Like all stories about babies, this one begins with a mom. In this case, three moms. And one of them is Marianne, who tends to see life as a series of answered prayers.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve likely met Marianne if you\u2019ve been on the Wabash campus the past 14 years. She has served you a meal at your reunion or Commencement when she was working special events for Bon Appetit. Or she\u2019s been the supervisor behind the student calling you to pledge money in her more recent full-time job as the College\u2019s assistant director of annual giving. Maybe your son was one of the dozens of students that she and Jacob invited for game nights in the dorms\u2014a chance to get a meal and much-needed social interactions for students on campus during the summer.<\/p>\n
She first got to know the College through Jacob, whom she married in 2003 and who calls Wabash \u201cthe place that forged me.\u201d But as she said in the Chapel Talk students asked her to give last year, \u201cWabash College is more than just that place where my husband went to school.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Adam Burtner \u201917 mentioned in his Commencement speech the invaluable role women had played in his time at Wabash, Marianne was one of those mentors he was talking about.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would listen to all these Wabash stories,\u201d she says. \u201cI wanted one of my own.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s got a good one now.<\/p>\n
\u201ci didn\u2019t think I\u2019d cry telling this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marianne sits on the edge of a comfortable chair in the living room of the couple\u2019s home on Sugar Tree Road, a little girl barely one year old playing at her feet.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s describing the wish she made on Mother\u2019s Day 2017 after Wabash\u2019s Commencement ceremony.<\/p>\n
\u201cMother\u2019s Day is usually sad for me. My mom died in a car wreck\u2014hit by a drunk driver in August 2001. This was my 16th Mother\u2019s Day without her, but I didn\u2019t want to focus on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
So her Facebook post that day celebrated the Wabash seniors she had worked with or gotten to know who were graduating that day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are four years that we\u2019re together; we get to walk side by side. They know this day is a hard one for me, and they wrapped me up in the biggest hugs. They didn\u2019t have to do that. So my Facebook post was about my Wabash guys, how proud I was of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat night Jacob took me out to dinner at Stookey\u2019s in Thorntown to celebrate our mothers. I held Jacob\u2019s hand and said, \u2018I want to make a wish: that this is the last Mother\u2019s Day without a baby in our arms or a baby on the way.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The next day Marianne received an email from Greg Estell \u201985. She had often talked with Greg and his son, Henry, at Wabash events. Marianne would give Shirley Temples and cherries to Henry when she was working the bar. Greg and his wife, Sarah, had offered to talk to the Isaacs about their experience adopting.<\/p>\n
In his message Greg thanked Marianne for her Facebook post, adding a P.S.: \u201cMarianne, my prayer for you is that you have your heart\u2019s wish.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI hadn\u2019t mentioned my wish in that Facebook post,\u201d she says. \u201cI still have no idea how he knew this, why he chose that word.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thirty days later, that wish came true.<\/p>\n
the isaacs had met a man at their church months earlier who knew they were interested in adopting. He had told them about a baby whose birth mother was considering placing her. But before the process could begin, she\u2019d had second thoughts.<\/p>\n
Now the birth mother was ready to proceed. The man the Isaacs had met in church called Marianne to find out if she was interested.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe answer, of course, was \u2018Yes.\u2019\u201d Marianne laughs. \u201cWell, \u2018Yes, but I should probably talk to Jacob.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI sat there crying. All of these pieces coming together\u2014I knew it was God answering.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I realized, It\u2019s Friday night. We\u2019ve got to find a lawyer. How on earth are we going to find a lawyer?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI emailed Greg at 8:30 the next morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
He called back excited by the news. He put the Isaacs in touch with Betty and Bill Harrington \u201985, who were on vacation in Bermuda.<\/p>\n
\u201cSaturday afternoon Betty called me from Bermuda and in 20 minutes told me what we needed to do. I called the birth mom back and told her the child could be with us as quickly as they could get her on a plane.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now the Isaacs had to find an adoption agency to begin the home study process.<\/p>\n
Once again, Wabash folks came through.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mom of one of my student workers, Anton Hummel \u201918\u2014who always shows up at work early and stays late\u2014was director of adoption services at St. Elizabeth\/Coleman Pregnancy and Adoption Services. We called her, I told her my connection with Anton, and she started getting things set up for the home study.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lucy and her birth mom arrived in Indianapolis June 15 after a series of storms redirected their flight to Dayton\u2014five days after the Isaacs had said yes to the adoption.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plane was struck by lightning. We were waiting to meet them at the church at 2:30 in the morning. They got there at 5:15 a.m. Lucy\u2019s birth mom brought her close to us, put us face-to-face, and she came right to me. It\u2019s the closest I\u2019ve ever been to seeing Jesus\u2019 face.<\/p>\n
\u201cLucy\u2019s birth mom put Lucy first, every step of the way. We have no idea of her circumstances, what she was facing, but we do know that she took very good care of this little girl.\u201d<\/p>\n
what happened next seems almost as incredible to the Isaacs as the adoption itself.<\/p>\n
Marianne\u2019s supervisors, Joe Klen \u201997 and Kevin Andrews \u201910, and HR Director Cathy Metz figured out a way to grant Marianne an immediate parental leave. Summer intern Omar Chavez \u201918 stepped in to cover some of Marianne\u2019s workload.<\/p>\n
Alicia and Ray Claycomb \u201998 donated a closet full of clothes their daughter had outgrown.<\/p>\n
Dusty and Jack Mansfield \u201901 gave \u201call kinds of advice and support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some brought diapers, a crib, and baby food; others helped finish the nursery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was an outpouring of love from the Wabash community on campus, alumni off campus, our Wabash friends, family, the people I work with at Purdue,\u201d Jacob says. \u201cAll these people made sure we could hit the ground running with a new baby girl with five days\u2019 notice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Within two months of Lucy\u2019s arrival, the Isaacs finalized the adoption alongside a room full of extended family and Jacob\u2019s longtime friend Thomas Sarver \u201999.<\/p>\n
Lucy attended her first Freshman Saturday before she turned one. Hugh Vandivier \u201991 sang \u201cOld Wabash\u201d to her.<\/p>\n
She had lunch with Professor David Blix \u201970.<\/p>\n
And for Lucy\u2019s first birthday, the family attended Chapel Sing to kick off Homecoming Weekend. At the Homecoming game she hugged the College mascot.<\/p>\n
\u201cRan right up to Wally and grabbed him,\u201d Marianne says.<\/p>\n
Emmanuel Aouad \u201910 captured the moment with his camera.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was one of the first people I served when I began working at Wabash,\u201d says Marianne. \u201cIt felt like our story had come full circle.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI tell people Lucy\u2019s story is a spiritual story, but also a Wabash story,\u201d says Jacob. \u201cThis is how Wabash came together for us. We\u2019re one brotherhood, one fraternity.<\/p>\n
\u201cLucy\u2019s birth mother wanted the best for her, and now Lucy has not just a family, but Wabash there for her, too,\u201d says Marianne. \u201cI believe that in this process God answered her prayer, and our prayer, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watching Lucy playing on the floor of the Isaacs\u2019 home on a late fall afternoon, toddling back and forth between her mom and the toys, slumping into Jacob\u2019s arms asleep as he carries her upstairs for her nap, it does seem something of a miracle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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