By Alej Diaz
Around here, we love happy endings. Take the note we received recently from Kim and Dave, a couple who took their son home in 2004. Though born three weeks prematurely and suffering from neo-natal pneumonia, today Stephen is a thriving first-grader and active in their church’s Awanas program.
“The loving care our son received from the staff was second to none,” Kim says.
“I am sure it played a huge role in his easy transition into our family. Stephen thinks it’s really cool that Heather and the staff at Dorie’s Promise are taking such good care of all those children, just like they took care of him.”
Residents of the Midwest, Dave is an athletic director, coach and teacher at a Christian school. Kim became the office manager for a landscape design firm after spending the first few years of their son’s life at home.
They prayed for 14 years about becoming parents. Ironically, when they started researching adoption, Latin America was not even on their radar screen. Obviously, God had other plans—and the couple is glad they listened.
When starting the process, they were told not to expect to see their son in person until he was between 12 and 18 months old. That broke Kim’s heart; she had held all her nephews when they just hours old and wouldn’t get to do the same with her child. However, they were one of the first families allowed to visit a child soon after birth, prior to his adoption.
The finalization went extremely fast, Kim says. Stephen came home at 4½ months of age, which she calls “practically unheard of” in the world of international adoption.
“I think our compassionate, gracious God knew we’d waited long enough,” Kim says.
A fact she calls “really cool” is that after 14 years of praying to become parents, it only took 14 months of paperwork submission—including 14 weeks in family court—until they arrived home with their baby. Kim doesn’t think that was coincidental.
Although the couple hasn’t been able to return to Guatemala, they hope to as soon as their schedules and finances allow. Kim’s fondest memories are seeing the Special Mothers’ loving care for the children and the home’s well-kept, homey atmosphere.
Naturally, her favorite recollection lives with them.
“There are no words to even come close to describing what a blessing Stephen has been in our lives,” Kim says. “He is an absolutely beautiful, amazing child—loving, compassionate and very funny. He completes our family in the most perfect way.”
Though it is always hard to see our children leave, it warms our hearts when they end up
in a good home.