 Do you guys ever feel like in life you've been backed against a corner and you felt like you've had to choose one of two choices to be a victim or a victor? My name's Ben Care and I was born with Cruzan syndrome. It's a cranium facial anomaly. The mid part of my face wouldn't grow up the same speed as the rest of my face. Doctors would come to my parents and they would tell them that I would live a different life and in fact I have. I've had to choose to be a victim or a victor on a daily basis. I want to tell you one time in the summer we went and hung out with my cousins in the Midwest where the heat is hot. In the middle of the day we jumped in a boat and after all the water fun we decided to jump in the lake and get a little bit cooled off. But it wasn't cool enough so we went to an ice cream parlor. As we got on the shore we jumped out we ran up to the ice cream parlor. I remember being in that line with all my cousins and all my family members and my parents. As we got closer to the line I started feeling a little bit uncomfortable. I felt this feeling before. There's a little child in front of me that saw my face and could tell that I looked a little bit different. I don't know if anybody else in my family noticed but I sure did. I saw him hiding behind his mom's skirt and just peering his eyes up and over at me and I saw him start to tremble and as he started to tremble I started to tremble. He was looking at me and it was something that I couldn't change. He was looking at me because of my face. I knew that the next thing would probably be the worst nightmare that I had was to be ridiculed in front of everybody in public about something I couldn't change. I remember as he pulled down the skirt of his mom grabbed his mom's leg and arm and shook on it and pointed at me in front of everyone in the ice cream parlor and said monster monster mom look at the monster let's go let's go. She collects her ice cream and runs out of the store with him screaming and crying pointing at the monster pointing at me. I forgot what ice cream flavor I ordered I forgot how it tasted because I was just focused on what just happened. I remember all my cousins and all my family members were just silent after that. You could hear every single step as we walked outside that ice cream parlor to the boat. I never wanted so badly to wear a seatbelt in a boat because it would have been giving me comfort and security and safety. I remember my mom and that boat on the way back to my cousin's house telling me to remember who I was that I was a son of God to remember who I was that I was somebody that I was a force for good that I was going to be a leader in life and that I could make a difference. She reminded me that day that no matter what people saw in me or the difference they saw about me that I could make a difference that I could choose to be a victor and not a victim. Well that changed my life that simple choice changed my life till today. I choose every day it's a daily ritual it's a daily conversion to decide to be a victor and not a victim. Guys now more than ever in today's society we have the opportunity to choose into fear or to choose into hope and I know that as we work on choosing into hope hope works. I want to tell you another experience that I thought would never happen. I thought growing up that my biggest trial would be fighting the differences of my face. It would be fighting about how people saw me and how I was born with cruise on syndrome a cranial facial anomaly that would never leave no matter how many surgeries I would have. Well through the confidence and through the many blessings I've had with the support of family that I was gifted I was able to travel around the world specifically through the sport of wrestling. I was able to succeed in that sport and represent the USA accept a scholarship to a local university and meet my beautiful wife in the same athletic department. I remember watching my beautiful wife run track and she wasn't fast enough because I caught her and we were married and we thought everything would be super easy as we decided to start our family. She came from a family of nine kids and I've came from a family of seven. Family was super important to us and we wanted a big family with lots of kids running around the house just like we had done growing up but I want to tell you as we started our family and we tried naturally to have kids it didn't happen and as we went to the doctors that I was also used to for my crani and facial condition this was different. Another person was involved my beautiful wife and our future family would be involved and as we would sit down and the doctors not know what the problem was we felt like we had a moving target not knowing where to go next and so we tried IVF and we tried four times so that we could have our kids. I remember she could barely go to work and sit down because of the bruises she had on her hips and the bruises she had all over her stomach just to try to start our family. Four cycles later with two miscarriages a little baby boy and a little baby girl lost our hearts felt broken we didn't know what to do next but we felt like adoption would be the next step for us. We were so excited when we put our profile out there that we would be matched with a beautiful mom as we would go to visit this mom and spend holidays with them and take them out and really enjoy our time with her and her family we felt connected we felt like this was it until we got the email eight months being matched with this mom who was pregnant that we had funded the entire time we get the email that said I'm not placing my baby I don't know how to tell you this I remember reading that email and I remember having those words and be like a dagger to the heart and I remember having my wife grafts around my chest why do we have to go through this again I remember not knowing what to do this was a situation that I just couldn't control I felt like I wouldn't have to go through this I felt like my trials that I'd been through the hardest things when in fact I hadn't but we decided that night that we would walk forward with hope as victors and not victims shortly after that we gained up the courage to go again into the adoption and we were matched with another mom and about six months later she would disappear she would not return calls anymore we felt devastated but we decided every day to have that conversion to be victors not victims to have hope and not live with fear I remember getting the call in early February saying hey there's a boy that was just born do you want him I remember me and my wife we looked at each other and we're just like let's do this we got on the next plane as we touched down I remember meeting the birth mom and her saying would you like to meet your baby boy and I looked at my wife I'm like wait a minute holy cow is this how this works is this how this works holy cow this is actually happening as we walked down and we held our beautiful baby boy we had the opportunity to name them they said hey you got to come tomorrow morning because we got to sign the papers with the baby boy's name we had had girls names out the wazoo because all the adoptions before were little baby girls I was prepared for a boy's name but that night we went to sleep and I woke up with a name that we hadn't prepared for the name of Liam Liam went through my mind I couldn't get back to sleep finally hours later I rested my head and I woke up in the morning and told my wife everything that happened on the way to the hospital my wife looked at me and said Ben that means something maybe Liam is the name as we sat down with the lawyer and the birth mom to sign the papers she said I hope you don't mind I already signed my part of the papers and I named the baby boy I wanted to name him something that meant protective warrior and me and my wife looked at each other were like what did you name the boy and she said I named the boy Liam guys faith and hope is alive and it's alive today and it works when we think God doesn't deliver what we ask for check again he may not always come in your timing but he always comes on time we were started we were emotional as we hugged the birth mom and told her our part of the story as we get up and we walk out in the hall just just with goosebumps on our arms the adoption director comes to us and say I don't know how to tell you this but I just got off the phone she had tears in her eyes and she looks at my beautiful wife and says you're a twin aren't you and my wife's an identical twin and she said yeah I'm a twin she said well there's a baby girl being born in a couple days would you like to raise a girl as well it would be like raising twins I looked over my wife and we were just in awe about how our prayers are being answered how God delivered with all our hope and all our faith and our mentality of being a victor not knowing if that would ever pay off that happened we would go and hold our beautiful baby girl and our beautiful baby boy at the same time and return home and my parents didn't know anything and we surprised our parents but I want to tell you it's not over when you think all the blessings have come through your trials there's more that comes and when God delivers and when he delivers on time he comes with his arms full we would get a call 11 months later from the birth mom of my baby boy Liam and she would say you know what I'm pregnant would you like to raise Liam's brother shortly after that we would show up and we would hold our second baby boy in our arms and we would then return and surprise my family yet again guys in the last 18 months I went from zero to three kids running around with diapers everywhere three car seats our hands are full and if you think our hands are full you should see our hearts hope is alive you have an opportunity to react in life with love and not worry with hope and not fear to be a victor and not a victim of circumstance I always thought that my biggest fight would be against the people that thought I would look different it wasn't so much that way I learned to be a victor and it would serve me in every realm of my life I'm going to invite you to do the same in those moments that you feel that you're back in that corner of life with a choice to be a victor or victim to choose hope but to choose fear and to choose doubt and worry I'm going to invite you to tell yourself that you're enough I'm going to invite you to know and to believe that God does deliver hope works and it works when you work