Every Thanksgiving, I pause to remember a little boy from Guatemala who stole my heart and the parents who never gave up on him.
I spent nearly eleven years working in international and domestic adoption and humanitarian aid—a decade filled with a rollercoaster of emotions: joy, tears, hope, anxiety, fear, and despair.
There is one adoption that continues to astonish me to this day, where I saw God’s presence and His hand at work in ways I never could have imagined. I witnessed the unconditional love of two people, Cheryl and Steve Wood, who never quit fighting to bring their child home.
At first, the parents had hoped for a little girl, but there were none available. It’s hard to imagine a “shortage” of baby girls, but that was the case. Looking back, I see how God protected us from seeing the truth.
Four baby girls became available just minutes after this family agreed to adopt a healthy 2-day-old baby boy with the most beautiful lips we had ever seen.
When I told Cheryl about the baby girls, she firmly said “No!”—her voice strong and sure, like a woman in the delivery room. She knew, without a doubt, that this baby boy, whom they would call “Grayson” was meant to be hers. And from the moment I saw him, I knew he was special too.
The adoption process moved smoothly at first—everything seemed to be falling into place. The family traveled frequently to visit their son.
All the paperwork was as it should be—the parents were happy, the Guatemalan government was happy, and U.S. immigration was on board. I honestly believed the only real obstacle to this adoption was Cheryl’s initial reluctance to accept a boy.
Then, somewhere between the fourth and fifth month, when we were just days away from the final, expected signature from the birth mother, everything changed. She disappeared without a trace. All of our investigations showed she had intended to leave no trail. It was as though she had never existed. What should have been a simple adoption turned into a two-year battle, full of court struggles and mounting expenses. The process of bringing this boy home to his parents in the United States suddenly became a nightmare.
Courage often comes when we least expect it. Sometimes, God places us in situations we can’t understand, whether it’s the result of our actions or the consequences of someone else’s mistakes.
We go through trials for reasons that may never make sense. Grayson’s mom and dad had grit I’d never seen before. It was perseverance that could only be divinely directed and they were not giving up.
We worked relentlessly for two long years to complete the abandonment process. The Wood family continued to visit their sweet boy each month. We were days away from winning the case and finally bringing the paperwork to the U.S. Embassy.
Then, I received a call from a team member: “We found her.” We all knew exactly who “her” was—the woman we had spent two years searching for. We’d fought the Guatemalan government, the court system, and the records bureau. My breath caught in my throat.
“She’s sitting in my office now,” the attorney whispered.
I had just made an impromptu trip to Guatemala that weekend, bringing my children with me to get away from the stresses at home. It was a moment of unexpected opportunity, but I was terrified.
Her reappearance could undo everything we had worked for. What if she had decided she wanted her son back? What if she would disrupt everything again? Her motives were unclear.
My children and I walked from our apartment in Guatemala City a few blocks to the office, praying along the way. They had grown to love this boy, now a toddler, as much as his parents and I had.
When I entered the office, I immediately noticed her lips—full and beautiful, just like his. My heart sank as I knew she was his birth mother. As we sat and I listened to her story, I felt God’s gentle presence with me. She had come because she was no longer running. She had come to do what was right and to sign over the child she had given birth to, to the parents who were his rightful family.
I keep a victory list in my mind and on paper. When I’m overwhelmed and feel like I’m drowning in defeat, I recall the triumphs of my God. I speak aloud the miracles He has performed, even in the darkest of times. When everything seemed hopeless and beyond repair, I remember the baby boy with beautiful lips, born in Guatemala, and the parents who never gave up on him.
He arrived at the Atlanta airport to a crowd of support just days before Thanksgiving, and at 2 years old, he had won the lottery with his parents who never gave up on him, in a new country, and in the love of a birth mom who knew his life would be better.
Grayson grew up well. In May, he graduated from high school with honors, and today, he’s attending college at the University of North Georgia.
