This post was written by Mark and Kendra Rohl. Mark is an elder and worship leader at Life Connection Church in Phoenix AZ and Kendra sings on the Our Rising Sound band. Previously as part of the “God in Our Worst Times” blog series they shared their struggle of having their own baby and their hope of adoption. That post ended with hope and faith, but a yet unrealized miracle. By the grace of God they are now able to share the conclusion to their story, and the amazing miracle that God gave them.

God in Our Best Times

January was an exciting month for Mark and I. We had selected an amazing Christian Adoption Agency here in Phoenix called CFCA and started our 8 weeks of infant adoption/parenting classes! It felt great to be in the process and taking steps forward. We went into the matchbook at the end of June and we were told it would probably be a 6mo – 1yr wait time. We were hopeful, excited and full of faith that God had the perfect birth mom and baby for us. We spent many nights calling out to God on her behalf and praying that we would be able to form a good relationship with her, that the baby would be safe and healthy in her womb, that we would be able to share Christ with her and that ultimately she would become part of His family and ours. We could never have dreamed of how completely, perfectly and faithfully God would answer those prayers.

We receive “The Call”

On Monday Aug. 3rd we got a call from CFCA that a birth mom had selected us and wanted to have a match meeting with us to get to know us better. She was due at the end of Sept. which seemed so fast but we were so excited! We prayed and thanked God and asked that if this was meant to be that He would make it perfectly clear. Although we were both very excited we just didn’t have a peace about things and didn’t feel like this match was going to come to fruition.

The next day we were telling everyone the exciting news about our potential match and the word was out and our amazing community of friends and family were in prayer for us that God would continue to open the right doors and shut the others. Tuesday night as we were getting ready to go to church Mark got a call on his cell. All I heard him say was hospital, Tucson and as I looked at him to see his shocked face he put the woman on speakerphone

“Hi, this is Susan from CFCA Tucson and we have a birth mom here that is in labor and she has selected you from the matchbook, can you be here right away?“

What!  We were both in complete shock, we wandered around our our bedroom listening to the details she knew “healthy mom, healthy baby from the ultrasound it looks to be a girl, no prenatal, ethnicity 1/2 Italian 1/4 Irish 1/4 Hispanic.” She asked us to take a minute to pray and call her back if we were interested. We hung up the phone and just sobbed on the floor of our bedroom. We instantly knew that this was it! We threw some random things into a suitcase, got in the car and we were off to Tucson to see what the future had in store for us.

It’s a boy!

On the way there we called the adoption worker back and she said “Well the baby was just born and it’s a boy!  he is perfect,  healthy and beautiful and the birth mom would like to talk to you, is that okay?” Wow, sure I said not knowing what to say to this brave woman or how to even pull myself together to sound like a halfway sane woman myself.  She got on the phone and told me how excited she was that we were coming, how she knew from the moment she saw our match letter that we were the ones God had sent her to raise this baby boy, and the words that changed our world in an instant “I can’t wait for you to meet your son, he is beautiful.”

Our son? Could it be? Could this be the long awaited arrival of our child? The one we have been fighting for, praying for, crying out and believing for? It was too beautiful to comprehend, so full of God’s grace and peace that all we could do was burst into worship to Jesus. Worshiping Him for His goodness and faithfulness not even knowing how much more He had in store for us. The ride to Tucson was filled with lots of tears, lots of laughter, prayer, worship and conversations I will never forget with family and friends with Jesus at the center of it all. We didn’t have a boy name yet so being the tech savvy people that we are Mark downloaded a baby name app onto his iPhone to start looking at names. Mark has always loved the name Toby and I have always loved the proper version of that, Tobias. He looked it up and it means God’s Goodness. Done! That was the perfect name for this little boy.

We arrive at the hospital to see our son

Arriving at the hospital was surreal, what do you say to a woman who is giving you the most incredible gift in the world, how would this all be, would we connect with her, relate to her, get to share Christ with her? We walked into the room to find beautiful Vanessa in the hospital bed with a couple of friends. We went over and hugged, cried and thanked her. She told us to go look at our son and that moment will be etched in my mind for eternity. Peering down to see this angelic little face of a boy we just met but have loved for years is something indescribable that words can’t contain. The nurse handed him to me and Mark and I just stared in awe of the wonder of God’s creation and again, His goodness.

The next 3 days were spent sitting in Vanessa’s hospital room getting to know her and her getting to know us. We spent hours just loving on our son and loving on her. We had the most natural, genuine connection to her that allowed us to all to feel more at ease with the process than seemed possible. The nursing staff, agency and everyone who met us all in that little room said they had never seen anything quite like it and we got to share with them about God’s goodness and the peace that Christ gives that passes all understanding. As we got to know more about Vanessa we fell more in love with her. She is strong, mature, beautiful and more courageous than anyone I have ever known. She chose life for her child and then continued in selfless love by giving him to people she felt would raise him well. She said she knew from the moment she found out she was pregnant that God was leading her to adoption. She did everything perfectly to protect him, care for him and nurture him in her womb and said that all along, she knew she was carrying him for someone else.

The last day we got to pray for Vanessa for a long time and that was a moment where time seemed to stand still and as she put it,

“It felt like Jesus walked into the room, sat on the hospital bed next to me and showed me the deepest love I have ever known.“

She said she always believed in God and prayed but hadn’t had a personal relationship with Jesus and in an instant, as only Jesus can do, He revealed Himself to her in such a real way that she gave her heart fully to Him. As we prayed for restoration in her family with her mother, father and others God moved so quickly and beautifully. Within an hour of our prayer time she received calls from all the people we had prayed for and those who had once been against her were know the supportive, loving and tender people she needed. The Holy Spirit continued to work in each of us that day and made the transition so seamless, peaceful and joyful that it could only be attributed to Him.

The journey home with Tobias

As we left the hospital with our son in the backseat and made the long drive home we had time to reflect on the journey; the sweetness of the gift in light of the length of the fight and the pure and lasting joy that Jesus produces through it all. No way we could have even known to pray for what God gave us and it humbles us and causes worship to leap out of us to the source and King of our lives.

The other incredible part to this story is the way the community of friends and family at Life Connection Church came together to serve us. We have been studying and learning about how to live as a gospel community and I believe that LCC truly lived out exactly what that looks like and is continuing in that to this day. In 2 days people came together to gather every piece of baby equipment we could possibly need, tons of great cloths for Tobias, diaper, supplies, etc.  We left with only a bassinet and walked into a transformed home that was bathed in prayer, love and community and it was another unforgettable moment. The first night we had some of our closest friends over to meet Tobias and as we cried and celebrated him with the people that have fought along side up for so long it was a moment of pure joy in the King of Kings, the Lover of our Souls, the Father of every good and perfect gift!

As the days have passed we have talked to Vanessa nearly every day and she is falling more and more in love with Jesus. From the time we spent with her she got such a heart to find her own gospel community that she is now attending an amazing church in Tucson and has already begun sharing her testimony and impacting lives. She continues to see restored relationship with her parents and children and we know that this is just the beginning of a lifetime with Jesus pointing her to Himself and His cross to bring her to wholeness & transformation into His image.

All of this to say that God is the author of this story and we will continue to submit our lives humbly, reverently and with awe of His goodness and point everything back to Him. To Him be the glory forever and ever!

-Mark and Kendra Rohl

You can listen to Mark and Kendra’s testimony they gave at Life Connection Church below.

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