Our Little Grace Paola

At the end of March we heard of a little tiny girl waiting for a family. After talking with the agency and much prayer we decided to accept the referral for our little Grace Paola on April 5, 2007. She had come to the home with some medical problems that could be resolved and had difficulty sucking. She was tiny 4# 15 oz., 4 days old and she had no hair. She was growing very slowly, some months hardly at all and so we would pray for her to grow and develop.

In June she was admitted to the hospital with dehydration due to an illness. Many people prayed for her. Grace and our family were blessed by the many people who lifted her to the Lord in prayer. She was in the hospital for 6 days and returned to the children's home. Still very delicate she improved a little at a time.

On July 7 Grace was admitted to the hospital due to illness, we received that phone call about 4 pm in the afternoon. They were unsure at that time what the problem was. Ken and I had a date that evening and had some great time together. We also had a very serious conversation about what our response would be if Grace did not recover. We feel that the Lord prepared us for the near future.

July 9 was the beginning of VBS (a great week, by the way). When we returned home that first day there was a message to call the agency. My first thought was this was not going to be good news. Grace Paola had gone home to be with the Lord between 10-10:30 am that day. She had had pneumonia, we were to find out later. Below I have posted the letter that we sent to our family and friends who had prayed so diligently for Grace, knowing that they would then lift our family in prayer as we grieved for Grace.

Hello friends,

We want to thank you for praying for little Grace and for our family lately. It is with sad hearts that we need to tell you that dear Grace went home to be with the Lord earlier today. She had been admitted to the hospital Saturday afternoon because she had stopped eating and was coughing. At this time we do not have any more details. When the call came from the Children's Home to our agency they were so upset that they could not relay the details to them.

We would like to share just a couple of thoughts with you. First, we know and are certain that the Lord is in control of all things. And we know that He loved Grace more perfectly than we would ever be capable of. We know that He has heard the prayers for this precious little one and that He answered it as He knew best. We prayed for healing and He has healed her and welcomed her into His loving arms.

The Lord was also preparing us. We have known for a while that her health was fragile. Just last night Ken and I spent some time out discussing how we would handle this very thing. We talked about how we would tell the children (we didn't have a well laid out plan for this), we talked about how we were learning from this experience about relying upon the Lord, and we talked about where we would go from here in the event Grace was not able to come home.

At this time, it is our plan to continue with an adoption from Eagle's Nest. The more we learn about the mission of Eagle's Nest the more excited we become about the work they do there for the orphans in Guatemala. Through this morning we were praying that Grace Paola would be able to come home to us. Tonight we are assured that she was welcomed into the arms of Jesus.

Again we ask for you to pray for our family as we grieve. Pray especially for our children as they come to understand this loss. There hearts are very welcoming and they were looking forward to Grace being a part of our family. Please pray also for the Mama's at Eagle's Nest as these ladies care so completely for these little ones, today their hearts are heavy.

Thank you for your care for Grace Paola and our family. Thank you so much for being an encouragement to us along this path. We trust that your lives have been blessed by praying for this precious little girl. We know that our lives were blessed by knowing her from a distance.