The above photo gets me every time. First of all, there’s a miracle girl in this photo (Lyla, the princess who has a heart condition and Down syndrome) who has a story similar to our Chrissie’s. Secondly, the radiant momma who is holding Lyla is wearing her Boss Your Heart shirt, in memory of Chrissie. The significance of this shirt on this day and the details of God making this Summer’s only wardrobe option (Summer’s luggage was lost along her journey to Ukraine, but she had packed this shirt in her carry-on) just completely blows me away. Seeing Lyla physically touching the very handprint of Chrissie (which is in the center of the heart on Summer’s Boss Your Heart shirt) brings me to tears. This is much deeper than I would have ever fathomed. I can “see” and feel Chrissie in this photo, and it reminds me of what God shared with me shortly after Chrissie went to live with Him in heaven. Beauty from ashes indeed. Summer’s the one who actually held Conner and Cooper in December 2011 when we committed to adopting them when Vlad and Dima’s adoption fell through. She emailed me priceless photos of our sons before we even got to meet them. Another testimony to add to our God Nods.
You may recall back from THIS post, when I asked you all to pray for Little Lyla, a treasured miracle princess with Down syndrome. Well, if you’ll go check out THIS blog (which is entitled Lucky to Love Lyla), you’ll see that Lyla’s family is in Ukraine right now loving on their miracle daughter for the very first time as they are in the final process of bringing Lyla home. I urge you to sing praises to our Lamb with me and pray for Him to keep Lyla stable and get her home in Godspeed!
I met Summer in Ukraine in January of this year when she was adopting Gavin (who also has Down syndrome) from the exact same groupa (group/.room) in the same orphanage as our Conner and Cooper. Summer tells the story HERE of how God worked miracles to connect her back to Lyla, the very princess she committed to adopt over two years ago! However, Lyla has a heart condition and was too ill to be adopted two years ago when Summer was ready to go get her. So, over the past two years, through their pursuit to adopt Lyla, God has brought two other Eastern European former orphans with Down syndrome into Summer’s family, and now it’s LYLA’S turn!!!
Lyla is currently well enough to be adopted, Summer and her husband are in Ukraine following the steps to bring Lyla home, but they need your prayers. Please pray that Lyla would be stable in her health, and that the adoption would be processed with Godspeed so that Lyla can fly home as quickly as possible. Lyla is in the same orphanage that our Conner and Cooper were in, but she’s in a different room/groupa (she looks so much healthier than our guys in terms of her size/weight). This region takes a minimum of a month and doesn’t waive the mandatory 10-day waiting period after court, but God is able to do abundantly more than our earthly brains can fathom, and He already has. Just seeing Lyla in the arms of her forever family is proof of that!
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