Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Satterfield.
Hi Jessica, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Ever since I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be a mom. I would play with baby dolls when I was a little girl dreaming of the day I would have my children. When people asked me what I wanted to be growing up, I told them, “A mommy.” The older I became, the more that desire grew. It wasn’t just something I wanted to do, but something I felt called to, motherhood is a calling. I met the man of my dreams when I was a sophomore in college. I saw him playing football at a barbeque and told my friend, “I’m going to marry that boy.” Little did I know, he proposed the following year at the same Forth of July barbeque. We got married and started our life together. I expected the happily ever after, picture-perfect family with four blonde-haired, blue-eyed little girls living in a white house and picket fence.
I was a first-grade teacher when we first got married, and my husband would always joke with our friends, saying he never knew if he would come home and a kid would be sitting on our couch that I had taken home with me. When I started teaching, I saw so many children who didn’t have the love and support they deserved, and it broke my heart. I ensured they felt loved, safe, and special when they were at school. Many of them would call me their “school mom.” One particular student captured my heart in such a way I knew my husband, Brandon, and I would adopt one day. Every child deserves parents who deeply love them. We would have biological children first and then adopt them later.
When my husband and I started trying to get pregnant, my white picket fence dreams came crashing down around me. We heard words like “severe endometriosis, male factor infertility, and nearly impossible to get pregnant.” We tried fertility treatments for several years until my heart and body could no longer take them. In a series of supernatural events, we quit trying to get pregnant and started the adoption process. From when we began paperwork to the day we brought our oldest daughter, Selah, the home was exactly 9 months. The greatest desire in my heart to be a mommy had been fulfilled. A few months later, our son, Micah, came home to us through the miracle of adoption. And just two years after that, Micah and Selah’s half-biological brother came home to us through foster care. We adopted Zion after he had been our foster son for several years. I was knee-deep in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and diapers with two toddlers and suddenly thrown into the world of being “mom” to a seven-year-old. I was stepping over legos and transformers and wondering how to raise a child we had just met. And even though the desire to be a mom had been fulfilled in my heart, I was still praying for a miracle in my body. The endometriosis had begun to affect my quality of life severely. And at the same time, we knew our family wasn’t finished growing.
In May 2020, our precious boy, Zion, died in a tragic accident. Our whole world came crashing down around us. We were living every parent’s worst nightmare and weren’t sure how we would ever move forward. It was the grace of God that sustained us and His love that carried us through the darkest days of our lives. There are moments when we are overwhelmed with waves of grief. We miss him desperately, and his seat at the supper table will forever feel empty. Two years later, we’re still learning to live without him here. I feel this will be the story for the rest of our lives. But we also do not grieve without hope. We know he’s in heaven with Papa God, and we can’t wait to see him one day. We love talking about the funny things he used to do and telling the crazy stories we lived with him here with us. Our Micah looks more and more like him the older he grows. It fills our hearts with joy to keep Zion’s legacy alive in our family and community.
Shortly after Zion passed, I ended up having to have surgery to relieve the pain of the endometriosis. My surgeon told me my subsequent surgery would be a hysterectomy. Little did I know, he made a referral for me to see the fertility clinic. We ended up giving fertility treatments one last chance, and after one round of IVF, finally, after an entire decade of infertility, we saw our first positive pregnancy test. Our Aida Baby, as we call her, was born in October of 2021, and much to our surprise, we saw another positive pregnancy test eight months later. After doctors told us we had less than a 3 percent chance of getting pregnant with fertility treatments, we were now naturally pregnant. We just had our sweet Eden last week, and it has felt like she’s been in our family forever.
Throughout our years walking through infertility, adoption, and foster care, I founded a ministry called, The Garden to connect women on the broken road to motherhood to healing and wholeness. I also wrote my first book, Partnering With Heaven, a 28-day devotional for women trying to conceive during our IVF journey with Aida. Here we are now, with five beautiful children (one in heaven, four here with us), the ones who were told we would never be parents. Our days are full, and our house is often loud and chaotic, but our hearts have never been more joyful.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I laugh when people ask me what I do because it’s a bit of everything. I’m most known for writing Grace While We Wait on my blog. What started as a little blogspot account to update our family and friends about our adoption journey turned into something much bigger than I had dreamed. I don’t blog as regularly as I used to. I write a lot more on Instagram and Facebook, but I still enjoy blogging when I get a chance in my full life.
I am the Founder and President of a ministry/nonprofit called, The Garden, which connects women on the broken road to motherhood to healing and wholeness. We serve women through infant loss, miscarriage, infertility, adoption, and foster care. We’ve seen so many miracles in our ministry, but the real miracles are always when women’s hearts are set free and healed. While walking through the beginning days of our fertility journey, I felt so alone and had no community, so I knew others would feel the same if I felt that way. Most recently, I just finished and published my first book last October titled, Partnering With Heaven, a 28-Day Devotional for Women Trying to Conceive, which can be purchased on Amazon. What started as journal entries every day during our IVF cycle, I quickly realized it wasn’t just for me; it was a book for others too.
Most importantly, I’m God’s daughter. I love Him. And I’m a mama and a wife. One of my favorite songwriters, Bethany Bernard, has written hundreds of songs over the years, but one line in particular in a song about her children, she wrote, “You’re the best song I could ever write.” It resonated so deeply in my heart. I have written so many words over the years, but my children are the best thing I could ever write. Loving them, getting the honor of being their mom, and raising them in our home to set the world on fire with Jesus’s love is the most important job I’ll ever have. I’m most proud of that.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc.?
Abba’s Child by Brennan Manning and The Sacred Journey by Brian and Candice Simmons are two books that have changed my life. I make it a point to read them every year.
Contact Info:
- Website:www.gracewhilewewait.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gracewhilewewait/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gracewhilewewait
Image Credits
Photos by Jenna Mills Photography
