list due to their heart-wrenching battle with infertility? This was not our story, and I could not fathom making one of those families wait even one single day longer because a birth mom chose us, instead of them. God, we know you are calling us to do something, to be hope for the hopeless, but how?

I continued to read and do research for three more weeks, it felt like an eternity not to do something, to start what would likely be a very lengthy process.  But God knew my heart needed to grow and stretch and do some healing in those three weeks. To pass the time, we began building wooden wall decor that we plan to sell as Christmas gifts, in order to earn extra money to set aside for the future adoption costs. On September 30th, we took three completed wood and string art to our friends’ house to ask which they liked more and which wood stain we should anticipate being the favorite. With that, we spoke the words of hopeful adoptive parents to another individual. There was no going back now. 

We set up appointments for our annual physical exams. When we told the medical provider, on October 10th, we were there to establish as new patients so that she would be able to sign-off on a piece of paper required for our home study, we had no clue we would be bringing that paper back the next day. This is where the story gets really fun!

October 11th, our world changed. Had it been a normal Thursday, Austin would have been in class, the same one that required him to read that chapter of Counter Culture just three weeks earlier, and I would have been three hours away from home working with a representative near Charlotte, but Hurricane Michael had us stuck at home. 

1:22PM: During a late lunch break while working from home, I made a call to Triangle Adoption Services, a home study agency in North Carolina. The home study was the first step to getting approved to adopt and is necessary to apply to a adoption agency.

1:35PM: Susan Brown, our home study coordinator, returned our call and answered several questions we had about the home study process before requesting our contact information.

2:03PM: Our home study paperwork appeared in my inbox.

3:00PM (approximately): I began filling out the preliminary paperwork required to initiate the home study process. I made it through the first four pages…

3:19PM: My friend, from the only couple we shared our plan to adopt with, called my cell.  When I answered, she said, “I’m going to try to make it through telling you this without crying.” This was the first time we heard our future birth mom’s name. The first time we heard a small portion of our future child’s story. The beginning of a beautiful journey of adoption together. 

5:40PM: After finishing up a couple calls and time sensitive issues at work, I called Ashley (pseudo-name) and spoke with an anxious expecting mom who felt hopeless and alone. That first conversation was a beautiful beginning to what we hope to be a lifelong friendship.

October 12th, we signed on with Heart of Adoptions to facilitate our “in-progress” adoption.

Since October 12th, Ashely and I have been in frequent communication. We have discussed our baby’s family history, things that are important to Ashley, things that are important to Austin and me, and even what the baby is craving from time to time. While there are certainly risks associated with finding out about this pregnancy so early, as Ashley was only 5 weeks along, the benefits have outweighed the risks. One of which being the ability to be present throughout the entire pregnancy. Since this is our first baby, and we have not yet experienced pregnancy, this is a special blessing. At Ashley’s suggestion, we booked two roundtrip flights to come to Florida to be present for our baby’s first ultrasound!

On November 2nd, I jumped out of a vehicle with anxious excitement of hugging the mom who would become an integral member of our family over the coming years. Her smile was contagious and it was clear, her sense of relief was as great as ours. 

Together we watched and listened to the heartbeat of Baby Bracci. We smiled and celebrated the life that she had chosen to preserve. The life that would become that of our child. A baby that might one day move mountains. In that moment, we thanked God for this baby. 

The next few hours, I will cherish forever. They were characterized by the nervous excitement of hopeful parents, a nervous girl who hoped the best for the unplanned life inside of her, but most of all love. We shared stories of our pasts, but chose to look forward toward the hope of tomorrow. While we embraced that first day as strangers, our respect for one another grew through conversation and we will always have one thing in common, Baby Bracci. 

This is just the start of an awe-inspiring story that will continue to be written.  Only God can know the magnitude of it, but we will hold on to this truth…

“God can do anything, far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.” -Ephesians 3:20 (The Message)