Meet Abby

*Continuing on in the series on the children we play with at the local orphanage... (Again, taking photos is not allowed and every time we're there I just hope my brain is snapping enough images.) 

Abby (which is our nickname for her) is a little girl around the age of three. She has curly dark hair and loves to cuddle. The first day I picked her up with my regular little buddy, she just about burst with joy. She stood out at first because she was always making noises at me that I couldn't understand what she wanted. Normally, the other children would talk away at me in Kinyarwanda, and I respond in English in what I hope would be carrying on a conversation (wishful thinking). Communication is limited anyway because of the language barrier, but she was clearly trying to make a point. One day, Kristen learned that Abby is deaf. Suddenly my whole experience with her clicked into place. When I hold her now, she leans in on my chest and listens to me sing. I have another one on my other leg and she likes it when he cuddles in too and we rock together (he usually likes to be a bit more active though). She likes to hold my hand when it's time to walk over to the tables to eat snack.

When I think about her, I face the hard truth that she may live at the Home for her whole life as a child with special needs. I pray most of all that she knows love. I pray for her helpers and the sisters. Of course, I hope  that there is a family looking to adopt a toddler like her. We have prayed about our adoption and whether or not we are supposed to check that box or not, but feel that God is leading us to a different direction at this time.

We have been blessed beyond belief with a family here who shows us continually the definition of hospitality. They are a neat family and are one of the many here who have adopted a child and we have been so encouraged by their example. They decided to adopt a child with special needs once their son was born needing emergency surgery, recognizing the blessing he had of being born in a family who could do that for him, and so wanted to provide a home for a child who didn't get that in the beginning. So with a young two year old and a newborn, they started the process. Around the time their newborn was turning two, they received another almost two year old. It's a special version of twins separated at birth.

Again, my hope in sharing these stories with you is to ask for prayer for them as well as prayer that God might be calling you and your family to consider adoption. I don't know if it is His will for you, I don't even know if it's His will for us. All I know is that these particular kids have a place in my heart and that God wants Levi and I to apply and try. We would love your prayer for our process - that it would be God's will for us and that the timing would be an amazing testimony to glorify him.

Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. - Rev 19
Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. - Psalm 68:5