"Many O Lord my God are the wonders you have done. The things you have planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them they would be too many to declare." Psalm 40:5

Threads of a Family

Our story begins with Mike and Nichole. God allowed our paths to intersect at church where we met. We fell in love and were married on January 16, 1993 and our love continues to grow deeper and sweeter each day we are together. We both dreamed of the children God would give us. Our dreams could not begin to touch the depth of emotion and joy that would fill our hearts as He so beautifully designed our family through the adoption of our children. Each child was miraculously brought into our family by God’s hand allowing us to experience His great love through the wonderful blessings of our sons and daughters.

Cody was our first gift, entering our family on May 24, 1997 two days after his birth, May 22, 1997. His presence in our family brought us great joy. As all new parents we enjoyed every minute with him and watching him grow and develop has brought us much happiness. Seeing how God works in Cody's heart and life has made our journey exciting. Cody is a bright 9 year old with many talents. He is very energetic and loves to run and play and is at times very silly. He enjoys the beach, riding his scooter and like many 9 year olds loves to play video games. God has given Cody a tender heart and when he slows down enough, he is such a deep thinker. Throughout his life he has amazed us with his depth of thought and often challenges us in our thinking. The gift of Cody overwhelmed us with the graciousness of our God in that He would give us such a precious child. Being our first born, his thread was tightly woven between ours with a bond that is beyond words and would begin this beautiful tapestry we now know as our family.

On March 14, 2000, God blessed us once again with our son Connor. The gift of Connor was such a miracle. Connor’s presence in our family was the ultimate expression of God’s love for us. Connor was a very special little boy who brought great joy and peace to all who knew him but it was his mom, dad, brother and future sister who had the honor of experiencing the depth and richness of life with him. He truly was a breath of Heaven that filled each and every day. Connor’s specialness arose out of the fact that due to neurological deficiencies and abnormalities as well as developmental and physical delays he was unable to verbally speak nor was he able to walk and do all of the things other children enjoyed. We as a family came to know quickly that Connor possessed a gift of bringing us into the presence of God by simply gazing at us. His lack of physical movement forced us to slow down and enjoy those simple things that we often took for granted. Through Connor’s limited abilities he displayed for us what was most important in life. Connor was love. He gave love unconditionally, consistently and deeply enveloping us in his world of loving. As a family, we came to realize that Connor was the golden thread of this tapestry which allowed the light of Jesus to shine through our family and we were honored that God had such great love for us that we would have been given such a precious treasure.

Once again we were overjoyed when God honored us with our daughter Grace. We welcomed her into our family on September 13, 2002. She was yet another beautiful thread which was woven into this tapestry bringing about an additional facet of beauty within our family. Her name is Grace Elisabeth Minot. It is a name that was a combined family choice with Mike and Nichole choosing Grace and Cody choosing Elisabeth so that her initials would be GEM. She is truly our GEM. She is our princess and exhibits much grace in her life. Her tenderness and love is amazing. She is very much a little girl enjoying mothering her babies, cooking in her pretend kitchen, swimming with her daddy and loving being together with her family. Like her brother Connor, she loves deeply and with great emotion as well as physical expression. She has a heart of compassion full of love and concern for those who may be hurting. We are in awe of God’s perfection in seeing how He chose Grace for our family and rejoice at the pleasure of observing her grow into a godly woman.

A sense of completion filled us with the addition of Grace and we set upon the journey of perfecting this tapestry woven together by God. As with every family we experienced frustration, exhaustion, confusion and challenges as well as joy, contentment, excitement and pride as we guided our children along life’s pathways. Our journey took an unexpected turn on October 31, 2003. It was on that day that our precious son Connor made his journey to Heaven. The loss of Connor was devastating for our family. As we grieved our loss of him we were reminded of the wonderful treasures he left deep within our hearts and it was through those memories that God healed our aching hearts and brought joy back into the life of our family. It has now been almost 3 years since Connor entered Heaven and each day we miss his presence but we have a hope and that hope is in Jesus and His promises that one day we will be united with our loving Creator and reunited with our wonderful son.

One of the treasures that Connor left with us was the great importance of loving others. It was out of that treasure that God birthed within us a desire to add another thread to our tapestry by allowing Him to bless us with another child and thus begins our new journey. A journey that we never imagined we would be taking. A journey which will take us across the globe to bring the blessing of another beautiful daughter into our family.