Hope, Faith, Fear, and Memory

I remember the first time I ever heard about Reece's Rainbow. Ever. A girl named Lydia Hollis was raising thousands of Dollars in mere days, to bring home a little girl from Ukraine with Down Syndrome. In  a mere 9 days, Lydia had raised $25,000. That was 5,000 over what her family needed to adopt. So what did they do with that extra 5k? Well, like any good Christian Family would do, they gave it. Gave it to another family desperately yearning to adopt. The Hook Family. That extra $5,000 has changed the Hook Family's lives, its changed my life, but above all, it's affected one little girl:

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Eva Noel "Evan" Hook. This little girl has had one of the most steadfast families in the world fighting to bring her home. Her adoption is what introduced me to her amazing family, and over the last year, I've had the privilege of getting to know them. They are an amazingly faith-filled, loving family who just want their little girl, plain and simple. They aren't asking for a mountain to be moved- at least not in the physical sense.

The Judge and/or prosecutor they face turned away another family looking to adopt a little boy with Special Needs. They have been hurt in the past year by the shocking choice of an American mother to send her Russian son (from that region) BACK when she felt too overwhelmed with his "issues." Besides that,  the stigma against Special Needs in Eastern Europe is VERY high. In some ways, Communist ideas still hang in the air where they once ruled the streets. But the Hooks (along with the Davis and the Moreno families, also adopting from this region) have persisted on, and in about T-minus an hour from when I type this, they will be fully immersed in the fight for their lives as they want them, with Evan's days in the orphanage being numbered, not because of the all-feared transfer, but because her mommy and daddy are bringing her home.

So if you are up reading this and praying at 1 or 2 in the morning, PRAY, and if you read this in the morning,
PRAY for whatever the verdict was. If, Godwilling, they are indeed cleared to take home their little girl, pray for a speedy return home. No matter what, pray we can all SEE GOD through all this. I have hope, I have fear, but most importantly, I have the will to TRUST God will come through in this.

God in Heaven above, we pray to you as the years have turned into months, months into weeks, weeks into hours, hours into minutes, minutes into seconds, seconds into the moment of truth. Help us to SEE your Face in whatever happens, and that you are in control, and hold our hearts. We pray for this, not only because this family has answered your call to care for the widows and orphans, but because they could be the people that open the door wider for MORE of this amazing work of mercy to happen through other families. We pray all of this, in your name, Amen.