Jeanette Hudgeons believes God gave her a desire to be a wife and mother since she was a little girl. An artist, she had a perfect picture drawn in her imagination of what her family would look like. And for a while, it looked like that painting would become a reality.
She grew up in Northern Kansas surrounded by a large family, including four siblings. She became a Christian as a young teenager, had a blessed high school life with good grades and accomplishments in sports, and then majored in art in college, where she met her husband, Dean.
But then, three years into their marriage, the doctors told her and Dean they would probably never have biological children.
"It just devastated me," Jeanette says. "I wish I could say I handled it with grace and understanding, but really I was like the story of Hannah: praying and weeping."
She says she struggled hard with her infertility, but eventually realized what she was wrestling with was really her pride.
"I wanted so badly for my plans to be God's plans," she says. "And God really humbled me. I surrendered. I got on my knees, and I visually handed over my paint brush to Him. He whitewashed the beautiful picture I had of what I though my life should be, and I just had to trust that His plans and ways are higher than ours."
The idea to adopt really came from her husband, who Jeanette says was not as devastated by the infertility diagnosis. With Jeanette facing the realization that God is always the one in control, the couple began their adoption adventure while living in Topeka.
Their daughter, Emily's birth mom was a college student who wanted
her daughter to have both mother and a father. Embracing the open adoption, they built a relationship with
Emily's mother and family on her mom's side.
Shortly after the adoption of their daughter, Jeanette and her husband
received a call on a Wednesday night about two brothers who needed a
home. The couple had 30 minutes to make a decision about adding the half-Korean boys, both older than their daughter, to their family.
"Dean and I prayed about it, and we just knew they were our boys,"
Jeanette says. Their names - Samuel (like Hannah's son) and Michael
(Jeanette's brother's name), confirmed to them that God chose the two
boys to be part of their family. They agreed to the adoption, met the two little boys the next day, and finalized the adoption in the Manhattan, Kansas, courthouse the following day.
Jeanette says adoption is certainly not the "easy way" to build a family, but that she and Dean have received confirmation from God during every adoption. For instance, Emily's birth mother chose Emily's middle name to be Elaine, which just happens to be Jeanette's middle name.
"God was always letting us know He was with us," she says.
Following the first three successful adoptions, the couple suffered a loss when they came forward to adopt a baby boy named Talon but after eight days had to give the little boy back to the birth mother's family.
"That was one of the hardest days of our lives because we had fallen in love with him," she says.
"We told our other children that it was like the story of Moses, where his mom had to, by faith, put him in a basket and send him down the Nile River and trust God to take care of him. We continue to pray for Talon 20 years later."
Two months after saying goodbye to Talon, the couple's next daughter, Aunah was born. Aunah's birth mom was raped at 16 and one of her teachers talked her out of having an abortion.
"Aunah's story is truly amazing, and it's wonderful to see how God protected her and brought her to this family."
Aunah was not quite a year old when they got the next call about a 15-year-old mom looking for someone to adopt her daughter. At this point the family was learning to listen to the voice of God instead of the voices of others who were telling them they had enough children or that their kids were too young to add another.
"When we stopped listening to others, and just focused on listening to God, we had no reason to say no," Jeanette says.
Their daughter Abbey, who was expected to be bi-racial, was born white, and the birth mother decided to try to keep her. It was difficult for Jeanette and Dean to not be able to leave the hospital with her. But a week later, the birth mother had another change of heart, and Abbey became part of the Hudgeons family.
The couple next adopted a little boy named Isaac who's birth mom had hidden her pregnancy from her entire family. Now they had six children ages 10 and under.
"Life at times was overwhelming," Jeanette says. "God was so good to provide so we could cover adoption costs and fees and buy all the diapers and formula. It was a lot of stepping out in faith and just knowing God was going to be there for us."
And while Jeanette describes that time of having so many little ones at home as being chaos and a blur, Dean had the idea to go for baby No. 7. Two months later their son Tucker was adopted.
"He is a sweet blessing and the perfect caboose to the Hudgeons' train."
Jeanette describes adoption as an incredible mix of emotions, pain and joy, where the hand of God can be seen in the whole process. And she is willing to walk beside and mentor any other couples who are considering adoption or going through adoption process.
She says the painting God painted of her family is beautiful, but it also has dark areas — areas of pain and trials. She says each adoption and relationship with the birth mothers/fathers are different, but they do try to keep in contact as much as possible. She says open adoption has been a blessing to her family.
"It's interesting how God brought us all together and put us together as a family. God is working in each of their lives. Honesty is important in our family. Trying to let them know their stories and how good and gracious God is to protect them and connect them to us."
Four years ago the family moved to Northwest Arkansas. They have two college graduates, Samuel and Emily, and Emily is married. Michael is also married and is in the Army and expecting his first child. Aunah is attending the University of Arkansas and Abbey is at JBU. Only Isaac and Tucker remain at home.
"God took me from a place of crying out "why me?" to still crying out but in a different way," Jeanette says. "Now I ask 'Why did you choose to bless me like this?'"
"Now I am a mother to the seven most amazingly unique kids. They've taught me and continue to teach me so much. They are all different races and their personalities are all over the map, too. But we appreciate the giftedness of each one of them. They fuss like typical siblings, but they are protective of each other."
Jeanette says the hardest struggle for her as a parent is with worry. With seven kids, she knows she would be spending most of her time worrying, so she continues to pray and trust God that He is working out His perfect plan for their lives. She says the best thing she has done is draw close to God, walk with Him, and let Jesus be the center of her joy. She sees her job of raising her kids as one of the highest callings to be given. She strives to to pray for her kids, be a good example to them on how they can live their lives, and love them through whatever happens. She says, as a family, they just lock arms and go through life together.
"I'm the one being blessed," Jeanette says. "I now look at God's painting of the Hudgeons family and marvel at the beauty, grace, and mercy of it all. It is more beautiful than anything I could have painted or imagined. All Glory goes to God."
