"During this season of life, the Lord has been teaching me the importance of family and community. The pandemic has been one of the worst things that has happened to our country, but one of the best things to happen to our family. I was furloughed from my job in early April, and my son was born on April 29th. While the hospital stay/birth process was a little unorthodox, we had a healthy baby boy, which was scary bringing into the world during a pandemic. Because my job was put on hold, I was able to take an impromptu, 16-week paternity leave. Lauren was also able to take 12 weeks of leave, and because of COVID, she has been able to work from home and watch Hudson. Not being able to go in public and do things, and being cautious trying to not catch the virus, Lauren and I were staying home a lot with Hudson and each other. We were able to see the grace of God in our little miracle, and we could see that the Lord truly is faithful. Lauren and I leaned on each other quite a bit during this time. We learned what kind of parents we are. We learned to put full trust in each other with all decisions. I am so proud to see Lauren grow as a wife and mother, a role she was born to do. She has been nothing short of inspiring with Hudson. I am also so proud of the work she has done as a caseworker for DSS, placing more children for adoption than most workers will do in a year. This time of the year is easy to say this, but I am thankful and will always be thankful to the Lord for giving me Lauren and allowing us to give birth to one incredible son.

During this season, we have seen the importance of community. We joined a new community group in the early spring and were meeting regularly once a week. When COVID hit, we started doing weekly Zoom calls, which was a blessing. We were able to keep up with each other and stay involved in everyone's lives, albeit very different than before. Our group was able to help us with any parenting questions or reassure us we were doing a great job raising Hudson as long as we were doing our best. We have been able to lean on our community and have been learning how we fit in God's story." - AJ K.