A Miracle Named Grace

Two of the biggest miracles in my life are named GRACE. 

A year and a half ago, on a very hot North Carolina afternoon, I was on the highway bringing our massive dossier of documents to our adoption agency.  If you know anything about international adoption, you know it is often called a "paperwork pregnancy."

As I drove, I prayed over the dossier.  "God, show me the way to our children."  Suddenly, the Holy Spirit FELL in my car.  Time suspended, "Jesus took the wheel", and instead of the interstate before me, I was seeing a VIVID VISION.  But, it was not of my children.  Instead, God showed me a little African girl running in my friend's yard. She looked about 8 or 9.  She was wearing an old fashioned pink dress, the kind that little girls wore a few decades ago.  Laughing and playing, she was enjoying the home, hugging my friend, and being loved by my friend's elderly mother.

Now this may not sound that unusual, except that this friend of mine is single and has no children.  She spends her time in an awesome career and caring for her mother.  And in all the years we have known each other, we have NEVER discussed anything related to her and adoption.  

This vision of the child in the pink dress was so vivid, every time I thought of it, I wept.  My amazing friend and her sweet Mom and this beautiful little girl... 

But, I said nothing.

Months later, as I was packing to leave for Uganda to meet our kids, I had all but forgotten that vision, and suddenly, it was back.  Along with this:  God said to me "Her name is Grace, as a reminder of my Grace for her mother's life."  My friend has had a very hard life, and has overcome many terrible trials, but she has found her way to the Lord.  God has poured out so much Grace on her life.  Grace.  "That is her name", He said.

Still, I said nothing to my friend.

I arrive at the orphanage in Uganda and am caught in a whirlwind of meeting my beautiful children.   They live in a sea of blue.  Their 600 friends each own one blue uniform issued by orphanage, and some "sleeping clothes."

One evening, I was talking with the director, Jalia, an amazing woman.  Here she is issuing these very blue uniforms. 

And I suddenly felt compelled to ask her about a girl named Grace.  "Jalia, please don't think I'm crazy" I begin.  I tell the story quickly, leaving out the detail about the pink dress.  "Jalia, is there possibly a child here named Grace?" Jalia smiles lovingly and says "Yes, there are two.  I will bring them at bedtime."

Later that night, I am summoned to the kitchen to meet the girls named Grace.  The first girl strides boldly thru the door in her blue uniform, shakes my hand, and says "Hello Ma'am, I am Grace."    She looks like every other adorable African child.  I think to myself  "What am I doing...I must be out of my mind!"  Suddenly, the other Grace creeps into the room.  She is terrified and ashen to be forced to meet me.  I take one look at her and my knees buckle and I fall to the ground.  I am speechless and tears pour down my cheeks.  SHE IS WEARING THE PINK DRESS.  The SAME pink dress. 

How in the world did this child get this dress? When I collect myself enough to tell Jalia why I am overcome, she looks at me in awe-struck wonder and says matter-of-factly, "It's a miracle."

Needless to say, when I returned home from Uganda, I had an important story to tell my friend.  And here is what my blond, blue-eyed friend confessed to me with tears in her eyes:  "All my life, I have had a vision of a daughter with brown eyes.  I have never told anyone except my mother."

The first time I heard a sermon preached on Grace I was 35 years old.  I had lived 35 years and did not know anything about God's Grace.  I didn't know I was forgiven.  I didn't know I was loved.  I didn't know there was nothing I could do to earn or destroy His love for me.  That sermon changed my life...that day was my first miracle of Grace.

But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

2 Corinthians 12:9

Next month I will return to Uganda, and I will see Grace in the pink dress.  My friend has been praying about her, praying about whether she can adopt.  And I pray too...that one day, Grace will be running in her yard-- home, happy and enjoying God's grace.