Submitted by philip on
By Marc Eichelberger, LBCH Communications
JONESVILLE – Perry and Michelle Gardner have been married for seven years. Through various personal and shared experiences, they both had a strong desire to pursue adoption for their family. Their plan was to have a biological child, then pursue adoption. Little did they know that God had a much different plan for their family.
After a year of trying unsuccessfully to conceive and a series of doctor’s visits, tests and second opinions, the couple learned that their infertility was certain and irreversible.
Perry serves as pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Jonesville. In March 2010, the couple shared their struggle of infertility with their church family. It was a time of healing for the couple that allowed their church family to walk beside them as they journeyed towards becoming parents.
“We began praying for healing and direction. God seemed to close the door for biological children in order to put us on His path of making us parents,” Perry said.
The next several months were spent praying, researching adoption agencies and talking with other adoptive parents. The couple felt God leading them to pursue international adoption from Ethiopia. After months of interviews, fingerprints, and adoption education, the couple’s paperwork was ready to be sent to Ethiopia. Once the paperwork was sent to Ethiopia, the couple would then wait to receive a referral for their children.
“God was faithful over and over again to meet our needs during this process,” Michelle said. “Sometimes He moved quickly and other times it was slower, but always in the nick of time.”
On Father’s Day 2012, the couple received the news for which they had been waiting. They were soon to be the parents of twin girls who had been born a month earlier.
The couple traveled to Ethiopia in August for their court hearing and to meet their daughters, Connally and Haven, for the first time.
Perry admitted that he had some apprehension as to whether he could love an adopted child in the same way as a biological child. He then described the moment when he first held his daughter Haven.
“After some time of just looking at this little baby girl, I remember thinking, ‘I know who you are. You were the child that I had asked God to give Michelle and me shortly after we were married. God placed these children in our arms just like He has done for all parents. He just did it for us through adoption.’”
Michelle added, “God has taught us that two children in Ethiopia were always ‘Plan A’ for us. We were not settling for something less with adoption. Adoption was always the way that God intended to give us children, we just didn’t know it. Our infertility was not a punishment, but a means to bring us together with the children God had ordained for us to love.”
One of the main lessons that the couple say they have learned through their adoption experience is that “as followers of Jesus Christ, it is our duty and privilege to be advocates for the fatherless. Adoption reminds us of the spiritual reality that God adopts fatherless sinners to become His sons and daughters through Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross.”
A father of the fatherless … is God in His holy dwelling. God provides homes for those who are deserted – Psalm 68:5-6 HSCB.
For information on adoption, contact Ashley Davis Gray (ashley@lbch.org) or Beth Green (beth@lbch.org) at 318-343-2244.