"Sarah's" Story: Part 1

I realized that for security purposes I needed to change the name of the child in the middle picture (on the righthand side of the page), so instead of using her real name, we will call her Sarah.  I trust that God will know exactly who we are talking about when we pray for her!  I want to share her story with you, but in an effort to keep the posts from getting way too long, I will break her story up into two parts.  Part 1 is about how Sarah came into our lives, and Part 2 will be about her personal journey, and why she so desperately needs our prayers.

PART 1:

Sarah is a precious seven year old girl with Down Syndrome who is in the midst of moving into her fourth home (after living in her previous home for only four months!)  We were contacted about Sarah several months ago when her birthmother decided she could no longer raise her and was looking for an adoptive family. We prayed over that decision, felt the Lord leading us to say yes, and then were informed that the birthmother had selected another home for Sarah.  The reason?  This mother had sent an email to us and one other family telling us about Sarah, and asking if we would be interested in adopting her.  One day later I found her email in my spam folder, and immediately replied.  Well, the other family had responded to the email faster, and within those 24 hours that our email was sitting in spam, this birthmother made her decision.  Part of us felt exremely sad...I was amazed at how quickly I began loving this child who I didn't even know, and how quickly we began picturing our life with her in it!  But the other part of us felt somewhat relieved that her mother did not choose us, because we felt TOTALLY unprepared to parent this child.  We trusted that if God wanted us to bring her into our home, that He would equip us with absolutely everything we would need to parent her.  But we knew it wouldn't be easy.  So there was some peace in the decision that had been made.  What we were not at peace with, however, was the hasty manner in which her mother made this decision.  She decided where and with whom her daughter would live for the rest of her life based on one email!  We didn't have much faith in that decision.  All we could do was to pray for her, and trust that Sarah would be going to a safe and loving home--to the right home.  Our faith was in God, and His ability to make all things work for good!
 
Over the next several months I thought of Sarah often, wondering how her transition had gone, if she was safe and secure, if her adoptive family was showing her the awesome love of Christ.  Then in October, late one night I received an email from the birthmother saying that she was extremely upset because the family she had sent Sarah to live with could no longer keep her, and she wanted to know if we would still consider "taking" her.  After getting over the inital shock that this little girl was once again "knocking at our door" so to speak, we began praying about what the Lord's desire was in this.  This time, we felt even more unprepared to take in this child.  The last several months have brought about many drastic life changes, presented many difficult challenges, and thrown many unexpected curveballs our way (but all leading us to a closer, more honest and pure relationship with our Father!!)  So the thought of taking in this little girl seemed totally irrational and unrealistic.  But again, we trusted that if God was asking us to do this, then He would certainly equip us with everything we needed.  I contacted the woman who had taken Sarah, and during that conversation it became overwhelmingly clear that Sarah was in need of SO much more than simply a loving forever family.  What this child needed was some intense healing at the hands of God, some time in the ICU with the Great Physician,  our Jehovah Rapha--God who heals.  Sarah needs physical healing, mental healing, and most of all spiritual healing.  Her precious spirit has been completely crushed over the course of her short life, and she needs to be on complete "life support"!

To be continued...