After about a year of trying to have a baby, Stephanie and her husband were unable to get pregnant. They looked into adoption but found the process would take longer than expected. Then they met Michelle!
Stephanie and her husband asked God for a family, and He answered their prayer in an unexpected way.
“God took 20 years to carefully write this adoption story, which is the story of our family, and we have the certainty that He chose it for us. Michelle was chosen for us, just as we were chosen for her.”
After about a year of trying to have a baby, Stephanie and her husband were unable to get pregnant. They looked into adoption but found the process would take longer than expected.
“But because of the way the Lord works, the following year I got pregnant. I had my first daughter, and three years later I had my second child.”
Their prayers were answered as they cared for two children, but adoption was still lingering in their minds.
“I told my husband, calm down, I'm going to pray. What I am going to do is I am going to ask the Lord that the person He chooses for us comes to us. I remember telling the Lord that it was important to us that He chose, because they were going to be that person who needed our help and that we also needed that person.”
The Adventist church in Limón, Costa Rica, is connected with the needs of its community. Each week, Stephanie and other volunteers visit a local orphanage to hold programs and Bible studies for kids who are interested. More than 100 children live here.
Dozens of children and caregivers attend the programs and worship services. Church members are paired up and assigned to visit a specific house in the orphanage.
“A friend of mine and I got house number seven. When we were giving Bible studies in that house number seven, I noticed that there was a girl who was very attached to me. She was the one who carried my bag, she always met me at the gate and took me to her house and she paid a lot of attention to Bible studies.”
“So, that was how I got to know the Adventist movement. That's how I fell more in love with who I am now, an Adventist.”
“I was baptized and I remember one day I told her, why doesn't she adopt me? I said it, that is, it was something very spontaneous.”
“But I said, Ok, it seems to me an answered prayer because we had said that the person that the Lord chose had to come to us. And indeed, this girl came to us and asked me to adopt her.”
Over time, Michelle went to live with Stephanie and eventually completed the official adoption process. Today, Michelle is studying nursing at Central America Adventist University in Costa Rica. She is close with her family.
Unfortunately, Michelle is one of the few from the orphanage who are adopted. Those who aren’t, have to leave the orphanage when they turn 18 and enter a new harsh reality.
“So, I feel that this is the reality that many young people live there, they get depressed. Sometimes they don't see the meaning of life and it's because, honestly, they don't see that light that every young person would need.”
This quarter, a portion of your 13th Sabbath Offering will help build a center where these young adults can go when they turn 18. This center will provide a safe place for them to stay while they learn skills to find jobs and become a contributing member of society, rather than turning to drugs and other alternatives.
“Those kinds of people, even if they don't show it, need a lot of love, a lot of appreciation, a lot of understanding.”
Please pray for the children and young people in Limón, Costa Rica. Thank you for contributing to this offering that will make a difference in so many lives.
