Last night we celebrated with friends and family at our adoption Chick-fil-a fundraiser! We left feeling humbled, blessed, and so grateful! Each person who was there has impacted our family in so many ways! Lots of prayers, encouragement, guidance, advice, and generosity! We truly have an amazing community of friends!
But for you to really understand our community and how God is using community in a way that leaves us overwhelmed, loved, and pointing straight back to Jesus- we want to share a story with you!
A story I struggled writing for weeks! Praying for God to guide my words- to show His glory, to give hope, to show community is worth more than our normal American lives want us to believe! But I have also struggled because not only is this story personal and some what private, it is very personal and private to dear friends of ours! Friends we call family!
The Simpsons are these incredible Jesus loving family that keep teaching our family more about God's love and generosity! We know it was a God thing, when we moved from a 1 bedroom apartment with our 1 year old daughter and a dog to a 2 bedroom town home in a nice part of town at a price way below what we should have paid! Little did we know that the wall that divided our home from our neighbors would be the wall that helped us truly experience community! We quickly became great friends, always helping each other! Ashley would make dinner all the time having us over often though she was working crazy hours as Brandon was searching for a job, they would watch our daughter so we could go on dates, and I may have found her a few times cleaning my bathroom (now that's true friendship!!) but the genuine generosity that poured out just from being around them started overflowing a little at a time into our lives! So as the guys helped each other work on all our cars, we shared multiple meals weekly, and lots of late nights playing cards! God knew He was building relationships that would one day help change both our families! We have paid each other's rent when times were hard, we have lived together in time of need, we have feed each other more times then we can count especially those time money was tight, we have loved and helped with each other's children, we have cried together but mostly laughed together, we have gone out of our way to just love each other like Jesus loves us! And it works! We have this reciprocal friendship that builds our families up and points us more to Jesus!
So on July 2nd after lots and lots of prayer we decided to announce to everyone we had big plans to adopt and started the fundraising process! And of course Brandon and Ashley were right there getting the word out!
Then July 3rd I received a text message that rocked me to the core and changed our lives!
From Ashley: Laken, Brandon has a brain tumor
Nothing more, nothing less- it was pass 10 pm, I was out with some other awesome ladies I get to call my friends- just laughing, eating chocolate cake, drinking milk when my heart sank and I couldn't help but cry! I know they had been at the ER all day because something wasn't right the past week or 2 with Brandon but never did I imagine I would read those words! Never had a felt so helpless! Our 2 best friends would never be the same! David and I rushed to the hospital (so thankful for friends who would let our little one crash at 11 pm on a week night). Ashley was 5 months pregnant and now Brandon had a brain tumor the size of a tennis ball at age 25- they both were already exhausted from chasing a 18 month old around who was keeping them up most nights and struggling financially. Stressed is not even the word to describe the emotions- but never did you see them without a smile on their face and hope coming out of their mouth! So as they fought to keep it together they reflected Jesus to everyone they came in contact with- the nurses, staff, and doctors spoke so highly of them!
July 4 bright and early Brandon underwent brain surgery to remove the tumor! Nothing in life prepares you for that! Just 12 hours after seeing the tumor on the scan he was under the knife. We prayed, kept their daughter occupied, made sure pregnant Ashley ate and had enough money, and just waited! We waited and waited! The doctor took the whole family and us back to hear the news that he was pretty sure, 90% sure it was cancer! And unfortunately, we would find out a week later that doctor was right- stage 4 brain cancer. Ashley tried hard to hold it together especially for her family and daughter but I know her and she needed alone time to process and Brandon was still in recovery so we couldn't see him. I took her to another empty room and we both just cried, held hands and didnt say a word! A few minutes later my husband David walked in and we all prayed! There was no other option! God was the only one who really had any say- though it was not easy we completely gave Brandon back to God in prayers- still feeling helpless!
That day or the next we hit the ground running in raising money for their family! Living paycheck to paycheck, with their sole income now gone, and their car literally broke on the way to the ER just the day before- God needed to provide and He did!
God is still providing! The last few months of doctors appointments, scans, test, finding a natural treatment that would not leave him with brain damage and even sicker, an extreme diet change, a pregnant wife making ever single bite of food for herself, her healing husband, and growing child, on top of her budgeting a non-existing income was more than trying! It was hard, it was BS, but God shined though it all! God has provided for them but they know without any hesitation our home is always open!
I say all that not to pull on your heart strings but to paint you a picture of where we were when we got the call! Ashley and Brandon were on speaker phone and you could tell in their voice they were smiling!
Ashley- "so we have some great news! We just finalized all the details for a fundraiser for yalls adoptions..."
Wait? What? Fundraising for us, we should be fundraising for you!! Was my first thought!
"We are selling real Christmas Trees and hand made wreaths! Our goal is 300 trees!! Raising over $12,000!"
We were speechless, we may have cried, we were definitely humbled! I quickly said "$12,000 is what we should be raising for yall!! That's beyond amazing you would think of us but let's do it for yall!! We know God called us to adoption, so we have full faith He will provide the money!"
Ashley: "yep! Your right! God will provide the money and this is how! A few weeks ago God placed on our hearts to fundraiser for yalls adoption because we feel yall may be matched much quicker than you expected and we do not want finances to hold you back from the child God has made for your family!"
And so for the last few weeks our friends have poured themselves into prompting our adoption and selling Christmas Trees and Wreaths! It's not about the trees, or the wreaths, or the money! It's about community! We would never be brave enough to face adoption and this real picture of the gospel that adoption paints, if it wasn't for the true community of friends, like Brandon and Ashley Simpson (and honestly many others!)- that's JESUS has placed in our life!
There are exactly 6 days left to sale those 300 Christmas Trees! And We are all expecting God to show up BIG so all the Glory is His because without Jesus 300 is just a number! There are exactly 7 days to Ashley's due date! (She's having a boy!) Don't ever tell me God can't use you were you are! If you are willing and listening God will use you in ways you had no idea you had the strength for! It has been exactly 140 days Brandon has been cancer free! He is still healing and all the credit, praise and glory goes to God!
If you want to hear more about the Christmas tree fundraiser in words from Brandon and Ashley visit:
We decided on calling the fundraiser Trees for Love and Hope because God has really given us a long term vision for this fundraiser! Vision to continue and grow it every year to help other adoptions in the future in our community! God is so good, just look around, I promise if your really seeking He will show you great and mighty things!
The Fort Mill Time, a local newspaper just wrote an article about our story!
Here is the website to read:
