Our hope is in Him

We’ve been on a journey. Since long before we were married, we always new we wanted to adopt. In October 2007, we decided the time was right to begin the adoption. After taking too long to finish our home study, a 4 ½ month wait for our USCIS approval, and scrambling to finalize our paperwork we were ready to submit our dossier. In January 2009, we felt strongly that we needed to switch adoption agencies. On January 17th we partnered with our new adoption agency; on January 28th, less than 2 weeks later, we had a referral for Kennedy. She was 4 months old; we later found out that she weighed ~5 lbs and was severely malnourished. She was moved to another orphanage location, where she was better nourished and gained almost 4 pounds in two weeks. Since January, we were able to get 20 cans of formula delivered to the orphanage by parents traveling to pick up their children. On March 13th we received our first pictures of her. It was a few hours after Katie left for the weekend women’s retreat. We wanted to see the pictures of her together. Holy smokes; we had pictures, but couldn’t look at them for 2 days; we looked at the pictures on March 15th. On March 31st, Kennedy got sick and was taken to the hospital. It started with diarrhea then later was diagnosed with pneumonia. She wasn’t strong enough to fight this illness. On April 1st Kennedy passed away.

Shortly after we got a referral, Katie started writing letters to Kennedy. She had planned on giving these letters to Kennedy someday to help her know as much as she can about our journey to her. This past week, these letters have meant so much to us; we’ve read them often. Yesterday, Katie and I wrote a letter together to Kennedy that we wanted to share with you guys.

Our Dear Sweet Kennedy,

What a week this has been. We anxiously checked our email a million times a day hoping to get pictures or an update on how you are doing. Tuesday of last week we got new pictures of you. This was the fifth set of pictures we had gotten of you in the past few weeks and we were so excited. We love to stare at your pictures; you are so beautiful. Then on Wednesday, the very next day, we found out that you went to heaven to be with God. Our hearts are breaking continually.

We cannot express how much we love you. You are our beloved daughter. Our hearts are breaking because we wanted so much to bring you home; to hold you; to hug you; to care for you. There were so many things that we were looking forward to sharing with you; we wanted to watch you grow into an incredible young woman.

Our friends have been amazing; they all shared in our joy when we would hear something new about you and are so sad that you will not be home with us. They have comforted us and lifted us up in prayer. Today they are joining us in honoring you, our sweet girl.

You are our first daughter and you will always be part of our family. We love you with all our hearts. We know that you are in peace. We don’t know what heaven looks like, but we know that one day we will hug each other.

We love you.
Mommy and Daddy
xxoo

Our hearts were shattered by the loss of Kennedy, but we have no regrets. We always knew that God wanted us to grow our family through adoption. We know that He is calling us to adopt from Ethiopia. But through this process, God has broken our hearts for the people of Ethiopia. God has broken our hearts for what breaks His heart. He has planted in us a desire to fight malnourishment and fight for the lives of orphans in Ethiopia. We know that this fight begins by trying to get another orphan out of Ethiopia. On March 30th, our second daughter was born. We are going to do everything we can to bring her home.

Our journey continues. We have been deeply wounded, but have an incredible amount of hope. God has been with us throughout our journey; through the tremendous joys and tremendous sorrows. Our hope is in Him.