I have been visiting my posts from a year ago this morning. I wrote this right after we got our referral for Desta. Today Desta officially becomes a United States citizen. I thought this post was fitting to revisit for such a day as today.
Reflections
June 26, 2009
It has been a strange few days since we got our referral. I feel like I’m living with one foot in this world, and the other foot across the world.
I have found myself moved to tears, thinking about our daughter’s story (what little we know) and her life these past 2 months. Two months. That’s not a long time when you think about one’s life. But in her life, 2 months has carried her on a journey to many places already.
This Mommy’s heart is getting pretty emotional when I stop and reflect on those big eyes. I look forward to the day (hopefully very soon) when I can hold her in my arms, sing her the song that’s been in my heart all these months, rock her to sleep and tell her how deeply she’s been loved.
I wrote a post in April about how my heart had stopped thinking and praying for her mother and instead turned to our daughter. This morning I looked up my thoughts about that post in my journal. From the time line provided by our agency, it seems that my heart knew that our daughter was being born right about then! Wild! Once again I see God’s hand in this adoption, all the way down to such a small detail as this Mommy feeling the need to pray especially hard for her daughter that day!
We have also learned that our daughter is enjoying some really yummy high calorie milkshakes every day! Yes, the formula drive that so many of you GENEROUSLY donated to is in fact, helping our daughter gain weight and grown strong and healthy. WOW, again, how amazing that God used another one of my heart’s nudgings to help our baby girl.
I keep coming to that passage of Scripture in Matthew 6: 26
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
How much more valuable are we? I completely get it now. I get how you can love someone you have NEVER met. I get how you can long and cry and pray for someone who you have never hugged. I look at our baby girl all day long, pray for her little body that it will stay healthy. I pray for her spirit that she will be strong and know that this Mommy and Daddy, all the way around the world, are loving her and praying for her to come home soon!
Amen!
It’s official. Desta Grace Tensey is now a US Citizenship. It took a total of 5 minutes!
I was born in Jos, Nigeria many years ago. I spent the next nineteen years living in Liberia, Kenya and Ethiopia. This blog began as a way to chronicle the journey to getting our third daughter through adoption. I have found that since I began writing, this blog has become a place for community, support and a safe place to share about my LIFE.
CONGRATULATIONS!!! What a special day!! God had planned for sweet Desta to be yours from before she was born. How cool to have these plans confirmed by the authority of the courts.
That is one happy judge! Adoptions have to be the BEST part of any judge’s job.
Hugs and prayers,
Debi