You never know...

You never know how the choices you're making as a parent will eventually affect your children.  But let me give you a little window into our lives....

My mom taught C.E.F. (Child Evangelism Fellowship) which teaches all of the Bible stories through flannelgraph.  I grew up in Good News Clubs.  My all-time favorite story was Esther.  (Esther means "Star.")  Her story resonated in my heart.  I guess it was partly the fascination of the beauty pageant-type story and the infamous line Mordecai told her:  "And who knows but that you were brought into the kingdom for such a time as this?"  This story (told well by my mom) truly affected my life.

Probably 22 years ago, Andy began leading a mission trip into Mexico--it was a "family" mission trip.  Not only did we go as a family, we took many families with us.  We went to an orphanage he was acquainted with and began helping them.  The first year we went, the only food in the orphanage was some black baked potatoes on the stove.  When Andy had gone to the orphanage years earlier, there were dirt floors.  After going back to this orphanage year after year, we gained such a relationship with the directors (and developed trust between us) that they would turn the orphanage over to us for a week and they would take a vacation.  We did all of the cooking, cleaning, child care, VBS, laundry, etc., etc.  I remember the first year we were left alone, a group of young girls (Amy included) took care of some of the youngest children every day--bathing them, dressing them, feeding them--everything.  Our family fell in love with a little brown-eyed beauty named Marisol.  If she'd been adoptable, we probably would have taken her home.  We went back to that orphanage for many years.  By the time we quit going, it was well established and we'd built lots of buildings and helped them get on their feet.

You just never know how these seemingly small things (at the time) might affect your future.  I'm sure I passed on my love for the story of Esther to my children.  And I'm sure Andy passed on his love for missions to them as well.  But we had absolutely no idea how those years at an orphanage would some day affect our family.  It was through that time, that God planted a seed in Amy's heart....one that wouldn't bloom until years later.  God gave her a love for orphans and a desire to adopt one some day.

And...she's wanted to name a daughter "Hadassah."  (Hadassah is Esther's Hebrew name)   In fact, she wanted to give Olivia that name but received mixed reviews over the name at the time and backed off from it.  I think it broke her heart--she really wanted a daughter with that name.  Then she and Jay began pursuing the possibility of adoption.  At first, they looked into adopting from China...but so many doors closed.  They almost gave up on adopting until they saw some friends were adopting from Ethiopia and began looking into it.  One day, Amy saw an Ethiopian baby girl's photo and felt God quicken her heart and thought, "That's my daughter!"  (Not the actual baby--but a baby from that country.)

So now...Jay & Amy are on their way to Ethiopia to meet Hadassah for the first time.  This is the first photo they received of her (they can't show her face until she's adopted):

If you click on the photo and look at it closer, you'll see that her gown says, "Little Star."  Remember...Esther means "star."  Did you know that the Esther of the Bible was living in Ethiopia?  And...did you know she was adopted?  I think God knew what He was doing when He prevented Jay & Amy from using the name "Hadassah" for Olivia.  (Besides the fact that Olivia perfectly fits her name!!)  And I think it's pretty perfect that Hadassah's story pretty well matches her namesakes' story!

You just never know how those small details may come together for God to tell a love story some day.  By the way, you can follow Jay & Amy's story here.