We first began our journey to adopt when friends of ours adopted,
and we began to prayerfully consider this for ourselves. As we began to pray
& ask God, we began to feel that God was indeed asking us to open our home
to more children. We have 3 biological children, Kyle, 16 yrs, Katie, 13 yrs
and Kolton is 9. We began to pursue the adoption of ONE little girl, age 3-6.
But God had other plans. We saw sisters on a web site and fell in love with
them, they were ages 8 & 9. We received a confirming call from our friend
who had no idea that we even saw these girls and asked us about them specifically.
We began the adoption of these sisters. We were told that these girls were the
youngest of 7 children and were given up due to severe poverty. The adoption
was going well. As I prayed for the girls during the process, I felt that God
was telling me that there was another younger sister. I called the agency and
was told that "no" these girls are the youngest. O.K. no problem .
. . where did that come from God????
About a week later, I hear from the agency that "yes"
there is another little "child" but the child is not up for adoption.
Fine with us. We only wanted one and now we have two!
The adoption for the girls was 3/4 the way through when we were asked whether
we would consider adopting a 3rd little sister? She was 5. Well, how could we
say no when God had already prepared us and told us about her. Of course, we
began the adoption of their little sister.
We brought the older two girls home on Sept. 30, 2004 and
we brought their little sister home on April 20, 2005! We want to sincerely
thank A Child Waits for their financial
help. That help came just when we needed to send final payment for the older
2 girls and the beginning payment for the youngest one. God knows our every
need and takes care of all that he asks us to do. He is so... good.
The girls have adjusted wonderfully! I had read many, many stories of issues
and problems that we could encounter and we really have not had ANY of these
problems. These girls are very happy, intelligent, love sports, have many friends,
are outgoing, have great voices. Need I go on..? Our children have adjusted
great to having more siblings. Katie just LOVES having sisters. She is always
playing with them and being a "big sister". Kolton has really enjoyed
having playmates in sports. The girls English has happened so rapidly that in
6 months they are almost totally English speaking.
What a joy it is to see the excitement and joy of a child over the very simple
pleasures that we enjoy and take for granted. Yesterday, I bought a dozen helium
balloons for our oldest adopted child for her birthday and you would have thought
that I gave her a million dollars by the smile on her face. She had never had
a helium balloon before!
Thank you "A Child Waits Foundation"
for this opportunity to share our story of what God can do. We wouldn't have
missed these blessings for the world!
Sincerely,
Daryl & Joyce Gelnett (written by Joyce)