A Little Girl's Dream

Our daughter Mary and her husband Aaron, and their three little boys (four year old twins Micah and Eli and two year old Isaac) are in the process of adopting a little baby girl from Ethiopia. Mary has her nursery just about ready - just a few little touches here and there are all that need to be done. One of the sweet pictures on the wall is an oval, silver framed picture from a calendar she had as a little girl. It is one of her treasures. It is an artist's illustration of a little African American girl surrounded by all of her favorite things, and the look on her face is one of pure joy. Then Mary pulled out of the closet her Bitty Baby American Girl doll she received for Christmas when she was about 10 years old. It too is an African American baby and again, one of her treasures.

When Mary was little, around the age of four or five, I remember watching something on television with her about children in an African country who were starving due to a famine in that area. It touched the whole family, but Mary especially was moved. She wanted to fill up airplanes with clothes and food and take them to the little children and help them - right now! Her desire to in some way go and help children who were orphaned whether here or overseas never really materialized during her growing up years, but it was a dream that never left her heart.

Fast forward about 16 years and Mary met and fell in love with a man with a heart for the world. Aaron did a missions internship when he was a student at Grace University for nine months in Kenya. Even though he now is a partner in Cornerstone Remodeling and works long hard hours, he has over the years headed up several missions trips for his church to Zambia where they have helped start an orphanage, as well as trips to Haiti and Mexico. They began saving from the very beginning of their marriage for something missions related - maybe with the hope of one day serving overseas. They've done without many things, been happy with used, rescued, renovated and now live in a 100 year old house, are raising three little boys, while saving for a dream.

Then, one day Mary began reading blogs of those had adopted children from other countries. More and more she began to think, maybe we could do this too. She and Aaron began thinking and praying and about a year and a half ago began the long and difficult process of adopting a child from Ethiopia. The journey is almost complete. They've been matched with a little baby girl they have named Hope, and are in the gut wrenching waiting period - waiting to hear from the courts in Ethiopia about when they will be able to make their first trip over to legally adopt their little girl. Of course, it won't be the end of the story. It will just be the beginning. But, it is the culmination of a dream that began in the heart of a little four or five year old girl so many years ago.

You see, God was at work in the heart of my child. In the busyness and "hurry up-edness" of life, most of the time as a busy mom I was charging ahead - doing the next thing, making sure everyone was clothed and fed and lived in a fairly clean house. As a young mom I was focused on raising children who would be contributers, have good manners, and hopefully not embarrass me too much! But, forgetting or perhaps not really thinking about the fact that in the swirl of life, here was a little person with hopes and dreams as big as mine. And, even if I didn't pay very much attention to the intimacies of her heart - noticed and loved by the same big God who noticed and loved me. And, He had a plan that began long before Mary was ever born.

Hope was born to a poor teenage Ethiopian mother, but in eternity past, she was chosen for Mary. Soon, the little girl who ached to hold and help those babies who lived so far away, will be holding and rocking little baby Hope - as her mother.

Matthew 19:14 - "But Jesus said, "'Let the children come to me. Don't stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.'"