This post is dedicated to the millions of children around the world who are waiting for families of their own, and all those who have a heart for them.

Zoe is now 32 inches tall

Weight 26.7 pounds

I have been blessed with motherhood in two ways.  Both avenues are amazing and miraculous.   There is no thrill that comes close to meeting your child for the first time whether in a hospital room or at an orphanage somewhere across the world.   Your heart is transformed and you fall in love and know that you would do anything for this little life that you hold.   Genetics mean little.  There is no second best way to create a family.

Many adopted children have stories of unimaginable despair that would break the heart of the most hardened individuals, stories that illustrate the terrible injustices heaped upon the young around the world.  The forces of fate that bring adoptive parents and their children together might just as easily have passed them by.  It is an unbearable truth that parents feel when we kiss our dear children good night and hold them tight against pain and sadness.  These precious gifts were once so close to the suffering we watch nightly on the news-the earthquakes, the poverty and the disease.   The thought can be overwhelming for these children are such a huge part of our lives and could just as easily be facing a life with little hope.  Gieseke

As I look at precious Zoe's little eyes sadly staring at an unknown person behind a camera, my heart aches to bring her into my arms to rescue her at this very moment from the world that has been hers for the past 26 months.   I tell myself it is not fair that she must wait for us.   And yet she will be soon in our arms and wrapped in our love.  What, I ask myself, of the others that we will leave behind?   I pray that maybe one person who reads this will be the next to take God's plan to heart.   

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.  I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?

 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' Matthew 25:34