AUTHOR’S NOTE: The following is written from the perspective of Amylynn Warners, Communications Manager at Bethany Christian Services. – Matt Bloom
It has been a privilege working with our partner, Initials, Inc., a direct sales company whose sales benefit Bethany’s N.O.W. (No One Without) campaign to provide forever homes to children in foster care. Through this partnership I met Paige, a consultant with a touching story explaining her passion for adoption.

In 2003, Paige was an 18-year-old freshman in college. She awoke one morning in excruciating pain. She drove herself to the hospital, where a nurse asked her so many questions she knew something major was going on.

Then she heard the nurse say, “We need a doctor now! She’s having a baby NOW!”

Paige had no idea she was pregnant. She had shown no signs. Her weight gain was minimal and she was having periods.

But she had no time wonder about it; her water was breaking.

In minutes her baby boy was born. He came at 30 weeks, weighing three pounds, two ounces, with blonde hair and blue eyes. He was placed on an incubator because he couldn’t breathe on his own. Paige checked on him often over the next couple of days as she recovered. She felt ashamed as she asked herself, “How could I not have known?” Then Paige’s father came to her side and, without condemnation, held her and cried with her before they went together to see the baby.

Six months of tears and prayer passed as the boy recovered from surgeries, grew and developed. “I loved that little boy more than life,” Paige says. “I began searching deep within myself and came to the heartbreaking decision that I was not ready to be a mother.”

That’s when Paige found Bethany Christian Services. She worked with a social worker named Mitzi who helped her find a family she thought was perfect for her baby.

[blockquote text=”“As I signed the papers and my rights away, I bawled my eyes out. I couldn’t even see the signature line,” Paige says. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life and took me many years to be okay with it, but I know now that I made the right decision.”” text_color=”” width=”” line_height=”undefined” background_color=”” border_color=”” show_quote_icon=”no” quote_icon_color=””]

The adoptive family sent Paige monthly updates and pictures in the first year. Though she chose not to continue sending letters as he grew, she prays for the boy, who is now 11, every day. She hopes to meet him one day.

“I am eternally grateful to Bethany Christian Services for all the kind, loving help that was given to me at one of the worst and weakest times in my life. Bethany will forever hold a very dear place in my heart!”

I am grateful for having met Paige, and for the honor of hearing her story. It continues today through her work as an Initials, Inc. consultant, where she is helping to give the gift of a safe and secure life to children just like hers.

What a beautiful expression of love in the wake of heartbreak. Thank you, Paige!