God Uses Email - Part 2

When we got the email from our friend about a baby needing an adoptive family, I called the attached phone number and was told that they already had a family. So I gave them my number "just in case something happens," and hung up. I didn't think much more about it, frankly, and I don't think I even called my hubby to tell him about it. Then about an hour later the woman called me back and said the family they had hoped to place the baby with had just backed out and we were the next and last people on her list. She wanted to know if we were seriously interested and she needed to know within the hour because social services would be called then and the child would be going into foster care.

This time I called my husband and we prayed. Then I called my pastor and we prayed. It's not ideal to have to make life-altering decisions under such time constraints, or over the phone for that matter. After a while my hubby sent me an email (I saved it too) which in part said

Honey,

I keep thinking about our James Study and Chapter 1 verse 27.

The KJV reads as follows...

"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, [and] to keep himself unspotted from the world."

This little girl is fatherless and she is in affliction. I really believe we should move forward.

We had been studying James in our home group and this scripture was the previous week's text. Don't misunderstand...we did NOT do this out of some obligation or arm-twisting. We really wanted another child, and we especially had been wanting a little girl. We had only begun praying several weeks before about the possibility of adopting again, and the suddenness of it all was what was causing any indecision on our part. Also, the unknown is scary, and it would be years before we knew how the alcohol affected her. So our study of James was confirmation to us of something we had already been asking the Lord about. We decided to go ahead and asked the Lord to slam the door if this is not what He wanted for this precious child or for our family.

He never closed the door, and I'm so grateful to have this little fireball in our home. Though the unknown is now becoming known (and it is hard at times to deal with), it is impossible for me to think of our family without Abigail. She is a ray of sunshine among the rest of the melancholy personalities that make up our family. It's funny, she needed an adoptive family, but I think we needed her even more!

God Uses Email - Part 1

I was cleaning out my email box this morning and ran across this email I have saved for four years. A friend of ours, Cyndi, sent this email to me on Wednesday, April 16, 2003. It literally and dramatically changed our lives, and I thought I'd share it.

Kim, When I read this I felt like I needed to forward it to you. I'm on the email list for Grace Chapel Church because for awhile I was attending a singles group there. I just thought you'd like to be praying! Hope your week is going well! ;) Cyndi

---------- Forwarded Message ----------

A Special Adoptive Need

A baby girl was born on Saturday @ 31 weeks (9 weeks early). She is in the NICU and doing well. She weighed 3 pounds, 6 ounces and is breathing on her own. Originally the hospital said she would be there at least 6 weeks but today they said she will be released in 3 weeks because she is doing better than anticipated. The birth mother is 21, this is her 4th baby. She drank heavily during the pregnancy, the effects of that are unknown. She is married but her husband is not the father. Both birth parents have met with an attorney and are ready to sign consents as soon as a family is found. Ironically, in spite of all of this, the one thing she is asking for in an adoptive family is that they be Christians. In her words "not just say they are Christians but really go to church and live it".

I need an adoptive family willing to accept these potential challenges. Because of time constraints I'm really only looking for calls from people who are seriously interested and ready to act NOW. I have to come up with a family today so this has to happen FAST. Is the Lord prompting you to pursue this or perhaps mention this to someone else who might be interested? This is an opportunity for someone to minister to these birth parents as well as provide a forever home to this precious gift from God. Even though she is little, He made her and she is perfect to Him. Whether or not the Lord is prompting you to adopt, we covet your prayers in this situation.

Barely Noticeable

Our pretty girl!

I was bathing the kids yesterday, and I thought I'd get a couple of pictures of how their respective wounds are healing. Abby's scar is in a difficult place to get a good picture of, but it looks really great. It's still a little pink, but because of its location, you can barely see it. She's bumped it several times since the sutures came out, but so far it's held together well!

Whew!

We took Abigail to her pediatrician yesterday for some follow-up blood work. He examined her again, and then they drew more blood. She was really brave again, though they took it from her hand this time and I know that hurts more than the arm. They neglected to run the hemoglobin A1C that the endocrinologist had asked for the last time, so they ran it this time along with the other tests.

I just got the call from the doctor that all her tests came back normal or near-normal, as we had hoped and prayed! Her sed rate had been way over 100, and it is now 22. Normal for her age is 20. It's a little high, but obviously coming down. Her CRP or C-reactive protein level (I have no idea what that is except it's a marker for inflammation) had been "wildly high," and it is now normal too! Lastly, her A1C came back within the normal range. This test shows how high her blood sugar has been over a three- or four-month period of time. Normal range is 6 and under, and hers was 5.8. It's on the high end of normal, but as our ped said, "normal is normal."

So she has a clean bill of health, and we're grateful this is over! We will be slightly on guard for any symptoms of diabetes, but it looks like it was a side effect of the stress her body was under due to whatever illness she had. Thanks so very, very much for all ther prayers! We are so blessed to have a praying support group.

She's Back

Well, it seems that Abigail is feeling pretty good again. She got some firm discipline today for the first time in almost three weeks! I'm so relieved she's feeling better, but, truly, I liked her not getting into something every time I turned around. It's amazing how I could forget in just three short weeks how mischievious and impulsive she is! We're supposed to go back to the doctor on Monday, and now I think I can pretty much tell him she's her old self again!

Healing Well

Abby's tapes were coming off this morning, so I removed them completely and cleaned up the wound. It's looking really good. She's probably going to have a scar, but the infection is all gone. You can also see her additional sores from the bad reaction to the latex or adhesive in the bandages.

We made chocolate chip cookies today, and Abby licked the beater and helped put cookies on the sheet. She's a great helper. It was nice not to have to keep her chin clean and dry like we have been doing for the last week.