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A Precious Gift Arrives
By Kerry Pipes
What a magical moment when God and His angels
first brought Ella Johanna into our lives! How could you resist
those beautiful big brown eyes or her tender face and huge, warm smile?
Her smile lights up a room and every person in it. She is a ray of
sunshine and hope, and she traveled over 20 hours by airplane from
halfway around the world to brighten our lives. For my wife and I,
she is the most precious bundle of joy we have ever received.
"How can a person experience this much excitement, joy, pleasure,
happiness, genuine fulfillment and peace?" I asked myself.
"Is this what every parent feels? Surely no one's experience
of becoming a parent could come close to mine," I thought.
"After all Ella is the most perfect little girl ever created by God
and she has been specially placed in our family."
Last night after we brought Ella home, I could not sleep. I felt
like I used to feel as a small boy trying to sleep on Christmas Eve
while eagerly anticipating all the gifts to be opened on Christmas
morning. I realized that Ella had already become better than all
of those anxiously anticipated Christmas gifts combined. She is,
to me, the incomparable Christmas gift that I will receive each year for
the rest of my life. My desire is to cherish each memory with Ella
and to create more of them every day of her life. God has truly
blessed our family and I praise Him from the bottom of my heart!
(Kerry and Beth Pipes live in Fort Worth, TX, and have adopted two
daughters from India through Dillon International. Kerry wrote
this in honor of his first daughter's homecoming in August 1997.)
- By Patricia Carberry
I was an only child. For some
reason it never occurred to me that I should have brothers and sisters,
or did I ever miss not having them. I was a happy child never feeling
deprived of anything. Since I was the center of my parent’s devotion I
was a contented child, happy with my life.
My earliest memories are of being
kissed and hugged. I remember my Mama’s soft, sweet fragrance. She
smelled like "cashmere bouquet", the talcum powder she liked
to use.
Perhaps somewhere in the back of
my young mind I understood I was an adopted child and as such would not
have brothers and sisters. When I was about 6 years old my friend Patsy
informed me one day that I was adopted. I began to cry and my friend
Billy T. G. rode me home on his bicycle. My mother took me on her lap
and held me as I cried, while telling her what had happened.
She asked if it would make any
difference to me and I said, "uh huh". In other word, yes it
would. She didn’t respond but just continued to hold me and hug me, so
I knew is was true. She never confirmed or denied it and my father never
spoke of it to his dying day.
As far as they were concerned I
was theirs and later my mother would tell me she couldn’t believe I
didn’t actually come out of her body. I was 10 days old when my mama
and daddy got me.
A Later Revelation
One day, after I had married and
had a family of my own, I was at my kitchen door getting ready to go
somewhere. All at once I paused and I said, "Lord, I just want to
thank you for all you’ve given to me. I thank you for my adoption. I
thank you that you had a home waiting for me and parents waiting for me
before I was ever even conceived.
(My parents had applied for me a
year before they got me.)
All of a sudden the Lord spoke to
my heart. It was almost audible. The Lord said, "I had a home
waiting for you 2,000 years ago." I said, "Lord,
that’s right. I’ve been adopted twice. Thank you, Lord, for my two
adoptions – one into my earthly home and family and one into your
family as your child. I thank you, my Father, for your goodness and
kindness and your mercy.
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