What does scripture say about God providing the desires of your heart? In Psalm 37:4, scripture teaches that if we delight ourselves in Him, he will give us the desires of our heart. So then, what happens when - for more than a dozen years - you sense a certain call on your life and your spouse doesn’t? In the case of Erin & Brian Kuhn, they took God at His word and strategically prayed, “delighted” themselves in Him and patiently waited to see how He would move. The Lord used their prayers to unite their vision and hearts’ desire for expanding their family through adoption. It took many years of not rationalizing away a call from God to take the family from “Kuhn Party of 6” to “Kuhn Party of 7.”
College sweethearts, Brian and Erin met at Wittenberg University, both majoring in Education. Erin shared with Brian early on, that since the age of 16, she has had what she believed was a God-placed desire to adopt a child. However, Brian didn’t feel that call. Life moved on, Erin and Brian got married and started their family. After every one of their four biological children were born, Erin would check in with Brian to see if his desire had shifted. Each time, when his answer was “no,” she would ask her husband to continue to pray that God would either remove her long-held desire or that He would change Brian’s heart. She did this with patience – every so often - gently asking Brian, by faith, to walk with her in taking God at His word.
After Erin had child number four, and there was still not unity in the decision to adopt, the Kuhns had a garage sale – selling all of their baby clothes and gear. With two older boys and two younger girls, they had the “perfect family.” There was only one snag – during their Anniversary trip in 2016, Erin’s longing to adopt was still strong. For Erin, it didn’t make sense. She and Brian had these four, beautiful children – why did she still have this longing? By Valentine’s Day in 2017, it was clear God had not removed her desire to bring a child into their family through adoption. Taking God at His word – that when they delighted in Him, He would grant them the desires of their hearts – Erin asked Brian to pray in faith that one of their heart’s desire would change; that he would develop the desire to adopt or her long-held one would cease.
On an early March day in 2017, Brian gave Erin a “heads-up” that he wanted to talk with her about something later that night. Curious, she waited for Brian to come home where they sat down together and he showed her information he had picked up from Choosing Hope, a local Springfield adoption agency. He made it clear that night and as they walked into to the informational meeting on March 23rd, that he “just wanted more information.” After that meeting – before Erin even had a chance to ask “what did you think?” – Brian was already thinking of the next steps, delegating himself to do the paperwork and for Erin to compile the family’s profile book. God was moving!
Things moved quickly in their preparations to adopt and by June 2017, the Kuhn’s were licensed by the State of Ohio and had an approved home study. Two months later, they received a call that a birthmother wanted to see the family’s profile book. Two hours after that, they received a second call the birthmother had chosen another family.
Another season of waiting ensued. During September, Erin read the book CircleMaker, by Mark Batterson. The subtitle of the book is “Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears.” For 40 days, that’s exactly what Erin did. She’d go into the gender-neutral nursery they were preparing for their not-yet-known future child and pray. She asked God to use her mustard seed of faith to help her and Brian release their fear about financing the adoption. She prayed for God to help her unbelief. She also prayed for their child. God did what God does when hopes and desires are surrendered to Him – he expanded Erin’s focus from not only their finances and their future child, but also to their child’s birthmother. Through this process, God was developing in Erin even greater “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” (Colossians 3:12).
During those 40 days, the Kuhn’s got to watch God “show-off” as he answered their prayers in undeniable ways. A job opened up for Erin, right during naptime, so she’d be free. They received money from a grant to put towards their adoption. Part of the financial concern was the possibility of not having all the adoption funds raised by the time they were selected by a birthmom. To answer this fear, God led a family at church to offer to provide the Kuhn’s with an interest-free loan, paying it back as they could. Another woman from church, Jeanette Brower, held a fundraiser, donating the funds to them.
Even each of the Kuhn children were inspired to contribute what they had to bring their sibling home. God honored their child-like faith by multiplying their effort in unexpected ways. Jamey gave all the money he had – 37 cents - to contribute to a puzzle piece the family was selling for $10 each to raise funds. Hearing this, a friend gave a $9.63 matching donation so Jamey could buy the puzzle piece. Jacob gave the $10 he received for his broken arm with the directive to spend it wisely. He asked his mom if giving it to buy a piece of the puzzle was a wise thing to do with his money (she said yes). Maddie created a drawing of the Kuhn family, with a 5th still unknown child in the picture. Even though she couldn’t see the child yet, Maddie believed her parents – who were believing God. God honored their children’s child-like faith and also Erin and Brian’s surrender. They were not in control - of the timing, of the finances, of which child would be theirs. But God was.
You could say the Kuhn’s started their adoption journey the night they went to that informational meeting. Or did the journey start years earlier when He laid a desire on Erin’s heart as a teenager for a child – not of her own flesh, but to be her own nonetheless? What Brian and Erin did not know as they completed their adoption paperwork in June 2017, but what God did, was that 9 months later, Rylie Kuhn would come home – on March 23, 2018 – a year after they said “yes” to an out of the box obedience.
If you would like to financially support the work of Choosing Hope Adoptions and other non-profits in our community, you can do that through your end of year giving to Maiden Lane Church of God or you can make a gift directly to Choosing Hope.