Hannah's Story

Proverbs 19:21 - Many plans are in a man’s heart, but the purpose of the LORD will prevail.

It was a Sunday morning in September, 2007. I was preaching at Grace Covenant Church in Olympia. This is the church where Kari and I had met in 1994 at a leaders’ meeting for CHIC (now UNITE).

Sarah had just turned 5 and Caleb would turn 3 a couple weeks later. The Ferrin 4 was complete…or so we thought.

As they introduced me, the pastor put up a picture of the four of us. I came on stage, preached as I had many times, and headed to my book table after the service. Normal morning.

Until a man came up with a very strange look on his face. He said, “I don’t want to say what I’m going to say. In fact, I’ve tried to walk away a few times. I don’t even know what this means. But when the picture of your family came onto the screen, I clearly felt God say to me, ‘You need to go up to Keith after the service and tell him that the world needs more children raised by people like this.’ I don’t know you or where you’re at with your family planning. But there, I said it. Thanks for coming.”

And he walked away.

I got home, told Kari, and she proceeded to tell me that she had been awakened a few nights earlier to the sound of “Mom!” She got up, and Sarah and Caleb were both asleep. She went back to bed and was awakened once again, this time by three sets of footsteps in the hallway. (Remember, we had two kids at the time.) She got up to check it out and both kids were still sound asleep.

We looked at each other with a does-God-want-us-to-have-another-kid look and decided we would pray about it for a month. We didn’t discuss it. We just prayed (independently).

After a month, we shared what we believed God was showing us. Neither of us felt like God was saying to have a third child. And yet, both of us felt God was leading us to give Him a period of time where we wouldn’t “not try” and let God determine the outcome. The timeframe? Both of us felt God was saying, “Give me 5 months.”

Not only was that a weird timeframe, but getting pregnant had been a long, difficult journey.

Fast forward to December, 2007. Yes…only a few months later. One Saturday evening, she took a pregnancy test. Negative. Not pregnant.

The next morning, I was leading worship at Creekside and preaching. I was getting ready to leave and she said, “I just feel like I need to take another test.”

Off to Walgreen’s to get a test. Home to take the test. This time? Two lines!

We had the world’s quickest celebration/prayer/hug and I was off to Creekside. (I remember nothing of that morning.)

August 26th, 2008, Hannah GraceAnne Ferrin was born. And the Ferrin 5 was complete.

Kari and I didn’t know. But God did. And always…His ways are better.

PS. I’m typing these words as Hannah is in the car, heading to Cascades Camp for the high school retreat, where she will be the one leading worship. And I will be at home…praising God!