I received a letter yesterday from a young lady. I first met her 2 days after she was born in a small office in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Her birth mother needed to surrender her for many reasons but mostly because she had no ability to care for her. At the time, I worked in international adoption and this was part of my job.
Her dark curly hair and deep red lips attracted me as I slipped my pinky finger into her hand. Tiny nails, tiny ears, ten toes, and a birth mark on her right shoulder all written down on a piece of paper as her birth mom looked on.
The intake application was completed and signed and with the whisk of a pen, she no longer belonged to her birth mom. I remember the attorney picked up the phone to call one of our foster moms and within 30 minutes the plans had begun.
“So Ms. Nora, I hope you can come. It’s Nationals! Can you believe I’ve made it?”
Little did she know, that day in the attorney’s office, a plan was set in motion. A plan I couldn’t see or her birth mom or her soon to be new mom and dad or anyone; but, God could see it clearly. As her birth mother placed her in my arms, little could this baby know we had her best interests at heart. We wanted her to have a good life, filled with opportunity and hope.
Our lives are very much like that with God. Even before we are born, He has plans for us. He has opportunities for us. He has hope in our lives to fulfill His dreams for our lives. It’s hard to understand the balance of it all. The pain of her birth mother – the pain of infertility in her future parents – the loss – the suffering of so many – the hardships of governmental paperwork – the agony of adoption – and yet, from it all, she has grown. Now, an incredible athlete, lover of the Lord, educated young lady, who would ever know the pain of getting her to where she was now except the people who lived it – including me.
Her closing line in her letter to me sums it all up, “I have a quote which I think you’ll really like. I know you like this kind of thing but I have it up in my room so its the first thing I see in the morning. ‘Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.’ Helen Keller said it. ”
Success comes when we use our trials and sufferings not to pull us down but to pull us up. – Nora Almazan.
