Brett and Elly Brady

Family friends since high school, Brett and Elly Brady started dating the week after Brett graduated, and were married shortly after college. Two years later, they started trying to expand their family. But things didn’t happen as quickly as they had hoped. After struggling to get pregnant on their own for years, they met with fertility specialists, did testing, and started on medication. At the time IVF was financially out of reach, so they focused on IUI. Eventually, after a few failed attempts, they began to pray about and felt led into adoption.

Beginning the process of adoption through foster care, they learned that it was a very narrow road. Most children in the foster care system are in the process of being reunited with their parents. There is only a small percentage of kids that are looking for permanent placement with a new family. The Brady’s applied for four kids during the adoption process. Most of the time they never even heard back, meaning another family had been chosen. In early 2022, several policies for adoption had changed, leading Brett and Elly to determine they were no longer going to pursue that option for starting their family. Since starting their infertility journey, Brett had taken a job at Nike that provided them with better stability and benefits, making IVF a possibility again.

In August of 2022, they met with an infertility doctor to start the process of IVF. The week she was supposed to begin prep testing, Elly tested positive for COVID, which delayed the process another month. Little did they know it was all part of the bigger plan…

The song “Goodness of God” holds an important place in their hearts. It was the song that seemed to play every Sunday before getting bad news - negative pregnancy test… again, weren’t selected for a child… again. For a while, they joked about it being their “doomsday” song. Hearing it on Sunday, they would look at each other and wonder “what’s it going to be this week?” It was a pattern for years. 

Brett had been on a golf trip with some guys that summer when He had a unique moment with the Lord, listening to that song. On their way back from the beach, “Goodness of God” came on the stereo and so clearly in that moment Brett felt the Lord’s presence assuring him that he was going to have a son. A moment of hope.

Later that Fall, the Brady’s took a trip to Europe as a last hurrah before beginning IVF in the new year. It was on that trip that Elly missed her period, and wondered if she might actually be pregnant. When she told Brett, he didn’t doubt that she was after his encounter with God that summer. There was something in his soul that had complete faith and trust in the Lord at that moment. They chose to wait until they were home from their trip to take a test and find out for sure. 

Their immediate reaction when seeing the positive pregnancy test was shock and awe. Elly had prayed a few weeks prior in boldness that God would put a baby in her barren body, like He did for Elizabeth. And He did. Even though Brett and Elly were praying in faith, believing God could do the impossible, seeing the positive test was still the biggest shock and so surreal.

The week after they found out, they were supposed to meet with their doctor to lay out a plan for IVF. It was amazing to be able to share with her that they were already expecting! 

While COVID seemed to originally halt their plans, it was actually a God-thing that Elly had tested positive. Had she gone in for the prep testing when she was supposed to, keeping everything on track, she would have been put on birth control during the time that Liam was conceived. Only God could orchestrate such a plan. 

The road was hard. There were moments where hope was destroyed and joy was lost. Infertility can be an incredibly isolating experience. Brett and Elly saw many friends and family get what they had prayed so long for. It became difficult to fight off jealousy and hurt. Yet, they know God, and their community, are the only things that carried them through the darkest parts of their lives. You need God and people who love Him on your team when you hit rough waters. You need people to pray on your behalf when you can’t, and to encourage you with Truth when you are susceptible to the lies. 

Worship songs became their prayers when they had no more words to say. They stopped holding back their emotions from the Lord, and got real and raw with Him. This season of struggle built their resiliency towards being honest with Him. They learned that He can handle all of it. And He can use all of it. Their pain can be used to encourage and support others who are going through similar things. If just one person or family is helped by hearing their story, they know it was worth it. 

Liam Matthew Brady was welcomed into the world in August of 2023. Nothing less than a miracle. His arrival was an answer to years of prayer after a long journey of infertility. Long-awaited and yet still completely unexpected. Reminding us of our Savior, Jesus. No one expected Him to be born in a dirty barn to two unknown people. Yet for centuries, His arrival had been anticipated. 

Being parents now, Brett and Elly have a better understanding of the sacrifice God made by sending His one and only son to die for us, and the pain Mary must have felt watching Him hang on that tree. What a true, unexpected Gift He is for us. God loves us so much He sent His Son Jesus to die so we might live. Let us reflect on this good news afresh this week of Christmas.

“I remain confident of this:
    I will see the goodness of the Lord
    in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
    be strong and take heart
    and wait for the Lord.”

Psalm 27v13-14