Today at church we had our son dedicated. What does that mean? Having Ben dedicated was our way of publicly demonstrating that our son is a gift , but only ours to take care of here on Earth. He first and foremost belongs to God. We did nothing to earn his existence nor our place as his parents. We are blessed to have been entrusted with his upbringing and do not take it for granted. We post about this on the adoption blog because Ben's story is very much entwined with his future sibling's adoption story. It was only AFTER we had committed to adopting a child that God blessed us with that adopted child's sibling. Below is the speech/prayer and pictures we shared at the service. The embedded song is the one referred to in the speech. As always, we hope anyone who hears Ben's birth story sees the glory of the Lord shining through. According to doctors, Benjamin Shane Roth shouldn’t exist. Fertility doctors told us that we had less than 1% chance to conceive naturally. After years of struggle, procedures and miscarriages, we were heart broken and defeated. We surrendered our dream of having biological children and began to pursue adoption. We fell in love with open adoption and committed whole-heartedly (and financially) to adopting our first child. Within 24 hours, I found out I was pregnant. Naturally. I had to have a c-section because Ben was breech and it was a extremely surreal. After YEARS of heartache and being told it was impossible, we were about to meet the child I carried for 9 months, created by God and perfectly timed. So during the entire c-section procedure, I did the only thing I could: I held Jon's hand and sang worship songs, including two that we sang this morning. There is strength within the sorrow There is beauty in our tears And You meet us in our mourning With a love that casts out fear You are working in our waiting You're sanctifying us When beyond our understanding You're teaching us to trust Your plans are still to prosper You have not forgotten us You're with us in the fire and the flood You're faithful forever Perfect in love You are sovereign over us Benjamin Shane, today we dedicate you to God. He gave you to us as a gift in order to provide, protect, and parent, but ultimately you belong to the Lord. We pray that God continues to guide us as your parents so that we raise you after God’s Holy Word. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God. (Colossians 1:9-10)
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