Malachi's Message

On Wednesday the 19th, we headed into the hospital for our arrival time of 9:00 AM. We were expecting the worst since Malachi could only have formula until 3 AM and then clear liquids until 7 AM. If you have ever been around our child when he is hungry, he is not a happy camper. He lets you know that it is time to eat and if you are taking too long he goes into full blown anger. The kind where they hold their breath, turn bright red, and there is nothing you can do to console them...yep, we were preparing for the worst. We left our house at 6:30 AM and he slept the whole way to Cleveland. We sat in registration over an hour waiting to be called. My son who can barely make it 3 hours between feedings fell asleep in my lap....I didn't question it. I just snuggled my baby and praised Jesus!  They finally called us back to do paperwork and prep him for surgery. Our little man just sat there through the whole process--not crying. They started the surgery at 11:30 and wer...

At our last doctor's appointment Malachi was 8.8 lbs and 21 inches long. He is now almost 4 1/2 months old but his due date was Memorial day, so his adjusted age would be just over 1 month. He has only two medical concerns at this time. A very small atrial septal defect that they believe will close on its own and are not worried about and retinopathy which they have been monitoring very closely.  The day we were discharged from the hospital vs last week😁 Because Malachi was born so early, his retinas were not fully grown and as they continue to grow retinopathy can occur. Basically if not treated, it causes blindness. We are so thankful that today in the USA retinopathy of prematurity can be treated with a 2 minute laser surgery, which his doctor has now recommended to us. If you could please keep Malachi in your prayers, he will be having this surgery on July 19th.  We as parents are of course nervous, who wouldn't be. But we have the confidence that God is ...

The main reason we started this blog was to update people on how Malachi is doing and the progress he is making. But in order to understand the significance of where Malachi is, you have to know where his story began. Malachi was born at 27 weeks gestational age due to a failed abortion attempt. He was 2lbs 3oz when he made his grand entrance into this world. He stayed 81 days in a NICU in TX. During his time there he was ventilated, fought sepsis, a Grade III IVF (brain bleed), a heart defect, unstable blood pressures, multiple abnormal labs, chronic lung disease, possible CP, urinary tract infection, and retinopathy. Malachi should not be here. By the hand of humans, he was suppose to die. But God had other plans. Even as a tiny baby, God used Malachi's life in a mighty  way. Malachi's birth parents who first believed that he was just a ball of cells now recognize the sanctity of life and the awesome power of God. (We love and care for his birth parents and hope that ...

Many people have asked us, "Why did you decide to adopt?" And all we can say is that it's been a God thing. As I look back, I can see that God had been preparing my heart for adoption since high school and while we were dating Seth and I talked about adoption as something that we wanted to do at some point in our lives. Fast forward a few years...Seth and I have been married a couple years and are praying about the possibility of adoption. How? When? Where? Questions that seemed overwhelming and impossible to figure out. One night Seth had a dream. He sat up in bed very shaken and said he had a very vivid dream that we are going to adopt a baby and its going to be in two years. From that night on we both just knew that this was in God's plan for our lives. Sound a little weird...don't worry we kept questioning it too. But God put a love for a child in our hearts that we couldn't explain. Again we asked the questions of how, when, and where? And just like t...

Many people had expressed an interest in knowing how Malachi is doing and watching his progress, so we have decided to create this blog to make it easier for everyone to see how he is doing and also answer some of your questions about our adoption journey. Hope this gives you a good glimpse into Malachi's Message and how God has been working in our lives!