After a tragic car accident took the lives of their two sons in 2015, a North Carolina couple is giving new meaning to the term ‘Rainbow babies’ with the birth of twins. Their journey of faith and forgiveness is TRULY inspiring.
In 2015, Pastor Gentry Eddings and his wife, Hadley, were involved in a terrible car accident in which a distracted truck driver rear-ended the family’s car.
Their 2-year-old son, Dobbs, was killed in the crash.
Hadley Eddings
Hadley was eight months pregnant with their second son, Reed, and was rushed into an emergency C-section following the accident. Though Reed was delivered at a healthy 38-weeks, he passed away two days later.
Following the tragedy, the couple made national headlines for publicly forgiving the distracted truck driver—Matthew Dean.
“We hope to be holding hands with you in heaven with our children,” the couple said in response to the driver’s apology in court.
He was sentenced to one to three years in prison for involuntary manslaughter, and released after serving 15 months.
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In January 2017, the couple announced Hadley’s pregnancy on Facebook and thanked the droves of people who have supported them, lifted them up in prayer and cared for them throughout this journey.
“Y’all have held us up in prayer and we are so grateful! Now we ask you to add two more Eddings to your prayers! We are expecting twins this summer!” Hadley said.
Gentry said that he and his wife were “amazed at this gift and this miracle of new life.”
Gentry is a worship leader at Forest Hills Church in Charlotte. The non-denominational church boasts a congregation of 6,000 members across six campuses. Hadley teaches preschool at the church.
Needless to say, the Eddings are surrounded by an incredible community of people who’ve continually lifted them up in prayer alongside people nationwide who have been touched by their story.
Now, just two years after losing their sons Dobbs and Reed, the Eddings welcomed TWIN boys: Isaiah Dobbs and Amos Reed on Monday morning. Their middle names were given to them in honor of the brothers’ late siblings.
Prayers For The Eddings Family
“This is who God is,” Gentry previously said in the couple’s pregnancy announcement. “A miracle-working, redeeming God.”
Boy, isn’t that the truth?!
The fatal crash took place on the night of Gentry and Hadley’s sixth wedding anniversary.
Though the process has not been easy, we serve an incredible and faithful God who HEALS. It’s the inexplicable healing that Gentry and Hadley have found in the Lord time and time again.
“God has our boys in a place of peace, so I am in a place of peace,” the couple said in 2015. “God has a plan. The situation is a frustrating one. We don’t want to be here. We don’t like it. This is not a fun situation. We’re mad at the loss. But we know God is good and has a plan and we believe that.”
Hadley added, “I hate that this happened. I don’t like it at all. But I can trust God even when it’s really hard. I just trust it. I have to.”
Just like a beautiful rainbow reveals itself after a heavy downpour, the Eddings have weathered an unimaginable storm. But God is good. He is faithful and He is just, and He will never leave or forsake any of His children.
The Eddings family is an incredible testimony to that Truth. May their story of loss, forgiveness and redemption inspire and comfort you today!