Sunday, August 26, 2007

Please help pray Joanna home!

One more thing tonight.
If you believe in the power of prayer, I would like you to pray for Joanna's family. You can read about them on this blog: Linda's children.
They need divine intervention on getting a CA as soon as possible to bring their new daughter Joanna home.
Joanna is a beautiful 8 year old girl who holds a very special place in my heart.
Last fall I came across her file on an agency's WC list, and she immediately captured my heart. By that I mean to the point of sitting in front of the computer and crying my eyes out kind of emotion. I really really wanted to adopt her, but as most of you know, it is not possible anymore to adopt from a different agency's list. I was very, very sad. We were not willing to start all over with a different agency, as our dossier was about half way done by then. We prayed that if we were supposed to be her family, no one would be interested in her, and that our agency could eventually request her file.
A couple of weeks later, her profile changed to "matched".
I lost a little piece of my heart that day.
I kept praying for Niu Niu, and I kept checking blogs and yahoo groups to see if I would find out who her family was going to be.
Spring came. We knew who our daughter was going to be, it was time for taxes, and we were DTC.
Then, one Sunday a message touched my heart. It was about bringing all our desires to the Lord, and ASKING him for things that are important to us, even if they seem little. We were challenged to ask God for one thing we would really like. Knowing that our finances were tight with all the adoption expenses, I asked for money. That night - and I had not even thought about that when I prayed my prayer in church - we did our taxes, and our refund ended up being MUCH bigger than I would have expected. I was in AWE. God had answered my prayer the same day!
And because he loves to give, he added an extra surprise the next day: On a Yahoo group, I came across a lady who ended her post with "Waiting for Joanna, who will be 8 on April 30th".
My heart stopped.
Could it be her?
I emailed her right away, and sure enough. Linda and Bob had been approved to adopt Niu Niu.
Ever since then Linda and I have been in contact, and she has been very gracious about sharing her journey to Joanna with me. I'm so happy to know that this little girl with the puppet will have a wonderful family! And they don't even live that far from us!!!
Don't get me wrong - I have no regrets, no second thoughts, no "if's" in my heart. I know that God has formed both of our families perfectly. He has used Joanna though to soften my heart towards older children. Even though Nina is only 3 1/2, she really is older than we had originally "planned" for our adopted child. It was because of her that we changed our age range for our Checklist, and were ultimately matched with Nina BoBo.

She really, really needs to come home now. So please join me in praying for her family. They mean a lot to me!
Thanks!

3 comments:

Buffi Young said...

we are praying for their CA. The wait is incredibly hard...oh how I remember. But, we all know that God's hand ultimately directs everything and His timing will be perfect!! I'm going to check out their blog now!! Thanks for filling us in!!
Buffi

The Ferrill's said...

Barb I have a similar story about a little 7 yr. old boy before we were matched with Kimmie and Quan. I was so relieved to see he found a family. Looking back it is easy to see God's hand in all of the details, isn't it?
I'll be praying!
Love,
Laine

Linda said...

Barb, thank you so much for posting this entry. It so touches my heart and gives me comfort that we are not alone in this process. I thank you too for your prayers and tears for Joanna. Someday, she will understand and will feel honored to have been loved so greatly. We still have not heard anything. Our agency re-sent the e-mail, and I sent an e-mail also, explaining the need for a mid-September CA. I really do appreciate the prayers of your friends. Thanks!
Linda