Pregnant with our Aidan, Oct. 2020. Fully aware of his heart condition and the battle before us.
Why Win The Day?
Our baby boy, Aidan Luke, was born in January 2021. He was born with a congenital heart defect and spent six months in the NICU before we set him free to our Lord and Savior. I call him a jolt in life I didn’t know I needed. He will forever be the purifier and refiner of my soul. Throughout his life, our family’s mantra became “Win the Day”. We didn’t look too far into the future and relied on God’s grace for that day only, through our darkest and brightest hours. There was such a sweetness to those bitter days in the hospital. We learned to have full reliance on the Lord and his plans for our lives.
Aidan made our seemingly perfect world quite imperfect. God deliberately chose Aidan’s limitations so His strength could be shown through our weakness. Winning the day didn’t always mean things went our way - or went well at all - it meant that every night when our heads hit the pillow we were still trusting in the Lord’s plans, even if they didn’t match our own. It meant striving to love everyone more like Jesus loves us, even in the midst of our own trial and suffering. It meant leaning on Jesus for our comfort and purpose. If we could manage those things we knew we had truly “won the day”
Our nightly tradition became jotting down scripture, quotes, prayers for healthcare workers and fellow families, etc. on this poster in our living room.
Our Hearts For Adoption
On our first date, my husband and I each shared our openness to adopt. That awareness stuck with us for years and through some very deep waters. After Aidan’s passing we did genetic testing and found that if we were to try and conceive again there would be a 50% chance that our baby would have the same condition as Aidan. We have never viewed adoption as "Plan B" - God's will is never the second choice. We believe this was a clear calling from God to pursue adoption to continue building our family. I now see our journey has given us grit, resilience, compassion, and perspective that could not have been built any other way.
Our hearts are much like stained glass: shattered, to be made into something even more beautiful for having been broken. We are so proud of each of our three children and their unique stories.
Home with our girls, Oct. 2023. Forever changed.