We believe we've found our daughter.

We have been completely taken by surprise by God. We believe that we have found the little girl that belongs in our family! The story is a big one, full of powerful twists and turns, and I want to share it here with y'all.


(But first, if you haven't read my recent entry about how we came to the decision to adopt, you'll want to jump back there and read that.)


It all starts the night we shared our adoption announcement online. I'd posted the announcement with various pictures on a couple of different social media sites. In response, I received many comments and words of encouragement, but I also received a comment of a different sort. On one site, an individual that I didn't know had asked me to send her an email about our process because she was interested in Latin American adoption. I didn't know this person and we'd never spoken, but I had noticed that she'd recently begun "following" me on this particular social network.


That night, I sent her a quick email and pretty much thought nothing else of it.


At 4:30 the following morning I was up nursing the twins and, just as I so often do, I picked up my phone to keep myself awake. As I did, I noticed that I had an email waiting for me. When I checked it, it was a reply from the woman whom I'd sent an email to the evening before (we'll call her "A"). She asked about our process, our agency, and she mentioned that she was a "prayer warrior" for an orphan in Latin America. Toward the close of the email, she linked me to her blog. Sleepily, I clicked the link to pass the time and the first blog entry I saw was titled "Happy Birthday Lene". I clicked it and up popped a picture of a precious little Latin American girl with the sweetest pigtails sticking off of both sides of her chubby head! As I read the entry below the photo, I quickly came to the realization that not only was this the child she was a "prayer warrior" for, but she loves this child deeply. This woman wasn't simply praying for this child to find a family, she was advocating for her with as much gusto as she had. Her advocacy was so heart-felt that she'd even prayerfully considered adopting her herself. It was obvious that there was a very special connection there. How beautifully strange for someone to care so completely for a child they'd never met! I was touched.

The next thing I read really grabbed my attention.

She stated that Lene has Down Syndrome and has also been diagnosed with congenital heart disease. My mind immediately raced back to two days prior when, for absolutely no reason that I knew of, I'd randomly texted Robby and asked him, "Would you ever adopt a child with Down Syndrome?" It was sort of "off the wall" for me to ask that, as I had no reason to even be thinking about it. It had simply come to me. It was at this point that I sensed that God was doing something with this little girl. I went to bed and first thing when I woke up for the day I scoured A's blog for more info on this child. I quickly found another entry and as I scrolled through it, I read this:

"Lene will turn another year old on March 8th. What if her family committed then?
Wouldn't that be awesome?
That's my prayer..."

This stunned me. March 8th is a highly significant date for me. It was the date that God totally changed my life last year when He told me that He wanted to use our family to display His miracles on. He whispered to me that He had a calling for my life that was extraordinary and up until that point I hadn't been able to see it. He told me that He was going to do miraculous things in and through us. That date was so important to me that, at one point, I walked around with it written on the inside of my hand.


While I was chewing on this, the thought crossed my mind, "I wonder what the date was the night God spoke so clearly to me to adopt from Latin America..." I grabbed my journal and flipped back a few entries. And there it was, staring me right in the face:


God told me to adopt on the night of March 8th. 


On Lene's birthday. On the very date that A prayed her forever family would commit to bringing her home. I immediately burst into tears.


I had a friend visiting from out of town and we'd planned to go shopping that day. I was trying to wrap my brain around all of this while we were out. Was she my daughter? I knew it was possible, but I wasn't totally convinced. I called up my best friend whose adopted daughter is from Latin America and when I shared these happenings with her, she was pretty blown away. She asked what I knew about this little girl and I shared A's blog with her. She took a look and stated that in one of the photos of Lene, the backdrop reminded her of her daughter's old orphanage. She asked if I knew where in Lene's country she is from and then somewhat offhandedly said, "It would be too crazy for her to be at the same orphanage that my daughter came from. There are literally hundreds of orphanages in the country." I told her that I didn't know where she is located, but that I would email A back (for the first time since she'd nonchalantly linked me to her blog) and ask if she knew.


I will never forget receiving a quick reply from A while standing in the Disney store in Branson, Missouri. As I opened the email and read the first line of text, the blood drained from my face. This little girl is living in the same exact impoverished little town that God has instructed me to go on a mission trip to this summer and IN THE SAME ORPHANAGE that my best friend's daughter lived in less than two years ago. You must understand, this town is a place that is only reachable by plane or boat and not somewhere people go "for fun" or on vacation.


The next part of A's email was equally as shocking. She told me Lene's real, given name (Lene is her pseudonym) and it took the breath right out of me. When my husband had heard the call to adopt, it was via a dream from God. In the dream God had revealed to him the gender, country, and name of our child. Lene's true name was the same name from his dream. And that's when I knew in my heart that this was my daughter.


In the days that followed, my emotions were a mess. I was terrified of what it meant to mother a child with such intricate special needs. How would I be able to handle it with six other children? Could we financially afford it? Would Lene ever grow up and leave the home or would we never become "empty nesters"? Robby and I both had a very difficult time swallowing this prospect. It was life-changing to think that God wasn't just calling us to adopt a child with some kind of special needs, but a child with needs that would likely have us parenting them until the day we died. That is a sobering thought. We had to come to grips with the realization that our plans for the future weren't necessarily what God has in store for us. To say that it took some heavy stripping away of selfishness doesn't quite do it justice. And what if we were wrong? What if she actually isn't our daughter and all of these kooky instances were simply "coincidence"? I cried. We prayed. We talked it out. And we came to one single conclusion:

We could say no to what we both believe God is telling us to do and live in rebellion or we could trust God- despite our fears and hesitations- and embrace the high calling He has placed on our lives.


We have chosen the latter.


So what do we do now? We work to bring our daughter home! Robby and I recently sat down and added up the costs of this adoption from first step to last step and we have estimated that it will be somewhere around $40,000. That includes everything from our $250 application fee, criminal background checks, agency fees, to travel costs, and much more. This is a serious labor of love! The call to adopt is a beautiful one, but it doesn't come without many seemingly gigantic doors to push through. We know this little girl is sitting in an orphanage all the way down in Latin America with no mother, no father, no siblings, and some very specific needs. We want her HOME! We are trusting God to work miracles. He alone is our Source. However, we also know that God relishes in using His children as His hands and feet for the good of the Gospel. If you feel God tugging on your heart to give to our adoption financially or in some other way, we will gladly accept it on behalf of this precious little girl that we are working feverishly to bring into our family. We're also open to fundraising ideas all of types and any other help anyone wants to offer. Every dollar, every idea, and every prayer is beneficial!


Little Lene is worth it!