A picture paints a thousand words, but words often tell a different story than what’s visible. Such is the case for Emily and Austin Brooks and their children, Lydia Grace and Landon.
At a glance, the Brooks family has a storybook life, the one in which the handsome prince sweeps the beautiful princess off her feet and carries her to his castle to live happily ever after with their son and daughter.
But there is more than meets the eye in their beautifully hard story that began with total surrender to God.
Once upon a time
During the fall of 2005, at Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky, a Florida girl and a Kentucky boy were assigned to the same freshman orientation group. Though not “love at first sight,” Emily admits to an immediate, ongoing interest in Austin.
“We didn’t date until the end of our sophomore year and the summer before our junior year,” said Austin. “Then, we dated through senior year – got engaged in December 2008, graduated in May 2009, and married that October.”
But theirs was never the typical college romance. Emily was upfront about ongoing health issues surrounding the rheumatoid arthritis she had battled since early childhood.
Emily explained, “I knew there was a good chance I wouldn’t be able to have biological children. Since Austin was my first boyfriend, I wanted him to have the whole picture.”
The young couple repeatedly discussed the lifetime ramifications of her health issues. But each time Emily offered Austin a way out of the relationship, he assured her of his love for her and for whatever family they might (or might not) have.
“I knew of her health issues,” stated Austin, “but when you’re young and dreaming, you’re not worrying about whether you can have biological children one day. You’re thinking that we’ll figure it out and cross that bridge when we get to it.”
They did not reach that bridge until several years into their marriage, after they moved to Tupelo, Mississippi, where Austin began working with American Family Studios.
In a faraway land
“We didn’t have family here,” said Austin. “So, we leaned into each other and to the Lord. Honestly, I think starting in a new place together strengthened our marriage. It was just us, and we had to depend on each other.”
That interdependence with the Lord and each other worked well for the Brookses, laying a solid foundation for what came next.
As they began discussing parenting options, Emily’s doctors were frank. She needed to discontinue medications for an extended period of time (before, during, and after pregnancy) to prevent severe disabilities for their baby.
“We didn’t want to risk my health either,” said Emily. “If I’m off arthritis medicine a couple of weeks, I go into a flare. So, that journey could have ended with me crippled, in a wheelchair, and unable to be the mom I truly wanted to be.”
God was clearly calling the Brookses down a different path. The question was … which path? Adoption? Foster care? Or life together – without children?
After much prayer, they felt God leading them toward adoption. So, they reached out to a Christian organization, completed a home study, and took several adoption classes.
Then they patiently anticipated the call … for two years.
But their parents, as prospective grandparents, encouraged the couple to apply to other Christian adoption agencies, including New Beginnings, (newbeginningsadoptions.org) local to Tupelo.
“We were able to transfer everything over to New Beginnings,” said Austin. “But we’d already waited two years; then, we waited another year with this new agency, until our 7th anniversary.”
A flipped script
That anniversary became a turning point in their journey, a point of total surrender.
“We took a week, went to the beach, and had several deep conversations,” Emily explained. “At the three-year mark [of waiting], both of us were struggling, knowing our adoption could take longer. But what if? What if we were not intended to be parents?”
Emily paused and continued: “We came to an agreement. If it was not the Lord’s will for us to have a baby, then we were OK. If it was just the two of us for the rest of our lives, we were OK with that too.”
“The Lord was enough,” Austin added emphatically.
So, the Brookses returned home on Friday, October 28, fully intending to call New Beginnings the following week, take down their adoption profile, press pause, and allow God to show them their next step.
But the pause never came.
As they sat on their front porch passing out candy to neighborhood children on October 31, the phone rang, and Emily went inside to answer it.
“We’ve been chosen,” she announced. “That was our social worker, and a birth mother has chosen us for her baby – a little girl that’s already been born. We pick her up tomorrow.”
Tomorrow! But it was 6 o’clock on a Monday night, and area stores were either closed or closing shortly. Immediately, the new parents left the candy on the porch with a sign telling visiting children to please take a piece.
“I imagine that bucket of candy was gone with the first kid,” Austin laughed.
Happily ever after
The laughter continued as Austin and Emily recounted phoning grandparents and an emergency trip to Babies-R-Us, with workers parading alongside as the couple literally threw things into their shopping cart.
“I was leaving,” Austin chuckled, “without paying – till the guy said, ‘Sir, you have to pay.’ But they were all laughing because they knew our story and were so excited for us.”
That excitement grew overnight for the couple as they waited to head to the hospital the next morning. When they arrived, nurses immediately placed the newborn in Emily’s arms.
“She was the tiniest baby I’ve ever held,” recalled Emily. “She was wide awake, and her eyes were massive … big, beautiful, blue eyes. I just started crying, surrounded by the entire nursing staff.”
The new parents were soon assigned a room where they would stay with their newborn until her weight exceeded 5 pounds.
“We both stayed in the hospital,” Austin stated. “It was just so surreal. Here was this tiny stranger. I never believed more that love is a choice than in that moment.
“I just thought – I love this child, and if it is God’s will that this child be mine, then she will absolutely be forever loved.”
Since that moment, Lydia Grace Brooks – named after her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother – has been loved and cherished. And that love grew exponentially with her brother Landon’s birth and adoption less than four years later.
“When we surrendered,” Emily said thoughtfully, “we knew that our story might not ever have looked like this.”
But God opened the door to a story that only He could have written, the one in which Austin, Emily, and their son and daughter are living happily ever after in the hands of a Sovereign Savior.
(Digital editor's note: This article was published first in the January/February 2025 special pro-life issue of The Stand. Click HERE for a free six-month subscription.)
