Inspire, Fall 2004

20 Fall 2004 In summary, Evie says adoption is one of her greatest passions. She stated, “The incredible expense; the grueling, never-ending paperwork; and the long agonizing waits are all worth the joy of welcoming a precious child who needs a family into your family.” She added, “It is awesome how God can use two people to make a child with precisely all the genetic, physical, emotional qualities He wants and then put that child in a completely different family because He knows that child needs to grow up with that particular family and that family needs that particular child. I can’t help but see that as a picture of God’s adopting us into His family.” Evie has been a Spanish teacher for the past 24 years and currently teaches at Windsor High School. She resides with her daughters, Katie (12) and Kirsi (3), in Vestal, New York. Evie is an active member at First Baptist Church of Maine, New York. She may be reached at kirsimama@aol.com. My husband, John, and I had always desired to go into missions once he retired from the Air Force. In September 2003 we had the privilege of meeting another couple who had sold everything they had and left for missions in Romania at age 42. We prayed that night with them and covenanted with God for whatever He had for our family. John prayed for specific direction for our family, thinking it would be missions-oriented. Be very careful when you pray for God’s will, and be prepared! Three days later, my dear friend Julie called. When stationed in Florida, John and I had been youth counselors at our church, and Julie was the youth pastor’s wife. Julie asked if I remembered a teenager named Danyell. I did. We had seen Danyell come to the Lord and then had the privilege of discipling her when she was 14. We remembered clearly Danyell’s extensive vocabulary and her intelligence, as well as her difficult home life. Julie explained that Danyell was pregnant, committed to adoption, and looking for a family for her baby. God kept laying us on her heart. Were we interested? We had three children already — Anni (11), Christian (8), and Isaac, our “baby” (3), and for a number of reasons had decided our family was complete. Because John is on active duty, we move every three years, and his job requires quite a bit of travel. More than three children seemed to be more than I could handle alone. We would laugh and say we had Eenie, Meenie, Miney, and there would be no Mo! But our only daughter, Anni, had prayed for years for a sister. Amused, I used to tell her that unless God dropped a Chinese baby unharmed (and for free!) in our backyard, there would be no sister. I immediately thought of our prayer three days earlier for God’s will for our family and said, “Absolutely!” However, there was the small detail of checking with John. Providentially, he came home for lunch that day, and when I told him about Julie’s call, he, too, said, “Absolutely.” He chuckled and said, “You don’t pray for God’s will and then say, ‘Only if it fits with my plans!’” We knew that our saying yes was the least of the things that had to come together, but we had no idea just how long or expensive the journey would be. That evening, God very clearly gave us Psalm 118:23 to hide in our hearts: “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.” There were huge obstacles in our path, the biggest of which were Danyell’s age (she was 16, and 98 percent of all teenage adoption plans fall apart at the hospital), Danyell’s parents (wanting her baby for all the wrong reasons), the fact that Danyell has Native American blood and tribal rights normally supercede the rights of the mother, the circumstances of the conception made locating the birth father difficult, and so many more issues. It was the most stressful pregnancy we’d ever had! We had to accept early on that maybe it wasn’t about us getting a baby — perhaps the Lord had crossed our paths again just to help this young girl through a very difficult pregnancy. It was a very tough road, walking by faith and doing what God had asked us to do, while at the same time facing the reality that we might be brokenhearted at the end and have to help our kids cope with this huge disappointment. It’s very difficult to not plan for a baby when you are in your heart of hearts planning on one! There were several times when it looked as if it were over. As so many other believers have, we believed and asked for help with our unbelief. I really struggled with the thought of having God say to me, “Child, I met you over and over on this journey, and you went right to the end fearing it would fall apart!” Adoption is an incredible journey. Early in our marriage we had decided that it’s not our money anyway, so we knew that if God asked us to adopt, He would make a way to pay for it. Even though it was a private adoption, we needed an agency here in Ohio and an attorney there in Florida, a home study here, a social worker there to represent Danyell, and a fire inspection of our home. Despite all of John’s security clearances, we had to be fingerprinted and have FBI and Homeland Security checks, physicals for everyone — we even had to submit our dog’s vet records to the courts! What God Has Arranged b y L e i L a n i P r i t t s D i b e r t ’ 9 0