For this Child I prayed.

We have a tile in our bedroom on a little stand. It was a gift from a friend when we were expecting Leah. For nine months it sat on my bedside table as I prayed, each night, for the baby growing inside me. It's a picture of a baby sleeping, cradled in gentle hands. The text along the side comes from 1 Samuel 1:27 "For this child I prayed".



I think, because both my pregnancies were "precious pregnancies", in that they were finally achieved through fertility treatments and then were complicated, we really felt the reliance on God for the preservation and growth and development of our children. We can't make miracles, only God can. We covered each growing child in prayer every minute of the pregnancy. And we still cover our children with prayer, knowing full well that God holds them in His hands.

The anticipation for this new baby is the same. Especially because with this child there is absolutely nothing that we can do to ensure this child's safety and positive development. I can't avoid unpasteurized milk products. I can't eat lots of fish to improve his brain development. I can't avoid alcohol or caffeine to help his growth. There is literally nothing I can do except pray to God that he will receive the care he needs and will be protected from everything that could hurt him. And so we pray.

For much of my married life I have felt akin to the Hannah from 1 Samuel. Like me, Hannah was unable to have children. She, with her loving husband Elkanah, longed for a child together, but "the Lord had closed her womb". Like Elkanah and Hannah, Marc and I prayed and prayed and prayed for a child, and like them, finally, the Lord granted us what we asked...twice.

But Hannah is also akin to a birth mother. Despite her desperate longing for a child, her bitter weeping for years on end, when God finally granted her her desire, she brought her child to the temple to live there and to serve the Lord "I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord" (1 Samuel 1:28). She sacrificed her dream for a son so that he could live and serve the Lord.

Right now, a birth mother may be looking at our profile. She is faced with the terrible decision of who to give her child to, the child for whom she prays. She is making the same sacrifice that Hannah did. She is sacrificing herself for the sake of her child. The child that she loves, carried, birthed and prayed for is being given over to another.

Our son is covered doubly over in prayer. He has two Hannah mothers, his birth mother, and me, his adoptive mother. Together, we want what is good for him. Together, we give him over to the Lord.

For this child, we pray.