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answered prayer
This has been a long time in coming……
Most people don’t know that I was married once before I married Roger. I was 18, young, foolish and, quite honestly, in complete and total rebellion towards my parents and authority in general. As you can imagine, the marriage didn’t work out so well and ended in divorce. I won’t bash on my ex-husband, and conflicts always have many sides, but the straw that broke the camel’s back for me was when I discovered he was involved in his fifth extra-marital affair. At that point I really felt it was time to acknowledge the marriage had some serious problems ~ problems that he was not willing to fix.
About a week after I left that marriage, I found out I was pregnant. I don’t know that words can adequately describe the emotional flood and turmoil I experienced. It’s a very long story ~ but in the end, it was decided that adoption would be best for the child. It was absolutely the most difficult thing I have ever done.
On August 22, 1988, I gave birth to an amazing, perfect, beautiful little girl. I spent a couple of days in the hospital with her, then had to give her over to the attorney who was handling the adoption. I sobbed nonstop for 3 days. And I mean sobbed ~ it was awful.
I have always wanted to know where she was, how she was, who she was ~ but I thought finding her would be very difficult. Recently Roger began urging me to find my daughter ~ she’s 19 years old now, and Roger knows how much I’ve wanted to find her.
I did a quick search on Google on adoption, and found an article on About.com that explained about “search angels”. Search Angels are people who have access to birth records, and will do a search for you to help you find your child you released for adoption. I contacted a couple of Search Angels who have the birth records for Ohio and asked if they could help me find my daughter.
Within hours, I knew my daughter’s adopted name ~ Ashley ~ who adopted her, where she grew up, and I even had a means of getting in touch with her. Wow. I was amazed at how easy it was…..
I fretted over contacting her, because obviously I didn’t really know anything about her situation or how she would feel if I contacted her. But I went ahead and sent her a message, praying that whatever her reaction would be, I would handle it well and that the Lord’s hand would guide me.
I decided to set up a MySpace page, since I was trying to contact Ashley through her MySpace page. While I was online, I noticed that one of Ashley’s friends, Maggie, was online. So, I sent Maggie an IM asking if she knew how I could get in touch with Ashley.
Once I assured and convinced Maggie I wasn’t some wacky nutjob, she agreed to try to get ahold of Ashley and let her know I was looking for her. Maggie and Ashley have been best friends since they were 5 years old ~ God worked this whole thing out so amazingly well!
Within 30 minutes of my last IM with Maggie, I had a message waiting for me from Ashley. She gave me her phone number and asked me to call her. She was as excited about being found as I was about finding her!
I can’t even begin to describe how it feels to have finally found my daughter. And guess what ~ I’m going to be a grandma in July! LOL Can you believe that?! When Ashley told me she’s pregnant I was beyond overjoyed; I’m getting a two-for-one deal here! LOL
Here’s a picture of Ashley…….
Anyway, thank you all for praying about my unspoken request. If you would, please lift up Ashley, the baby, her fiancee Jake, and the rest of us in your prayers. This is such an amazing time for us!
P.S. If I seem to be very straight forward about this, it’s only because I’m trying to not jump out of my skin and run around yelling and jumping for joy! Truly, the past 24 hours have been so amazing……
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13 Joyful Comments Shared to “answered prayer”
Your joyful comment
I decided to run over here and see what you were so excited about in your email, Trish.
My apple cobbler can burn, this is such exciting news. LOL
I admire your transparency and I know everyone else will too. I can’t imagine how difficult the decision you made back then was, but I’m so glad it’s turned out this way.
CONGRATULATIONS! You are going to love being a Nana.
And yes ma’am. I’ll mail the pattern for that beautiful baby afghan to you on Monday.
Hi–
I found your journal via someone else’s and wanted to let you know that I loved ready your entry today. I am adopted also and was able to reconnect with my birth mother about 14 years ago. She has been such a blessing in my life and I am so glad we were able to reconnect (but also very grateful at the sacrifice she made for me). She is a great grandma to my little girl who is doubly spoiled cause she has three grandmas!
God bless as you grow with this relationship!
Janis
Trish…this is so amazing! I am crying tears of joy right now. So excited for you and Ashley, and yes, I’ll be praying!
Thank you for sharing this. I can’t wait to see how God is going to finish this story.
Trish,
As I read your post I was just so blessed. What a brave heart you have to make such a difficult decision and then wait for God to fulfill the longing of your heart.
God prompted me to write on my blog about longings fulfilled, hope deferred this week. After reading your post, it blessed me to see yet more evidence of the wait, the hope deferred, the tree of life that comes when the longing is fulfilled.
I am glad a longing has been fulfilled, a tree of
life….
Your daughter is beautiful!
Many blessings,
Julie
Trish,
This is an amazing story. I am continuing to pray for you in this situation…
Many blessings~
trish
It has to feel good to be real and honest, and look at what God has brought about. A beautiful daughter out there, and she seems very open to a relationship with you, and you get a grandchild to boot! God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good! Rejoicing with you.xoxo
Wow Trish what an awesome God and how he worked out all the details!!! This is so exciting. She is so beautiful. Praise God.
I’m in tears. God is so good. Look at your adorable daughter. Trish – she LOOKS A LOT LIKE YOU. As I scrolled by to get to the last post I’d read I thought it was one of your younger photos again.
I’ll certainly be praying for you all…and for that new little grandbaby on the way.
I’m in tears. God is so good. Look at your adorable daughter. Trish – she LOOKS A LOT LIKE YOU. As I scrolled by to get to the last post I’d read I thought it was one of your younger photos again.
I’ll certainly be praying for you all…and for that new little grandbaby on the way.
Thank you, ladies. Your kind words mean more to me than I’m able to express.
De’Etta, you’re right ~ she does look a lot like me. So much so that there’s no need for either of us to petition the courts in Ohio to unseal the adoption records. There’s no way Ashley isn’t my daughter ~ she the spitting image of me. Not only in looks, but in personality as well.
I keep looking at Roger and saying, “I’m going to be a grandma!!” LOL I asked Ashley if I could be Nana and she said, “Of course you can!” That made me burst into tears.
Oh Trish, that is so amazing! Isn’t God good!!!!! She is beautiful! Have fun renewing your relationship with that sweet “baby” girl!
Wow! What an amazing post! May you all be blessed in your new relationship!
Trish, your post touched me. I was an adopted child. My adopted parents both had died by the time I was 17. At 18, I searched for, and found, my birth mother and 3 years later, my biological father found me. I have wonderful relationships with my mother and father. God is so good.
I’m rejoicing with you. Congratulations. Times two!