Kaleigh's Story

My friend Kaleigh and I have never met in person, but have gotten to know each other well just the last few months.  Like me, her family has been blessed by adoption.  We have a special friend who has adopted as well as lost a child after a 31 day fight for her life in PICU (Pediatric ICU).  We are part of a group on Facebook, and it was not until later this year when our mutual friend had another daughter go into the hospital for surgery to reconstruct her head due to Hydrocephalus, and Kaleigh started a prayer chain.  This is Kaleigh's story:

Our adoption story began soon after New Year’s 2002 with an email.

Who knew that a simple email could change your life so completely?

It was about a baby girl.

The baby was teensy tiny having been born very prematurely. She was legally blind and had been abandoned soon after birth.

God in His goodness though had brought this baby to an absolutely INCREDIBLE orphanage. A Christian ministry called For His Children.

Soon after being taken to For His Children the baby began living with our friend’s pastor’s family as a foster baby.

And that was where our friend and the email came in. She said Every time she saw the baby “I think of you”.

My parents had a heart for adoption, but before that they had somehow never considered acting on it.

It is easy to understand, easy to have a heart for something yet never consider that maybe YOU should DO something about it.

But that one baby girl changed everything for us. We all knew immediately that we were called to DO something this time.

God clearly showed us that bringing her home to our family was His plan and purpose for us. (Jer. 29:11)

We started the adoption process right away. We didn’t have one cent of the extra thousands that it would cost. We knew NOTHING of how to adopt or even what all it entailed to bring a hurting special needs little one into our lives. We just knew He said it was His plan.

 Immediately when we got started we found out that Ecuador adoption was closing for a time. God worked a miracle and allowed us to completely finish the adoption process, travel and come back home in less than FOUR MONTHS!

For any of you who are familiar with adoption, you know how unheard of that is. God knew that our daughter and sister, Karissa needed to be home quickly!

Over the next years our Ecuadorian Princess taught us volumes about life and love and adoption. Through her my life is forever changed to KNOW what an incredible God-thing adoption is.

Never in my wildest dreams can I imagine what my life would be like without my only sister. The fact that she is adopted is special, the fact that she has special needs is a non-issue, but none of those “labels” that we could attach to her are a burden or a true part of WHO she is.

She is a 10 year old who loves her family, the color orange, reading (in Braille). She has a beautiful voice and gorgeous hair..

Through her story our family’s story has changed. It has become one of more love, more redemption, more ADOPTION.

That is a huge part of why our family is currently pursuing the adoption of two little girl’s in Ecuador.

Last year I felt called to visit Ecuador again (we all traveled as a family when Karissa was adopted). While I was there volunteering at an orphanage that has stolen my heart, God tapped me on the shoulder. He pointed to a little girl standing at an orphanage bedroom window and He whispered. “That’s your sister”.

Despite the months of unsurety that followed, with the knowledge that yet again we don’t have the ability financially, despite the process.

Despite ANYTHING we don’t understand, God said GO, so we are.

We are stepping out in faith to bring home two more siblings who both need a family to call their own.