Chuck and I lost three children early in our marriage to tubal pregnancies. The pain that came with those losses seemed absolutely unbearable. We turned to God and found comfort. We knew if we didn’t have children hear on earth that we would see our three babies in heaven. We always felt that we were supposed to have children so we started looking into Invitro-fertilization. Again, it seemed as if we would hit a roadblock at every turn. We were very persistent in praying to God about His will in our lives and really believed that in His time we would have children in our home. There weren’t any Invitro clinics or doctors in Baton Rouge so we went to New Orleans. It didn’t take us very long to leave the clinic. The doctor wanted to implant eight eggs, wait for fertilization and then “Selectively reduce” down to two. There wasn’t any way we could go through with this. We definitely don’t believe in abortion and felt that they thought this was a politically correct word for abortion.
We then began thinking about adoption. There were two specific adoptions that we were very excited about. With the first one, the birth mother changed her mind early in the pregnancy and choose another family out of state. With the second one, we were in the delivery room and Chuck got to cut the umbilical cord. We knew this was it! Eight hours prior to our bringing the baby boy home with us, the birth mother called and told us she had changed her mind. Her mother talked her into giving the child to someone she knew in her church. We were devastated. We pleaded with her parents to meet with us and they wouldn’t consider it. We again turned to the Lord for comfort. At this point we still believed that God wanted us to have children in our home but we quit trying to adopt.
About three years ago we decided to try Invitro again. There are now doctors and clinics in Baton Rouge that can do this. Another roadblock. I am forty-two at this time and the doctor won’t use my eggs. We met with an agency in Mississippi that supplied egg donors and realized that was not the route we wanted to take. We found a member in my family that wanted to be a surrogate and went through the mental and physical screening processes etc., but she changed her mind. Another wall. More leaning on God. Don’t get me wrong, we leaned on God through every bit of this but what we realized is that we were trying to make things happen and weren’t waiting on Him. We were our roadblock! An amazing realization! Someone once told me, get out of the way so God can get things done. Imagine that, letting go and letting God.
At this point, we let go. We literally said “God, if you want us to have a child in our home, you are going to have to put him there”. But we also told God that even if it wasn’t His plan, we were still going to serve Him. Simple as that, He can do anything.
Fast forward to Dec. 2009. I get a text from a girl friend, that says the Lord had put Psalm 113:9 on her heart that morning and would Chuck and I be interested in possibly adopting a child? She told me she hadn’t even met the birth mother yet but that through her niece she knew of a young woman that was pregnant, seven months she thought, and that she wanted to place the child for adoption. We went to the Lord in prayer and said YES. We also listened to the Lord. He told us to stand still and let Him handle things. The words my friend received from Him were Restraint and Details. Restrain yourselves and I will work out the details. Amazing!
That’s just what He did. One month later, Clarence Shafter Chenevert IV was born. He was born on Jan. 1, 2010 and came home with his parents Clarence Shafter “Chuck” Chenevert III and Sally Chenevert on Jan. 3, 2010. All rights from the birth parents have been surrendered.
God is Amazing
In Christ,
Sally Chenevert
Shafter’s first giggle – Jan. 28, 2010.
We then began thinking about adoption. There were two specific adoptions that we were very excited about. With the first one, the birth mother changed her mind early in the pregnancy and choose another family out of state. With the second one, we were in the delivery room and Chuck got to cut the umbilical cord. We knew this was it! Eight hours prior to our bringing the baby boy home with us, the birth mother called and told us she had changed her mind. Her mother talked her into giving the child to someone she knew in her church. We were devastated. We pleaded with her parents to meet with us and they wouldn’t consider it. We again turned to the Lord for comfort. At this point we still believed that God wanted us to have children in our home but we quit trying to adopt.
About three years ago we decided to try Invitro again. There are now doctors and clinics in Baton Rouge that can do this. Another roadblock. I am forty-two at this time and the doctor won’t use my eggs. We met with an agency in Mississippi that supplied egg donors and realized that was not the route we wanted to take. We found a member in my family that wanted to be a surrogate and went through the mental and physical screening processes etc., but she changed her mind. Another wall. More leaning on God. Don’t get me wrong, we leaned on God through every bit of this but what we realized is that we were trying to make things happen and weren’t waiting on Him. We were our roadblock! An amazing realization! Someone once told me, get out of the way so God can get things done. Imagine that, letting go and letting God.
At this point, we let go. We literally said “God, if you want us to have a child in our home, you are going to have to put him there”. But we also told God that even if it wasn’t His plan, we were still going to serve Him. Simple as that, He can do anything.
Fast forward to Dec. 2009. I get a text from a girl friend, that says the Lord had put Psalm 113:9 on her heart that morning and would Chuck and I be interested in possibly adopting a child? She told me she hadn’t even met the birth mother yet but that through her niece she knew of a young woman that was pregnant, seven months she thought, and that she wanted to place the child for adoption. We went to the Lord in prayer and said YES. We also listened to the Lord. He told us to stand still and let Him handle things. The words my friend received from Him were Restraint and Details. Restrain yourselves and I will work out the details. Amazing!
That’s just what He did. One month later, Clarence Shafter Chenevert IV was born. He was born on Jan. 1, 2010 and came home with his parents Clarence Shafter “Chuck” Chenevert III and Sally Chenevert on Jan. 3, 2010. All rights from the birth parents have been surrendered.
God is Amazing
In Christ,
Sally Chenevert
Shafter’s first giggle – Jan. 28, 2010.
