Here's the Story (abridged version)

Twenty years ago I visited Haiti. The kids broke my heart. I wanted to bring them all home with me. Since then I have felt called to adopt. We looked into domestic adoption and foster care, but never felt comfortable with that system. We looked into international adoption, but that was too expensive. So I began praying for orphans.

Over the years I prowled the photolistings praying for particular children who were put on my heart. I always believed that we were meant to adopt, and that God would make it happen.

Once I tried to force the issue. I picked a little Haitian girl who I decided was the one. I prayed for her, begged Dan and the Lord to let her be the one, but it was not His will. I ended up with a broken heart, but I believe my prayers were used for her good. I still pray for her. She was 8 in this picture. She will be 13 next month. I sure hope she is loved and safe

After a few months I went back to the photolistings. I was drawn more and more to the kids with special needs. Sometimes I learned when they were adopted, but most often they just disappeared. My heart was still in Haiti waiting for the Lord to give me a daughter.

At Christmas, I stumbled on Reece's Rainbow, an international Down syndrome adoption ministry. There was a picture of a little Eastern European girl who looked just like Meredith as a baby. When I inquired I learned that we probably would not meet her country's requirements or expenses.

Andrea, the director of RR, invited me to join the yahoo group. It was confusing to follow at first. I decided to look at the photos section in hopes of putting faces to names. The first thing I saw was a photo album for Andres in Estonia. I had been praying for him for years, but had no intention of adopting him. I clicked on his picture and there he was in the red cap. My heart felt like it would explode!! I knew, "He's the one". It was the same feeling I had when I knew I was pregnant when it was too soon to know. I just knew. I told Dan right away. He just said, "we can't afford it". I told him I didn't know how it would happen, but that I truly believed it would.

I started praying and asked my friends to pray with me. When we started praying Andres had $960 in his grant fund. In 2 weeks he had $3,500. A few more weeks and it was $6,000. Finally, he was given a incredible gift of $14,000!! Dan was convinced, and we put Andres on hold.

We hope to finish our homestudy soon and have all our paperwork done by the end of the summer. Then we get to go meet our little man. After that we have to wait for a court date to go back and get him. Please keep praying for us as we go through this process.