![]() What if I hadn’t listened? Or hadn’t prayed those prayers? What might our lives be like now? Would I have foregone the maturity of love that now lives in the hearts of these boys? Might our family have struggled even more?įriend, you may not be on an adoption journey like us. I have to believe that voice I heard nearly 10 years ago telling me to pray for them to love their sister well was Him. It rises above friends and parties and school activities. However, instead, he and his 13-year-old brother brought their very excited little sister to the football game so she could enjoy the fun.įor them, her joy is their joy. As a Junior in high school, one would think our son would want to join friends and do what regular teenagers do. Last fall on a hot Arizona evening, our high school celebrated homecoming. She knows she is a princess to these boys and looks to them like her knights in shining armor.Īnd now these three remain: faith, hope and love. We’ve witnessed how prayer changes things. We’ve witnessed the undeniable hand of God in their lives and on their hearts. To this very day, almost eight years after she has come home, their love for their sister continues to blow our family away. But it came from a place of grief and learning to embrace what was. Two boys ages nine and six had every right to be angry – to complain – to resent.īut never once did their love waver or fade. A family that could face the chains of discouragement, fear, and hopelessness but not succumbs to them. That lead to medications, treatment plans, and learning how to be a new kind of family. One that meant almost daily drives into Phoenix Children’s Hospital to see specialists, therapists, and run more tests than I could keep track of. Not only were her physical health needs beyond what any of us knew about, but the enemy had worked heavily on her emotional health as well. ![]() Broken lives and broken people had left their impact on our sweet girl. As much as we prepared as a family and learned along the way that anything was possible, our vision of homecoming didn’t align with the reality we faced.Įach of us entered with our unique hopes and dreams, but found an upside-down world greeting us. Just as our story to our daughter contained both grief and joy, our story on the other side of home held much of the same. Yet, as I write about in my book, Surrendered Hearts: An Adoption Story of Love, Loss, and Learning to Trust, all adoption journeys weave both grief and joy into its very fabric. Our hearts were full and we knew we were finally the family God had designed long before time. Two years later, after great heartbreak and even greater joy, we brought their sister home. ![]() ![]() Ignite a passion within them to forever advocate for adoption.Reveal Himself to them as the very Heart of adoption.Extinguish any jealousy from rising up within them.Instill gentleness within them for all matters pertaining to their sister.Place a desire in them to be Godly role models for her.Prepare their hearts to love their someday sister well in all circumstances.Yet, still an act of obedience and trusting God’s lead. Because I loved praying and knew the power of prayer, it wasn’t a huge step. It was one of the steps toward full surrender. We only knew that we were beginning to step into the waters of international adoption. Pray like crazy that they will love their sister well no matter what happens.Īt the time we didn’t even know who our daughter would be. It was a message that said I needed to pray for the hearts of my boys. But in a way that I felt the message to the core of my soul. No, not that audible Morgan Freeman-as-God type of voice. And I am reminded to never relent in those prayers because prayer changes things. ![]() On days like today, I think about the years of prayer before she came home. Then, even though my mind understands the grief, my heart aches and my own tears fall. And then she acts out and pushes me away. Because her speech and ability to process and express herself is limited, we don’t know exactly what she is thinking.īut she’s talked of a few memories that seem to hurt deeply as she cries. So, on this day, yes, we celebrate our beautiful daughter. It doesn’t take away from the new beautiful, instead, it creates a unique poignancy to it. Every adoption story begins in grief.Īnd for anyone who has walked the pain of grief, you know that the pain of loss doesn’t magically disappear because of a new beautiful that enters your life. I’ve written about it before – the fact that adoption is God’s beautiful way of making beauty come from ashes. Yet as much as we celebrate that day, it’s also a day marked with pain. Eight years ago today we walked into an orphanage in a tiny village in Bulgaria and walked out with our daughter forever in our arms. Last week we had a special day in our home and as a result, we have more evidence that prayer changes things. ![]()
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