One evening in October Meadow surprised us all when she requested we pray for her baby sister. I promptly explained she did not have a baby sister. There are boys as far as we can see - no sister in sight.
But she persisted.
Every night for almost a week she wanted to pray for her baby sister. Nothing we said could convince her otherwise. (Yes, we tried to talk our kid out of praying for something. We made Jesus proud.) William and I grew a little more freaked out each night and he made the next available appointment for the big snip surgery. For real.
What's In A Name?
The first referral we received from the DRC was a little boy name Gradi. Gradi is about 4 or 5 years old and we planned to give him the name Malachi - first or middle - it would have been his choice. Gradi went home to live with his uncle in February and the name Malachi came off our future-Wallace-babes-list.In March when we met the mother of our foster boys (prior to meeting them), she pulled two photos out of her purse - one of each of them - and told us their names. Guess what M's name is?!?! We got our Malachi. (For the time being anyway:-)
Then there is the story of the two Moses'. I still find it no coincidence that I have a four year old little boy named Moses and there is another woman with a four year old little boy named Moise on the other side of the planet. For some reason he and his mother were brought into our lives and we're still trying to figure out what that reason is.
After we lost our referral for Moise, we decided to take a break from international adoption. We were, and still are, tired.
Shortly after determining we needed a break a few folks contacted me suggesting certain agencies or waiting child lists. I kindly blew them off.
All but one.
One email from a stranger included information about a waiting baby girl, and I almost hit delete, but then I saw her name. Glory.
Do you see that list up there?! That name, dead center?!
Glory is the name we had chosen for our next little girl.
Oh. S%*#.
I responded with my schpeel. We have been in the process for almost four years, lost two referrals this year, we are tired, yada-yada-yada.
But. I. couldn't. get. Glory. out. of. my. mind.
I decided to do what is anti my personality. To not pursue her. Instead, I prayed. Specifically I prayed if Glory is ours, the nice stranger woman would email ME. Not the other way around.
I thought surely she would be gone. Who has healthy waiting baby girls? Surely someone would step forward for her, right?
Nine days later, the nice stranger woman sent me a message. Glory was still waiting.
I went to William, explained my prayer and that it had been answered. We decided to pray some more.
Pursuing Glory would mean starting over financially. From the beginning. The very beginning. Like $20,000 ago.
In order to get to the point of accepting Glory as our referral, we would need $11,000. So we prayed for God to give us a financial sign.
A few days later I finally had a chance to sit down and add up our Show Hope grant, Lifesong Foundation account (from our Both Hands project) and our savings. To our surprise it came to $10,885. Pretty close to $11,000 right?
Then, as we were getting ready for bed I emptied my pockets to find two checks from friends who had come over that day to purchase last minute Christmas gifts.
$11,000.
And that, my friends, is a sign. Confirmation to pursue this little girl we never even would have considered.
I am breaking down and doing what I've told other people to do a dozen times - adding a "Donate" button to our blog and one of those hideous thermometer thingis. We've got a lot of money to raise people and not much time to do it. (Glory should be home in about SIX months!)
Feel free to drop a few dollars in the pot. We've also got some new-to-us fundraisers coming up. Tomorrow we'll reveal a unique fundraiser my husband is STOKED about!
Waiting for Glory,
