Dear friends and family, With great joy - we announce the newest member of our family - Jesse Chase Nichols! We were preparing for summer vacation with friends to Idaho and Montana (kids strapped in their carseats, car packed for outdoor adventure) when we got the call that Jesse’s brave and loving birth mom had chosen us for him, in Georgia.
Long story short, we booked a flight for me (Dani) from the Spokane airport, got our baby carseat out of the barn and started on our new adventure. Adam and the kids continued on to my aunt and uncle’s house in Coeur D’Alene and the vacation we’d already planned and paid for with friends. (Little did we know that Adam would handle not only being a single dad for the week but endless rounds of extra paperwork, drug tests, notary visits and more! He was a total hero and he handled everything with his unflappable good humor.)
I flew overnight to meet our new baby and got to spend the week in Georgia, also being supported by our amazing friends in Atlanta through many ups and downs (and also lots of paperwork and strange errands - thanks adoption law!) There were several twists and turns to this story, many times that I felt that perhaps Grace was not quite big enough for the amount of heartbreak and complexity we’d waded into. But I told myself, even in the darkest moments, that God loves this baby more than I ever could. His birth family and us are not on opposite sides of his story, we are the embodiment of exactly how much a tiny life is worth - which is everything - priceless - worth sacrificing for.
We believe that we are called to adopt, we are trying to live as an embodiment of the dignity and value of all human life and the redemptive aspect of family as a force for good in the world. We know that God created each of us for a reason - his hand has been evident throughout baby Jesse’s story and we feel so honored to be a part of it.
We'd love to invite you to be a part of his story, we strongly believe in the calling to support adoption as Christians, but know that not all Christians are called to adopt. If you feel so inclined to support Jesse's adoption we would very much appreciate any prayers or financial support you can offer. Just as with our first two adoptions, this one is filled with miracles both big and small, and we've felt so supported in prayer and accompanied by the Holy Spirit throughout. Please continue to join us in prayer for Jesse's continued good health, as we work toward finalization and also please pray for Jesse's birth family - this was not an easy decision, although they feel strongly that it was the right one - and he is a deeply loved little boy.
While we've saved for the majority of the funding for this adoption it was still a stretch to make it happen, mostly because of the last-minute nature of the birth-mom's decision. We're asking for support to help us quickly recoup the adoption debt we incurred to be able to bring him home. Anything you feel called to give is wonderful and such a gift to us and all three of our adopted miracles.
One last note - Jesse was born in Milledgeville, the home of one of my literary heroes, Flannery O’Connor. O’Connor understood that grace is costly, that sometimes our own pride blinds us to redemption, that we would often rather run from love then let it catch us up in its infinite arms. She saw the world as deeply broken but breathtaking, she saw love as nearly impossible but still worth chasing. The story of our family is by no means over and I’m reminded that even when the dust settles from this dramatic adoption story we should remember that redemption is always possible and that the divine hand is in the details, if we have eyes to see.
“Our age not only does not have a very sharp eye for the almost imperceptible intrusions of grace, it no longer has much feeling for the nature of the violences which precede and follow them.” ― Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose
Thank you so much for your help, prayers, kindness and support through our adoptions. We are grateful for you and honestly over the moon to finally be a family of five!
All our love, Dani, Adam, Adelay, Isaiah and Jesse Nichols
