Some dear friends of ours recently hosted an 11 year old girl named Anlly from Colombia at their home for three weeks. Anlly needs a family, and our friends prayed that God would find her a family while she was here. Our friends and Darrell and I advocated HARD for her. Our friends introduced her to just about everyone they knew in search of a family for her.
Darrell and I invited her to the Spanish-speaking Sunday school class recently started at our church. Our wonderful friends who lead the class adopted a boy from Colombia a couple of years ago and welcomed Anlly with open arms, as did our entire congregation. Our church's larger campus has a Hispanic ministry called Casa de Vida, so the next week the pastor there introduced Anlly to the congregation and allowed her Spanish-speaking guide to talk to the congregation about adoption. A week or so later Anlly boarded a plane to Colombia--this past Friday as a matter of fact--and many tears were shed.
Where am I going with this, you may ask? We all prayed for this child. We prayed HARD. We cooked this child a Colombian meal, and our friends invited us to spend time with her on numerous occasions over a breakfast, a lunch and finally even a pedicure! Through all of this, God finally opened our eyes and told us: YOU ARE HER FAMILY.
Please pray for us, because Monday we begin the paper chase to try to adopt Anlly. Which is why we told her "Hasta Luego", or see you later. No goodbyes. And God willing we will get to her quickly and bring her home before next Christmas.
