Monday, April 19, 2010

Memorial Box Monday: A Precious Baby Girl

Memorial Box Monday is a time to reflect on God's faithfulness in our life. A time when His love, goodness, and grace is remembered and shared with others. To God be the glory! Linny over at A Place Called Simplicity (rt. side of blog) started MBM and you can read all about it at her blog. You can also read or share your stories by linking up with Linny.

I have been praying about what to share today. What keeps coming to mind is the story of how our third child became our daughter. So today I am sharing how God answered our prayers in a unique way.

While in the Air Force Joel was given orders to Clark Air Force Base in The Philippines, so Joel, myself, and our two small children drove across the country to CA where we got on a plane and flew to The Philippine Islands. We had talked about adoption long before heading overseas, but when we knew we were going there we were very excited because right away we believed God was going to add to our family through adoption of a child while we were living in The Philippines.

We had only been there a few months when we began to look into the process of adoption. In this third world country there are few guidelines, and we quickly learned that it would be necessary for us to look for our own child to adopt. There were few orphanages ~ most of the babies for adoption had military fathers and Filipino mothers and they were often left at the clinics where they had been born and placed for adoption into American families when possible. It was a frustrating process and I was impatient to get on with it!

Joel worked with a Sgt. who was planning to adopt a son. One night we saw them at the fair on base, and they had with them a tiny little baby girl they had named Janet. We spoke briefly about how sick Janet had been when they brought her home and how they had nursed her back to health. We also shared how we were hoping to adopt a daughter ourselves, and then we moved on. I went home that night so envious that this family was not only hoping to adopt a son, but already had found a daughter to bring into their family. I remember praying to God for a little girl like Janet to bring home.

Shortly after seeing them at the fair, we ran into them again, but I was so upset about our own "lengthy" journey to adopt that I would not even look at the little girl or visit with the family. Pretty much, I was having a pity party for myself! Joel was also struggling and I remember him saying to me, "Why do they already have a child and we don't!" We were very naive about how long it could really take to go through the adoption process.

The next day Joel came home from work and told me that he had visited with this same Sgt. at work, and that he had told him Janet was not their daughter, but their foster daughter, and he wondered if we would be interesting in adopting her. We were stunned, and so excited. We set up a time for them to come by our home along with the social worker that they were working with. Little "Janet" was so precious and as soon as I held her in my arms I knew she was an answer to our prayers! It was only a week later that our precious N. ( we changed her name) came home to live with us forever. She was just 4 months old.
Her foster mom had made her a few dresses, nighties, and booties that we kept as keepsakes. So I will be adding a pair of pink baby booties to our Memorial Box as a reminder of God's answer to a young Lt's prayers, and one impatient mother's prayers (even in the midst of a pity party) ~ and the joy we have received from our wonderful daughter. God did bless us with a child not only "just like Janet", BUT Janet herself! WOW!
N. is 35 now and has a beautiful family of her own. She has graced our home with her love, kindness, and inner and outer beauty. We have been forever blessed.

14 comments:

Patty said...

Beautiful post! God is so good!
Blessings, Patty

Andrea said...

Thank you so much for sharing this part of your life's journey. May GOD Bless you richly for sharing from the depths of your soul.
Blessings, hugs, and prayers,
andrea

Sherri said...

What a wonderful post! I am so glad that even when we can't see past our "pity party" God is busy blessing us!

Sherri

Renee said...

Thanks Patty!

Renee said...

Thanks Andrea! Many thanks for your prayers too....God bless you too.

Renee said...

Yes, isn't God good...and forgiving! Thanks Sherri.

Kat said...

God is so neat! That is just so cool how your thoughts God knew...

from all of us with love said...

Thank you for sharing your true feelings. Sometimes wanting, watching and waiting is hard. But, God's plan is always grand.
Thank you for stopping by to leave such nice encouragement. It is nice to see a comment. Lisa

Waitingfaithfully said...

Renee,

First I have to tell you how much your comment on my blog blessed my heart. While I was writing that post, my head was telling me all of the other things I should be doing (like cleaning up my post-weekend house that was in a shambles), yet in the midst of the mess I was driven to write that post--wondering how in the world God could use it--and really what the push was. NOW I know. How sweet is God?

I was a little disappointed when I finished my post and realized Linny was out of town--and I wasn't going to get to link it up. But then . . .

Linny decided to post on Wednesday, and so it happend. The rest of the story is this . . .

Linny's MBM, which she felt compelled to share, brought tears of joy to me, as God used it to minister to my heart at just the right time.

I just love the way the Lord orchestrated all of that, don't you? He is so good!

Your Precious Baby Girl story touched my heart, in so many ways. What a gracious way for the Lord to bring your daughter to you. While living in Okinawa we fostered a four year old boy for 18 months (Japanese mother, American GI father--gone from the island, just like you spoke of.) Eventually our little guy ended up with his dad--and God used us to accommplish that. One of the hardest things I have ever had to do was kiss that little man goodbye for the last time. But God used that situation to completely prepare our hearts for the adoption of Teddi, for which I was already praying!

Our foster guy is now a happy, healthy, and very smart 13 year old! And our Teddi girl finally came to us, after 9 years of praying to adopt!

Our lives have many similarities! Thank you so much for sharing your heart--it did my heart good! God is so faithful.

Praying that you get your sign, and that it's really big!

With love,

Tina

Joan Hall said...

What a beautiful post - wonderful memories!

Blessings,
Joan

rarejule said...

You are blessed indeed!

Mom Of Many said...

Oh Renee! I love your precious story....how God works and how He prepares us - so sweet! I hope your "Janet" has read your post...

Thank you again for posting...and yes, just want you to remmeber that we were praying for you again - Liberty jumped in with your name....

Sarah said...

Renee, I wanted to thank you for being a part of my first year of blogging! What a wonderful year it has been. I'm throwing a little party and as an honored guest, I would love for you to stop by and share a highlight of your year with all of us.

http://justsarahdawn.blogspot.com/2010/04/cactus-happy.html

Cactus Happy,
Sara

Joan Hall said...

Hi Renee - just stopping over to say hello. I pray that you feel better soon and can bless all of us with more of your writing.