I experienced a Christmas Miracle...

This is a story I've been waiting to tell you...I knew it would be a good one, I was just waiting for it to unfold.    It has unfolded in a miraculous way and I am so excited to share.

My husband's best friend & wife have been trying to have a baby since I was pregnant with my first born...who is almost 7.  Seven long years where, despite all efforts and without any real cause, they were plagued with infertility.  These are the kind of people who were born to be parents.  She's worked with children as her profession of choice and he's the guy who we call "Santa" once a year.  It was a mystery to everyone why they were struggling. They finally decided that adoption was their hope.

Back in August I was making a quilt for MY boys and the size was not working.  I couldn't understand.  I didn't want to change the design but I had spent a good deal of money on this and a LOT of time and effort (not to mention some out of print, hard to find fabric from American Jane).

I visited BFF Amie and we sat in the floor and wrestled with what to do to make it work.  She gave me her scraps of American Jane in the hopes I could make it work.

But I sat at the sewing machine and said "God, if not for my boys, WHO IS THIS FOR?"  Our friend's names flashed into my mind and I thought "oh, ok."  I picked out my favorite blocks and arranged in a baby size.  Since this was big enough to be a twin size quilt, I took the remaining blocks and made another baby quilt to donate to the local pregnancy crisis center.  I finished the quilt up with Look and Learn on the front, Basic Building Blocks for the binding, and a big strip of wee play cheater fabric down the middle of the back.

As I laid down in bed that night I realized these are a lot of the colors they have chosen in their house and I was so at peace knowing I had understood and done what was supposed to be done.  For a minute I kind of worried that it was too boyish, but then I thought that I was 100 percent sure of my mission so that meant the colors were just fine.  My steps had been numbered.  I folded the quilt up and it stayed folded until Thanksgiving week.

When we were packing up our van to visit family for Thanksgiving (hours and hours away), my husband told me if God led me to make that quilt then it was important that we deliver it to them since this was our first opportunity go be anywhere near our friends who live 10 hours away.  We drove an hour or so out of our way so that we could rendezvous with them to hand over this quilt.  It was my hope they would realize that we had faith that this dream would come true, too.  We handed it over and she said "it's our first baby gift...I'm getting goosebumps."

Less than a month later we received the call we had waited for.  A woman had gone into labor and, despite her never even being on THEIR radar, she had already decided they were the people she wanted to raise her baby...a beautiful little boy.  They drove hours and hours to go meet their first child. 

There are tons of little coincidences I can't share out of respect to the privacy of this situation, but please believe me when I saw this has God's fingerprints ALL OVER IT.  I feel so privileged that God allowed me to be a part of his plan because it showed me that he cares for everything about us.  He made preparations for the important things like this baby having parents and these parents having a baby...but he even cared about something so minute like this baby having a handmade quilt!  No detail in our lives is too small for Him.  As much as He loves that little baby, He loves each of us (even if we aren't as cute or tiny or innocent).

So Thanks to God for still being in the business of Christmas miracles.  Thanks to God for knowing what hope a baby can bring.  Thanks to our friends for being a great example of faithfulness through struggle.  Thanks to the young lady who made a hard, hard decision.

And if you don't mind, say a prayer for the brave young woman who searched for just the right family to raise the child she was carrying...and say one for the little family who finally got to be together and the journey they just started.