and everyday i love you more.

i knew this person, and this person knew this person who knew this girl. the story was told to me because of the mutual "connector" that is honduras. as told before, i've been to honduras several times. i love it's place and it's people. my plans always take me back there. we will see... all that to say, there is this girl. a girl who dropped everything. and she went. she started a life in honduras. she started a family in honduras. this is her {morgan's} story:

q: adoption process... go!
a: the story of grace--- grace was given to me by her grandmother because she could not feed her and told me that "she could not have another baby die." grace's birth mother is only eighteen and she is dying of AIDS. i think it is so cool how the Lord had all of this worked out because what she didn't know is that at that time i was in honduras looking to find if i could stay. forever. if i could build my house there and raise orphans who would become my family. i thought it was where i was called, but i was just making sure. the grandmother had no clue about this, obviously. so i didn't really have much to think about it, it all just clicked into place. in a moment's time i knew this was my daughter and la moskitia {the orphanage} is where we would call home. adoption in honduras is very complicated. it's a very long process. last year only eleven children were adopted from the country, and no child has ever been adopted from la moskitia. the first step was getting grace a birth certificate. this was actually an easy process, but only by the Lord's grace! the next step was finding grace's birth-mom and getting her to sign all of the rights over. this is currently where i stand in the process. unfortunately, because of a number of reasons i was not able to meet with her when i was there this past december/january. however, in february {after i left} she decided it was what was best for grace. so she gave all of the legal rights of grace over to me. when i return to honduras in may i will finish up the paperwork. this paper work says that i am grace's legal guardians or "legal" MOM. this is an official adoption in honduras. however, she is still a honduran citizen not an american citizen. 

q: could you ever have imagined what loving grace would be like? 
a: no! i would have never thought i could love someone so much. i thought i would love her, but not like i do. its hard to explain but it's something that grows more everything i spend with her. i love every ounce of her body, every hair on her head, every laugh, every smile, and every tear. i simple can't get enough of her! most parents like a break from their kids sometimes, i haven't gotten there yet. when i get to be with her, i can not stand to be without her ever for an hour. 

q: what is your favorite memory of grace's life thus far?
a: my favorite memory would be just being able to see the changes in her life in the last six months. she was a baby who made no noise, didn't eat, and couldn't move to a baby. a baby that nurses told me not to get attached to because she "would not make it." she is now a healthy one year old who is full of love, she is never full, she sings, and she dances!

for more on morgan, grace, her family, her ministry, and this story go to her website, here.

where there is love, there is art.