We reserve Tuesdays to share stories from some of our grant recipients. May you be blessed by their stories….
April 19th marked the beginning of our family's journey to adopt a little girl with special needs from Ethiopia. Special needs were close to our heart after our second daughter was healed from a brain tumor in utero. We discovered the great number of orphans in Ethiopia through friends who were also adopting.
In July, our friends traveled to meet their daughter for the first time. While at the orphanage, they spied a petite girl with a sweet smile and turned out feet. They were captivated and told us about her when they came home. We felt strongly that this may be our daughter. However, we couldn't ask our caseworker about her specifically. All we could do was pray. Throughout each day, we prayed that if this little girl would thrive in our family, God would allow her to be referred to us..and if not, she would be placed quickly with a family that would best meet her needs.
4 weeks later, we received a picture… of the very same little girl our friends had spied. She was going to be ours! We longed to meet her, but we had to wait for the Ethiopian courts to reopen.
The courts did reopen, but after that our case stalled. After weeks of questions, we discovered that our case wasn't moving forward because there had been a rare mix-up at the orphanage and our little girl was already in the process of being adopted by another family.
We were devastated. The way this little girl had come to us had been so miraculous..how could she be gone from our lives? Throughout our sadness, Katelyn's Fund was there, praying for us and grieving with us. They provided us with much needed financial support but also emotional support – their encouragement and prayers, along with those of our family and friends, reminded us about why we were adopting. There are literally millions of children across the globe who have beautiful smiles, dreams of a family, and have been forgotten and left alone because of the brokenness of this world. We became thankful that this little girl, who had no family, has been able to have two families love and pray for her. We were reminded that adoption is not about us – the parents adopting – it's about children. We rejoice that God answered our prayer and provided this little girl with the best earthly parents she could have.
Our wonderful Heavenly Father showed His grace and perfect plan for our family also. A week ago, we received a call about a 3-month-old girl, abandoned in the sand at birth…OUR little girl, Rekike. She was born October 8th..well after we had received our first referral. If the referral hadn't fallen through, we would not be preparing now to meet Rekike, our little miracle. God's ways are definitely not our ways…His are infinitely better. Today, there is joy for not one, but two little girls, who will both be part of their Forever Families.
