Our girl
I was working on our family photo book the other day, going through old e-mails, and found a few that we sent and received on April 9th, 2013. We didn't know it then but on that same day our little Tesfa was born. While she was born and spending those moments with her first mother, we were moving forward with the plans to adopt that we felt like God had laid on our hearts. We spent that day praying through and dealing with the push-back we were receiving from family members who thought we were crazy to adopt again. I struggled in those first weeks with feeling hurt, unsupported, alone. At one point I was literally crying and so angry and then suddenly I felt God quiet my heart and speak into my Spirit... "This is nothing compared to what she has to go through."
And just like that my tears were gone and I felt this great peace. I knew the struggles we would have to adopt would be nothing compared to what our little girl would have to endure in losing her first family, her first country and culture, and all the changes that would come after that. I knew that God had called us to this journey and trusted that He could bring the healing that would be needed. But I had no idea then that the little girl we were praying for was born and already facing her first losses in those same moments.
For 23 months we have been praying for this precious girl, even before we knew her name. For 15 months we have prayed for her by name. We have so much hope and faith that we will one day, hopefully soon, be allowed to go and bring her home to our family. But for now, our paperwork is still tied up in the red tape of US immigration services, where it has been for nearly 9 months now. We have hope, we have faith, and we trust completely that God called us to this journey and that only He can give us the strength to finish it out. But we don't know with certainty that she will ever be legally ours.
I was praying for her today and some of the other little ones we know waiting on families there in Ethiopia and all of the sudden I was overcome with thankfulness that we have been given this great privilege. For reasons of which only God knows the sum, we have had her whole lifetime to pray specifically for her, and for the last 15 months we have seen evidence of God's care and provision in her life. We have pictures of her as an infant, weak and thin but still unbelievably beautiful, and then at age 1 when she was moved to a new orphanage that took great pains to plump her up and pour into her emotional development. God has placed people in her life to love her and care for her and we have pictures of her with huge silly grins and wrinkle-nosed smiles.
Proof. He sustains, He provides.
We praise Him in advance for all that He has done and will do in our lives and in her life. We don't know the future, we don't know that she will ever legally be our child, but she has been and will always be ours, spiritually, a precious little gift to circle in prayer.
And just like that my tears were gone and I felt this great peace. I knew the struggles we would have to adopt would be nothing compared to what our little girl would have to endure in losing her first family, her first country and culture, and all the changes that would come after that. I knew that God had called us to this journey and trusted that He could bring the healing that would be needed. But I had no idea then that the little girl we were praying for was born and already facing her first losses in those same moments.
For 23 months we have been praying for this precious girl, even before we knew her name. For 15 months we have prayed for her by name. We have so much hope and faith that we will one day, hopefully soon, be allowed to go and bring her home to our family. But for now, our paperwork is still tied up in the red tape of US immigration services, where it has been for nearly 9 months now. We have hope, we have faith, and we trust completely that God called us to this journey and that only He can give us the strength to finish it out. But we don't know with certainty that she will ever be legally ours.
I was praying for her today and some of the other little ones we know waiting on families there in Ethiopia and all of the sudden I was overcome with thankfulness that we have been given this great privilege. For reasons of which only God knows the sum, we have had her whole lifetime to pray specifically for her, and for the last 15 months we have seen evidence of God's care and provision in her life. We have pictures of her as an infant, weak and thin but still unbelievably beautiful, and then at age 1 when she was moved to a new orphanage that took great pains to plump her up and pour into her emotional development. God has placed people in her life to love her and care for her and we have pictures of her with huge silly grins and wrinkle-nosed smiles.
Proof. He sustains, He provides.
We praise Him in advance for all that He has done and will do in our lives and in her life. We don't know the future, we don't know that she will ever legally be our child, but she has been and will always be ours, spiritually, a precious little gift to circle in prayer.
This picture was taken on my birthday by another adoptive family and it's one of my favorites.
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