Our Story

This is the story of our dear precious Hannah Paulina and the miraculous adventure of her journey to our hearts and to our home.

Little did we know a year ago in the middle of fighting breast cancer that this dream would become a reality so quickly and so miraculously. After all we have gone through we are so incredibly grateful for this amazing blessing.

Having had such a wonderful experience adopting our two sons from Russia, Joey in 1999 and Daniel in 2001, we had dreampt about the possibility of going back for a third, this time a girl. In 2005 we began the lengthy paperwork and realized in the midst of it that it was looking more and more challenging to adopt from Russia again. After much prayer I sensed the Lord leading us to pursue an Asian country and settled on China. We quickly got all of our paperwork changed, approved and sent over when one week later, at a routine mammogram, a suspicious lump turned out to be cancer. We were in shock.

Throughout the surgery and treatments we began to question whether adopting again would even be an option for us. Throughout chemotherapy we really grieved the loss of a third child in our home and began to settle on enjoying the sweet family God had so blessed us with already.

But something kept us from completely closing that door and we continued to seek the Lord for His leading. In January, well after all treatments were over and fully recovering with an excellent prognosis, I attended a prayer conference where I received prayer on this topic. A pastor from the church who did not know me or my circumstances approached me and told me that the Lord had told her that we would have a child in three months.

Needless to say, we fervently began to seek the Lord in prayer and fasting for clear direction. In the midst of a three day fast in February we sensed that we were to change from China and pursue Russia again but were shortly deterred from that after hearing that Russia was soon to close down all adoptions for a period of time.

In the midst of searching for clear direction as to what to do, our social worker began to talk to us about Kyrgyzstan, a Central Asian country formerly a part of the Soviet Union. In March we met with our agency and soon began changing all of our paperwork again. It felt so providential being a former Russian country but also an Asian Country. It lined up with all that we had felt the Lord speaking to us about.

Bob and I continue to be in such awe of God's glory in the midst of this experience. What happened next is almost unheard of in international adoptions today. One month later, exactly three months after the prophetic word, we received a referral of a precious baby girl in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. It happened so fast our heads were spinning.

God's miraculous hand had reached down and brought together this sweet little orphan girl with a family who longed for a daughter to love, a sister to take care of, a baby to hold and our hearts are overwhelmed with gratitude!

More of this story later...