Every year on March 31st we celebrate Madison’s “second birthday,” the day she was legally adopted. For those of you that don’t know our story, Madison made me a mother when she was only 2.5 months old.
I can’t believe that day was almost 22 years ago!
For many years, I was the one that dreaded Mother’s Day. I had no one in my life to call me “Mom,” and it left an ache in my heart.
Years kept passing by—but I never gave up on the desires of my heart to become a momma.
My Journey to Motherhood
I prayed countless desperate prayers, and more than 20 years ago now, God answered my prayers! He introduced me to baby Madison.
I had prayed for more than 10 years, waiting on an answer. I was beginning to feel I might have to take up golfing and hang out with retired people.
But God… He had a plan all along.
He saw this little baby in a circumstance out of her control—her biological mother had abused drugs and alcohol while pregnant—and knew that I would be the perfect one to step in to be the healthy and capable mother she needed.
Little did I know that God had been preparing me for her arrival all these years. Though not birthed in my tummy, she was birthed in my heart; a true gift from God. Since the day she arrived, my life has never been the same.
Facing Challenges with Faith
I was grateful for my little miracle. But I couldn’t understand why parenting at 200 percent was so super exhausting.
That is, until the diagnoses started rolling in for Maddie.
While parenting a child with special needs is challenging, I began to see things from a different perspective. I realized just how badly she needed me in her life. My faith bolstered my strength.
I became a relentless advocate for my special needs baby girl that God brought into my life. I stopped at nothing to get her what she needed, and whatever tools she required in her toolbox to do better.
I consistently told her God had good plans for her; that Jeremiah 29:11 was her verse: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”.
Trusting the Lord as Our Doctor
For many years, even the doctors shook their heads and told me they didn’t know how I survived. They suggested and recommended that she go to a home for specialty care, because her struggles with her diagnosis were overtaking her.
But I could never swallow that. I knew I could only stand on God’s word to get me through.
Maddie’s doctor was concerned for my safety many times over the years, but I couldn’t and wouldn’t give up on her. I kept praying and believing in her miracle and insisted to her that we were going to pull it down from heaven. Dr. Jesus was the only doctor we were going to put our faith in.
“Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” – Mark 11:23,24
Those verses became my prayers for many years, held close to my heart.
The road was difficult and debilitating some days. Before my feet hit the floor in the morning, I would be saying a prayer for God to just get me through the next hour. Having a shower and a quiet coffee were never ever on my morning agenda—for more than 20 years.
Only parents of special needs kids can understand some of the struggles and hopelessness that you encounter through the years of just regular, everyday things. To say my faith in God was everything is a total understatement. I was so blessed to know Jesus, the one who could help me through it all.
Over the last 20 years, my favourite tagline has become, “When God is all you got—you find out HE is all you need!
Receiving Our Miracle
He didn’t let my faith go unanswered. Two years ago, on March 30, 2023, Madison got the miracle that I had been believing for all of her life.
I never gave up. I kept pressing in and I kept loving her. I kept advocating for her. I kept fighting back the tears that only God saw when I was in the shower.
At almost exactly this time two years ago, we pulled down her miracle from heaven. Madison today is not the Madison she was for so many years of struggle.
A miracle from God!
Madison is off the medications she once needed—a blister pack that included 27 pills, with doses three times a day. That was her life, revolving around her diagnoses, catalogued in a 3-inch binder.
Then, overnight, God touched Madison… and she was never the same again.
She started to look me in the eyes and smile. I felt—for the first time in my life—that I could see into my daughter’s heart. She started to have a new joy, while her problems with aggression disappeared.
My Maddie would go on to complete a co-op for college, then get offered a full-time job at Goodwill.
The miracles have just not stopped coming in—thank you, Lord! The goodness of God is something that is overwhelming and life changing.
Turning Trials Into Testimony
When Madison was five years old, I remember standing up and walking out of a doctor’s appointment when a specialist tried to tell me that my child was no good; that she would more than likely end up on the streets and become a drug addict. That I would have zero success at raising her.
She told me that kids like this just don’t change; that the drug and alcohol her biological mother had abused had affected her brain so badly, there was no hope for a different life for her. That I should just give her up now.
But look at my Madison now.
Madison’s testimony serves as a beacon of hope for others navigating similar challenges. Her story shows that no circumstance is beyond God’s power to redeem and that His plans are always good.
To the parents of special needs children, the adoptive parents, anyone facing moments of uncertainty—hold fast to your faith. The road may be difficult, but God is always with you. He hears your prayers, sees your struggles, and works in ways you can’t yet imagine.
As Madison’s mom, I’ve learned that when God is all you have, you discover He is all you need. His strength sustains me daily, and His miracles remind me to never lose hope.
A Letter to Madison
What the devil meant for evil, God has turned around for good!
Madison, you are proof that miracles still happen today. God is helping you see his good plans for your life more and more every day.
I am so blessed to be your momma, to have such a fantabulous blessing in my life. I am truly grateful that God gave me the strength to keep pushing through and believing in your miracle when the world around me couldn’t.
Now, you are able to share your testimony and give hope to the hopeless. You’re living proof that God can turn anything around.
I love you today and every day! Happy “second birthday” to my Miracle baby. Because of you, I have the honour to be called Mom. I am so excited to see you spread your wings and fly.
Thank you, Jesus!