From Miscarriage to Ministry

Soon after our wedding, John and I announced - only half jokingly – that we wanted four children: alternating sexes, starting with a boy. We say half jokingly, but we earnestly anticipated the blessing of such a specific prayer. Amazingly, by 1996 that’s exactly the family we had. 

In 1996, we conceived our fifth child. As expert natural family planners, we knew conception had occurred just two days before the end of my cycle. I was shocked and ashamed, and even (fleetingly) considered abortion. Anyhow the Lord worked in my heart and I accepted the pregnancy, rejoicing when Niki was born.

Then, as we realised what a blessing children are, we gratefully accepted our next child, Caleb. Now we had come to the point of not just being open to more children but letting God be in control. So we had Emma and Isaac.

Then, in 2007, I miscarried. For the next eighteen months I grieved for the loss of our baby and also because it seemed the Lord had closed my womb. By this time I really had a heart for wee ones and a desire for more babies. The pain was so great that I prayed God would either take this desire from me or fulfill it.

Other ways to have babies

God did neither. In prayer one night, I sensed him say there were other ways to have a baby. This was the beginning of a series of gentle encouragements.

Our first response was to apply to start fostering again. Before having our own children we used to foster children of varying ages and for stays of up to several months. Now – having probably completed our biological family – we began fostering kids younger than Isaac.

One day our eldest daughter showed me a card. Written by Steve and Emma Dunne, it said “Pregnant? Considering Abortion? Not sure what to do? Please consider adoption to a loving family.”

We wanted to hear more from these people.  So we took our four youngest children and went to hear Steve speak about the unwanted and the unborn . The Lord had already turned our hearts to the unwanted with fostering. At last I came to understand the enormous grief I had been experiencing. I’d been feeling God's own grief for those babies who were being aborted.

In a typical year, 18,000 babies are aborted in New Zealand. Steve had a vision of the Lord raising up 18,000 families to adopt these wee ones.*

 God was about to do something beyond my hopes and dreams: we were to be one of those families! God changed my desire for babies born to me to those he wanted to bring into his kingdom. So the grief ended and the ministry began.

Fostering children

We became willing to take anyone permanently if God presented that. Along came a little one born the same time my baby would have been. He needed a permanent home. We made cards like Steve's and started to place them, but all very low key. Then Steve asked us if we'd go on Close Up. National TV! It was scary, but we felt it was from the Lord and agreed. On TV they let slip our full name, and so there was no hiding anymore.

Now our family places cards wherever we go. We've put ads in the newspaper too. In the card we ask people to consider open care of their baby rather than abortion. We also offer support to allow women to keep the baby.

Someone at our church brought a word describing us as a wedge being pushed  into a tiny crack in a dam. We need to pray, and to claim these lives for God.

Kiwis, please pray for us and consider: are you one of these 18,000 families too? Or is there someone you know whom we could help?

John and Janine Grant <jgrant@maxnet.co.nz> live on a small block south of Auckland. They have eight children of their own (five still at home) and currently two fostered boys. Together the family runs a home-based business incorporating veterinary services, herbal medicine, soil fertility and retailing. They are part of Drury Church.

*Steve and Emma Dunn’s story, The Challenge of 18,000 was told in DayStar in April 2008