WATCH: After One Day in Court, Our Precious Foster Son Became Our Boy Forever

Opinion   |   Natalie Brumfield   |   Nov 30, 2016   |   3:18PM   |   Washington, DC

One of the greatest ministries God ever gave us is family. Jesus paid for it in blood so that His family could be redeemed, adopted in, and loved forever.

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Family Tree: The Brumfields celebrate the adoption of Braxton with their extended family (Photo: Trip Owens)

Ever since I was five years old, I desired an extraordinary family. I would put all my baby dolls in an old wicker bassinet and carry them around the house, pretending I was a mommy of many. When that wasn’t real enough, I did the same with my cats: making them clothing and singing to them as I pushed them around in a baby buggy.

I remember finding out what an orphan was around that age—and what this beautiful thing called adoption is. I knew then I would be a mommy to children that needed a family. I see now that it was God who planted that deep desire in my small being.

Over the years, it would grow and grow. As an adult, I would spend hours praying for the family God was preparing for me. I knew He heard me and all I needed to do would be to trust and wait. And then wait a little more.

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With help from the judge, Braxton Brumfield applies the state seal to his adoption papers (Photo: Trip Owens)

I would learn that His greatest miracles, like the miracle of our son, have an exact timing. God is not slow in keeping His promises, He is exact.

God loves building a family more than we do. I think about that gift of family every November. November’s first Sunday is marked by Orphan Sunday, which highlights the need for every family to receive a child that has none.

Matt and I were married on Orphan Sunday. We decided to have a table at our wedding reception in order to share our hearts with our guests to join us in answering this need.

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Natalie and Matthew Brumfield embrace on the day they legally adopt their son (Photo: Trip Owens)

November is also National Adoption Awareness Month, a beautiful time to reflect on the testimony of the gift of adoption and what it means to those who have experienced it.

In light of these reasons, I would love to share with you our own little family miracle.

On May 12th of this year, our first son in foster care became our eldest son forever. When Braxton legally became Braxton Bradley Brumfield, it became easily one of the greatest days of our lives.

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Braxton has been legally united with his forever family—Matthew and Natalie Brumfield (Photo: Trip Owens)

One of our dearest couple friends, Trip and Faith Owens of Threefold Films, decided to commemorate this dream come true for us with this beautiful film and hundreds of pictures—all out of the kindness of their hearts.

They blessed us with this gift because they believe in adoption and family, too.

It was another amazing way I’m being shown that all people can be a part of the miracle. Supportive friends and family are just as much a part of this process as the mom, dad and siblings.

While these favorite photos were truly a gift of this long-awaited day, this passage from the Bible has been an even greater one—capturing foundational truths in our journey.

“God is higher than anything and anyone,
outshining everything you can see in the skies.
Who can compare with God, our God,
so majestically enthroned,
Surveying his magnificent heavens and earth?
He picks up the poor from out of the dirt,
rescues the wretched who’ve been thrown out with the trash,
Seats them among the honored guests,
a place of honor among the brightest and best.
He gives childless couples a family,
gives them joy as the parents of children.
Hallelujah!” -Psalm 113:4-9

LifeNews Note: Natalie Brumfield, chapter leader of Bound4LIFE Birmingham, serves at local crisis pregnancy center Sav-A-Life and at her local church. This Bound4LIFE article has been reprinted with permission.