Heidi Fuller grew up believing in a loving Heavenly Father who answered her childlike prayers.
But a series of tragic, unanswered prayers left her confused and in deep despair.
After saying goodbye to 13 babies and most of her eyesight, Heidi could never have guessed the surprise God had in store for her family.
Heidi Fuller had always wanted a family.
Kids naturally wanted to be around her and she felt that being a mother was her calling.
After marrying her high school sweetheart, her hopes for a family were dashed. Years of trying to have children were unsuccessful. Infertility carried a stigma that left her feeling broken, ashamed, and alone.
She tells her family’s harrowing story in her new book, Paths to Answered Prayer: Trusting God’s Heart When You Don’t Understand His Plan.
One Sunday, Heidi reached a dramatic point of surrender. Letting go of her desire to conceive naturally, she decided to embrace her husband’s dream of adoption. They immediately began an adventure of faith.
The path of adoption yielded unexpected joy to Heidi and her husband, Rob. Things moved more quickly than they could have ever imagined. Within three years, God had dropped two beautiful boys into the couple’s life.
As a child, Heidi had experienced God’s faithfulness through a series of serious eye surgeries and retinal detachments.
She’d realized that God was always present with her, even when He didn’t take away her problems. Now partially blind, she knew that prayer always resulted in peace.
However, the boys’ adoptions also convinced her that God not only was present in her pain, he was lavishly interested in fulfilling her heart’s desires.
Throughout the adoption process, God showed his willingness to answer specific prayers. Details fell together in amazing ways to bring these two children into her life. God miraculously provided for unexpected financial costs, even helping them through agency fraud and private lawyer fees.
God had provided Heidi and her husband with a new ministry, a new house, and growing boys.
But she soon realized that her loneliness and stigma had not gone away. Though she felt excited to be a part of the “mom club,” other moms blurted out insensitive comments that reminded her she was still an outsider.
As Heidi’s loneliness deepened, she began to beg God for a friend who understood. Not one person in her circles knew the unique joys and struggles of adoption. Again, God answered her prayer by sending a close friend who was also pursuing adoption.
When God dropped an unexpected $20,000 into their lives, the couple was initially excited about having extra money to spend. They began to make plans for new furniture and vacations.
But as they each prayed and asked the Lord what he wanted them to do with the money, they both came to the same conclusion: they should adopt again.
However, the next few years were a series of constant heartbreak and disappointment.
Heidi’s close friend who had been pursuing adoption became pregnant with a “baby of her own.”
And the $20,000 bonus began to trickle through their fingers as adoption after adoption fell through.
Each failed adoption took with it not only money, but also pieces of the Fullers’ hearts.
The Fullers skipped their family Christmas celebration in order to be present for the birth of a precious baby girl in Texas. But after they had decorated their nursery and travelled to pick her up, the birth mom stopped playing fair and made off with more than $11,000 of the Fullers’ money.
Along the way, Heidi unexpectedly became pregnant. But as her HCG levels plummeted, she realized that God was taking away this baby as well.
When the Fullers were offered a set of twins — the third set of twins they’d tried to adopt — Heidi stayed up all night to pray.
As she had done so many times before, she appealed to God’s knowledge and care for her. Surely God would not dash her hopes another time, after all she’d been through.
But the twin scenario was just another chapter in the long list of tragedies.
The money they’d set aside was almost gone. Heidi’s heart was broken beyond recognition. Wishing she were dead, she collapsed on her bathroom floor in a pile of intense emotions.
Just as the couple was ready to give up on their adoption journey, they had a series of chance encounters with the concept of embryo adoption.
By implanting abandoned embryos into Heidi’s womb, she would be given the possibility of carrying children. The process cost significantly less than a normal adoption, enabling them to pursue it with their dwindling adoption fund.
But the first attempt at embryo adoption was just as unsuccessful as every other. Despite painful injections and hormone treatments, Heidi was again left with empty arms.
Their $20,000 adoption fund was now a meagre $4,500, but it was just enough to try one more time. Heidi and Rob had reached a place of peace. Even if God never gave them even one more child, they were content to give Him ALL the money and go on with life.
After the final implantation, Heidi went for a sonogram to see if one of the two embryos was still viable. When the blurry sonogram screen focused onto an image of three individual babies, Heidi could not believe her eyes. Her dream of having multiples was about to come true.
God filled Heidi with peace even throughout bedrest, a high-risk pregnancy, a C-Section, and a NICU stay for the babies.
Drake, Keira, and Taerik Fuller were born safely in April of 2014.
Today, Heidi has two middle schoolers and three healthy six-year-olds. More than that, she has an unshakable belief that God is always with her. Even when we don’t understand his plan, we can trust His love for us.
Heidi’s unbelievable journey is recounted in her powerful book, Paths to Answered Prayer: Trusting God’s Heart When You Don’t Understand His Plan.
Her story also contains Heidi’s personal musings on God’s faithfulness through times of silence, waiting, and miracles.
Purchase her book today and strengthen your own faith during times of difficulty and blessing.
