August 17

I originally planned to write and post this yesterday or the day before,  but it didn't happen. Last year, on August 17 I saw the face of my sweet girl for the very first time.  Our agency sent out an e-mail titled new waiting children. They were advocating for two precious children in need of families. Because of their needs and age, the two children did not match the parameters of any families currently on AGCI's waitlist. The first child was a sweet little boy, S. I looked through his pictures, read his story, prayed for him and then I scrolled down to find this little face smiling at me. 

At the time our parameters were healthy female 0-20 months or sibling girls 0-24 months. We were in the process of increasing our parameters to girl 0-3 years. We were also open to the idea of adopting a child with special needs. As I read about sweet 2 year old Mestawet, I wondered if this could be the daughter we were waiting for. I actually said aloud as I read, "is this Mia?" When Justin came home from work I showed him the e-mail and we both agreed to pray that these children's families would find them. We prayed for them with Sawyer and Jax before bed that night.

The next day while the kids were at school and Justin was working, I must have looked at the e-mail a hundred times. I stared at Mestawet's sweet smile and big eyes. Oh, how I longed for this precious child to be in a family and I wondered if we could be her family. By the time Justin got home, I was a mess. Through tears I told him that I could not stop thinking about this little girl. He told me to e-mail our case worker to let her know we were interested in learning more about her. I think I sat down and immediately wrote the e-mail.

The next day our case worker replied and let me know there was already a family who was interested in adopting Mestawet. She said if things did not work out she would let us know, but there were others ahead of us on the wait list who had expressed interest in learning more about her. You see, we were not the only family praying and falling in love with this little sweetie. I was sad that we weren't her family, but I was thankful our prayers for her to find a family were being answered.

Of course that is not the end of the story. On August 30 I got a call that I was not expecting at all. Our case worker wanted to know if we were still interested in learning about this little love.

As I read back over the waiting child e-mail and look at the pictures of our precious girl, I can not help but praise the Lord for the mighty work He has done in her life. We were told she could not yet walk on her own or speak 2 word sentences. She is now running around everywhere and talking constantly. We were told she was shy, reserved, and easily frightened by new people. I almost have to laugh at this now, because if you have ever met my daughter you know this is no longer true. She has really come out of her shell. Even the director of Hannah's Hope told me when we were in Ethiopia that she never would have thought Mestawet would be such a "wild girl". I knew exactly what she meant and we got a good laugh about it. 

I amazed at what the Lord had done in the last year. The precious girl in the picture is not the only one whose life has drastically changed for the better. I am also happy to say that sweet "S" also has a family. He is still in Ethiopia and we continue to pray for him as his family works to bring him home. 

God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land. Psalm 68:6