We are waiting. Waiting on her to be with us.
Wondering what she is doing today...
I went to my niece's 4th birthday party last weekend. So much love and joy she had surrounding her. A family that loves her. Cousins that love her. Joy radiating.
God desires that for every child.
So many children... alone.
Stats say 163 million.
Alone. Lonely.
Waiting.
I don't think that children have to have birthday parties to have joy. They don't need fancy stuff, status, or their own room. I think children need families. Families that love them, and pray for them. Hugs and kisses too.
We don't know what our family is going to look like when A comes home, but we know God is sovereign.
Our little girl has been so loved and prayed for the past 2 weeks by many strangers who became aware of her through our garage sale. Strangers in the flesh, but family in Spirit, have opened their hearts to A.
Please, Lord, heal her precious little heart, and be open to our love.
The garage sale was amazing. People kept coming---my many obnoxious neon signs did help draw the crowds, but we're pretty sure God had a little more to do with the success. Emotions rolled in as well. I feel sorry for the kind lady that was asking me some simple questions about A last Saturday, and I start melting into tears before I could finish answering her. I think heat and exhaustion could be playing a small part in some of the emotions, but really, we feel so overwhelmed with love, and prayers, and support...and just the plan that God has for A.
He does have a plan, you know.
We don't always understand it, or it may look a little scary, but we're learning the best way to approach it is: Trust Him.
Oh, were we the last ones to figure that out?
When Mr. Fly and I tied the knot eight years ago, we had always talked about our desire to adopt. Of course, we were going to have a couple of biological children first that hopefully would act just like their dad {{he's sweeter than me}}, get our feet wet on the whole parenting thing, master it, and then adopt our 3rd or 4th child...a bouncing, healthy little baby. I love babies. Always have.
We didn't leave a lot of room for changes in our plan--it was totally single spaced. I left out several other large details that we had in our big 'ol life plan. Some of them weren't that edifying anyway. ha. I am sure all of you can relate. Life is unpredictable, but God is faithful.
Last year around this time we were grieving over infertility, severe endometriosis, tired of surgeries, and countless doctor visits. Life really wasn't as bad as I thought it was, it just wasn't reflecting my perspective of what I expected my life to be, and it wasn't what I thought it should be.
Also, around the same time last summer, we were in Guatemala on a mission trip to minister to orphans with special needs {you can imagine who actually ministered to who}, through Hope For Home with Daryl and Wanda Fulp.
I am posting a few more pictures of our trip. The first picture below is of many of the wheelchairs that belonged to children inside the orphanage. In this particular orphanage, Hermano Pedro, we were not allowed to take pictures of the children. This is sad, because I know their sweet faces would melt you. Most, if not all, of the children in this orphanage had special needs. To the right of the wall in this picture were rows and rows and metal cribs. Cribs full of sweet, innocent children who did not choose to be there.
This picture below is of some of the older boys we were able to take out to lunch a couple days while we were there.
This awesome boy was actually in another orphanage we visited. He was very social and was glad to have people around him. His orphanage had less of an 'orphanage' atmosphere.
On this Guatemala trip, I had packed a whole huge black suitcase of gluten, dairy, and sugar free food because I was on a stringent diet in hopes of achieving pregnancy. Mmmm, rice cakes, brown rice that is. It didn't work. Yes, I felt better, but no pregnancy. Pain, sad and defeated pain, is what we felt. I'm not sure if this pain ever goes away completely.
You can bet that Daryl and Wanda will never forget me even if they tried---mostly due to the large suitcase full of food I trucked along, and my stock of food in their refrigerator. Yep. I.was.prepared., and we were unaware of God's will that was going to be unfolding.
Daryl and Wanda's little daughter, K, who also deals with cerebral palsy, was such a dear to us, and she had a true concern for me when she found out that we were praying for a family. She had lots of questions. I liked talking to her, and she touched my heart.
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Towards the end of the trip, I think, I remember sitting at Hermano Pedro orphanage {the one where all the wheelchairs were lined against the wall} holding and rocking physically and emotionally hurting children by their cribs while sitting next to Wanda. We talked about adoption, foster care, and such. This orphanage environment was all new to me. It was painful to see. We did see joy on some of the children's faces, but words really can't describe some of the sadness we saw.
I distinctly recall a moment as we were sitting there talking...Wanda was encouraging adoption of waiting special needs children. I also remember thinking, ..."I think I would want healthy children" if we ever adopt. Silly me. Is that even possible? Hello. Trauma. In other words, I was trying my hardest to not become convicted of anything while talking to Wanda, even though I am pretty sure I was feeling uninvited conviction creeping in.
Back to 2012.
Here we are! So excited to bring our little girl home.
Two random "shoppers" at our garage sale asked me if I had ever heard of Hope for Home Ministries, when they heard we were adopting.
Why, yes, we have.
Not only did we experience our mission trip with them, but God used Hope for Home as a tool to bring A to us. If I have the story right, Don and Mel, were introduced to their son through Hope for Home's services. After Don and Mel went to pick up their son in I*d*a, P, they saw A, and had her on their hearts to find a home for her.
Amazing how so many events tied together to bring us where we are today.
Edit: I did want to clarify that A was never a 2nd choice due to infertility. God brought her sooner to us than we expected. In fact, the day we found out about her, adoption so soon was not really on our radar, even though I think God had been preparing our hearts. When we heard about her, we both felt peace that she was to be our daughter.
So, you see, we don't really know what we are doing. We're simply along for the ride.
Sweet A needs prayers, along with all the other hurting and lonely children in the world.
God is writing our story, and He is writing yours too. They are all different. They are all beautiful.
God's blessings and peace on your journeys.
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Some more adorableness to make you smile:
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