Introducing Brooks Andrew...

Carter and Kate are SO EXCITED that today we can formally introduce you to 20 months of prayer.

20 months ago, God made it very clear to both Blake and me that our family was not yet complete. We weren’t sure what it meant exactly, but we began to pray about it. Around that exact same time, a woman halfway around the world was likely finding out she was pregnant.

13 months ago, we felt a peace and certainty that God had called us to adopt from Holt International’s China program, and we nervously submitted our application. Around that very same time, the woman was likely exploring her options for the child she carried, knowing she could not raise him herself.

Eleven months ago, we were knee-deep in home study paperwork, working on our first garage sale fundraiser, and being introduced to the incredible adoption community we’ve come to adore. On September 15, 2015, at the urging of a fellow adoptive mom, I began to keep a dated, hand-written journal of our adoption process. The very next day, our son was born more than 7,000 miles away.

Nine months ago, our son was released from his second hospitalization due to complications of a virus, and we received a fundraiser check from our first round of shirt sales that would cover ALL of our social worker fees.

Five months ago, I felt this incredible burden to just pray for my son. I didn’t yet know his face or his story, but I journaled hard one week in March because I just felt in some cosmic way that he needed my prayer. I would learn later that he was undergoing medical exams and bloodwork that would be used to prepare his adoption file that very same week.

Three months ago, I began specifically praying for the vision to see our process as God sees it. I began asking Him for the perspective to see all of this as something so much bigger than US. I begged Him to keep our focus on BROOKS, and not on our selfish and very temporary frustration with waiting and disappointment. Around that exact same time, his orphanage was completing his developmental screening and submitting his file to the Chinese government for intercountry adoption approval.

And nearly two months ago, we saw the face that put the last piece of the puzzle in its place. We opened a file and saw EXACTLY how the last twenty months were preparing the five of us for EACH OTHER. As we waited and felt frustration, God was weaving our stories together in a beautiful way that only HE can. 

We never in our wildest dreams imagined how our stories would so beautifully align…but God knew. His timing is always perfect, and we are so thankful that we can see his handwriting ALL OVER our journey. We are OVER THE MOON excited to introduce you today to our SON, Brooks Andrew Ezell. We cannot WAIT to get him HOME.