Tenderly Waiting

God Hears Her Podcast

Episode 161 – Tenderly Waiting

Eryn Eddy Adkins & Vivian Mabuni with Rochelle Traub

Rochelle: And I was pounding that gym floor, running and running and running. I’m like, God, what is going on?

Eryn: Yeah.

Rochelle: Like open arms ready for this.

Vivian: Right.

Rochelle: Why? Why are you taking so long? I am tired of it.

Eryn: Right.

Rochelle: Probably the boldest I have ever been with Him in…in my life. And of course, He puts me to shame bec…in a beautiful loving way. Because I go find my phone after the run, and I have a call. And it’s our social worker saying, “You’ve been matched with your child.”

Voice: You’re listening to God Hears Her, a podcast for women where we explore the stunning truth that God hears you, He sees you, and He loves you because you are His. Find out how these realities free you today on God Hears Her. 

Vivian: Hey, everyone, welcome to God Hears Her. I’m Vivian Mabuni.

Eryn: And I’m Eryn Eddy Adkins. Can you think of a time where God specifically called you to something? Have you had any moments like that?

Vivian: Our guest today felt a specific calling to adopt a child, but her husband didn’t feel the calling. And Rochelle was in a season of waiting for years.

Eryn: Rochelle Traub is the director of Marketing Communications at Our Daily Bread Ministries. She loves connecting with people and interacting with her friends. She has a spontaneous and bubbly soul, thankful for God’s goodness in her life.

Vivian: Let’s start this God Hears Her conversation by asking Rochelle, where did you grow up?

Rochelle: Well, I grew up in Kansas and still am a Kansas girl at heart, moved to Michigan for college and met my husband there. And so we have been married for 31 years. He’s my best friend and love him dearly. He knows me inside and out. Only God knows me better.

[laughter]

Rochelle: So very blessed with that marriage. And we have three children—two biological, which are twins actually, boy-girl twins: Aspen and Sierra. They are 24 years old. And then my little adopted daughter from China, she just turned 15.

Vivian: Wow.

Rochelle: And we love to do things together, do the family thing, and go skiing and just have a lot of fun. There is a lot of laughter in our family.

Vivian: That’s great.

Eryn: How old were you when you started having a heart for adoption?

Rochelle: I would say…I’m gonna back up a little bit. When I was in seventh grade, I had a paper route.

And I ended up spon…using some of that money to sponsor a child when I was in seventh grade. We still sponsor children, by the way. We’ve been doing it for 40 plus years now. Then started doing mission trips when I was college age.

Eryn: Right.

Rochelle: And that’s when I got to travel and then see that firsthand. I actually got to meet one of my sponsored children that I was sponsoring at the time on one of those mission trips.

Eryn: [inaudible]

Rochelle: And that was…that was very special, yeah.

Vivian: Wow. Well, tell us a little bit about just your relationship with your husband and what caused you to move in the direction of adoption.

Rochelle: Okay, marriage is never easy. Let me start there. Marriage is never easy.

Vivian: We will all say amen.

Eryn: Yeah, amen.

Rochelle: But as far as it can be easy, we’ve been blessed with a good relationship. You know, we learned from our parents’ good relationships. I think that modeled to us…just made it easier. And we did a lot of things the same, right? So we knew we were in love. We got married. You know, before you’re married, you talk about ah, how many kids do you want, right? Well, we’ll have two, a boy and a girl. That’d be great. And then we had that. We had twins, boy-girl twins. Great, we’re done, right?

Eryn: Yeah.

Rochelle: And then when they were in about kindergarten, God started calling to me, my heart feeling the need for adoption. Unfortunately, it wasn’t on my husband, Kevin’s heart at the time. And so there were several years that I kept praying for an adopted child. And my husband had other concerns. He was concerned with the cost, right? It’s very expensive…can be very expensive to adopt, especially internationally.

Vivian: Right.

Rochelle: And just, I had a heart for adopting a child that would be hard to place, like a special needs child. And he had concerns like, can we handle that?

Vivian: Right.

Rochelle: Which are legit.

Vivian: Sure.

Rochelle: And so it took a while for us to kind of come to this…on the same page.

Eryn: And can I ask, God has given you a desire. But the desire is not of your husband’s. How did you not allow that to impact y’all’s relationship?

Rochelle: That’s a very good question. It was probably the toughest thing we went through. Because I felt so called, and my husband was very set as well. And one night, we actually both just broke down crying, because he felt terrible that he couldn’t give me what I wanted so badly. It…he’s not a crier. He’s tender, but he’s not a crier. And it was. It was like this impasse that we both felt so strongly. And yet, because we do have a good marriage, we didn’t dislike each other. We didn’t…we didn’t go to bed mad. It’s just like we felt badly that we couldn’t give to each other what we wanted. And he kept praying and praying, and I kept praying. And I…I said to the Lord, asked of the Lord, take this desire away from me. I mean it was strong, very strong. And I said, You have to take this desire away from me or have him meet me, because I can’t handle it anymore. You know it was…it was devastating being in that space. And I’ll tell you where the turning point was. He had gone to a funeral of a coworker’s parent. And this was several years into our discussions of adoption. And he was sitting in that funeral, and I think the Lord just opened his eyes and gave him the strength to understand or the whatever to understand this is good.

Eryn: Wow.

Rochelle: You can do this. do not be scared about this. And he came home. And he’s 6’2”. I’m barely 5’2”. And so we have this stool in our…in our kitchen. And it helps me, you know, reach things on the top part…top shelves. But it’s also our stool that we look eye to eye. And when he told me that and said, “Rochelle, I’ve decided that we can adopt.” I ran and I got my stool, and I put it in front of him. And I looked him in the eye. And I’m like, “Tell me that again that you’re serious. Cause I have the adoption paperwork waiting right here, and I’m gonna send it in.”

Vivian: Wow.

Rochelle: And he was serious. And it was amazing, one of the happiest days of my life. It was amazing.

Vivian: Oh, I have goosebumps hearing that.

Rochelle: It was…it was amazing.

Vivian: That’s beautiful. So it’s one thing I think to have a prayer that we pray that just kind of is something that we are longing for, that either it fizzles out cause we’re not that really…really that interested, or it gets answered quickly. But we’re…you’re talking about years. How did you maintain a tenderness toward the Lord and toward your husband in the midst of the waiting.

Rochelle: Yeah, I think Scripture helps, Psalm 46:10. “Be still and know that I am God” is my favorite Scripture. I meditate on that, and I repeat that. And it helped me through that process of waiting on my husband and waiting on God for an answer. It also helped us in the long process of actually from adoption to…or from applying for adoption to receiving our child was also a very long process. But just being still and knowing that God is in control and trusting in Him, that helped spiritually speaking. And even with my husband, we just prayed together and would pray for clarity on the issue and knowing that one of us was gonna have to move.

Vivian: Yeah, yeah. Well definitely, that’s applicable for so many of us in so many ways. So you alluded to the fact that the adoption process was a little bit longer. So walk us through what that was like and what happened and…

Rochelle: Sure.

Vivian: …the unfolding of that part of your story.

Eryn: Yeah, cause you had the papers. You had the pile of papers. You were like all right, turning this in.

Rochelle: Right, right. Yeah, so I naively thought that oh, you know, you turn the papers in; you get a kid, right? You know, six months, thought that would be easy. And we had decided to go to adopt a special-needs child. So I’m thinking, Well, that should be really easy, right? No, it was over three and a half years from the time we turned the paperwork in and started the process till the time we actually flew to China and…and received our daughter. And so that was a long, long waiting time; again relying on the Lord. We had to redo our dossier, that’s the paperwork to receive a child. We had to redo that twice. We had to get fingerprinted three times. The third time we went to get fingerprinted, I was about to lose it. I’m like, Lord, really? Like we are here. We’re on the same page. We are ready for this child, and I have to be fingerprinted a third time? And pay for the privilege, right?

Vivian: Wow.

Rochelle: Costs are adding up. And again, my husband being the steady one was like, “Rochelle, God has known from the beginning of time who our daughter is. Be patient. We will get her in God’s timing.”

Eryn: Wow.

Rochelle: So he was always comforting to me, cause I…cause I was a little more impatient than he was. And that was…

Eryn: Well you waited also longer in some ways…

Vivian: Yes.

Rochelle: Right.

Vivian: That’s true. That’s true.

Eryn: …than him.

Rochelle: Yes, yes. Very long, drawn out process. But oh my goodness, worth the wait. God is so good when you trust Him and follow His plan. Because He did. He gave us exactly what we needed and gave our daughter, hopefully, what…what she needed in parents.

Eryn: Were there any lies that you were fighting in that waiting period of who God is?

Rochelle: As I said before, I’m a pretty trusting person.

Eryn: Yeah.

Rochelle: But I will tell you one story where I was mad at God. I don’t get mad at God. Like again, I just…if He says it, I trust Him. I’m pretty good. But…but the one time in my life when I was very frustrated with God was actually the day we found out which child was going to become our daughter. I had been running in the gym. I had just run a half marathon, and I was training for this next 25K race, which I’ve stopped doing by the way. Cause walking is way easier. But anyway…

[laughter]

Vivian: I’m…I’m impressed, Rochelle. That’s like…

Eryn: I am too, wow.

Vivian: …you’d be back in the gym? Like that’s impressive.

Eryn: That’s where you put your energy. That’s amazing.

Rochelle: [inaudible] I walk now. I don’t run anymore. That was like a 40-year-old goal. That’s way past. But anyway. So this was yes, when we had already waited over three years for our daughter. And it was in January of 2010 when the earthquake in Haiti came. And all these little children, you know, were being flown over and needing homes and everything from Haiti. And my friends kept saying, well why can’t you just have one of those? Why can’t you ado…and it just…it doesn’t work that way, right? That’s…you have to go through the system.

Vivian: Right.

Rochelle: We were just so close. And we had actually…you can go on the adoption portal and select a child if you…like when they become available. So we had actually applied for one. And we were just told, no, that child went to another family. So we were heartbroken. Our kids are heartbroken.

Vivian: Right.

Rochelle: We’ve got little fifth graders that are waiting for their little sister, right?

Vivian: Oh.

Eryn: Oh.

Rochelle: And so I was mad, and I was running. And I was pounding that gym floor, running and running and running. I’m like God, What is going on? Like open arms, ready for this.

Vivian: Right.

Rochelle: Why? Why are You taking so long? I am tired of it. Probably the boldest I have ever been with Him in…in my life. And of course, He puts me to shame bec…in a beautiful, loving way. Because I go find my phone after the run, and I have a call. And it’s our social worker saying, you’ve been matched with your child.

Vivian: Wow.

Eryn: Oh.

Rochelle: And I’m like Okay, Jesus. I felt like Job, you know, when like Job is like, you know, railing against God. And he’s like Who are You? Right? And like God just said, “I got this. I got this.” And so, of course, we were super excited and got to download her picture and cried at the screen just like you’re seeing your first ultrasound or something.

Vivian: Right.

Rochelle: And you’re like “That’s our baby.” And it was so exciting.

Eryn: So how old was she?

Rochelle: She was 21 months old…

Eryn: Okay.

Rochelle: …when we officially adopted her. She wasn’t speaking at the time. She understood things in Chinese. In fact, when we brought her home to America, and we took her to a Chinese restaurant, she lit up…

Vivian: Yes.

Rochelle: …because they were speaking her language.

Vivian: Oh, right. Food, right.

Rochelle: And…and we…and the food.

Vivian: Right.

Rochelle: Oh my, she did. She just ate like there was no tomorrow.

Vivian: Yes.

Rochelle: So she just lit up.

Vivian: Yes.

Rochelle: But you know, she was about 16 pounds at 21 months old. She did not walk. She was a frail little thing. I mean I carried her on a little papoose thing.

Vivian: Yeah.

Rochelle: Thankfully, one of my friends had done a lot of research. One of my friends said bonding, bonding, bonding. And basically, when you adopt, that they start at zero with you, right? And so we just treated her like an infant and…and bonded and skin to skin and all the things and co-slept and did all those things just to make her feel bonded and loved right away. Very good advice from my friend.

Eryn: That’s great advice, wow.

Rochelle: And so she was way behind. But within a week or so, we had her walking. I mean she learned just a little bit of love and attention and food. But yeah, quite a frail little, little thing when we first collected her.

Vivian: Wow, wow.

Rochelle: Yeah, yeah.

Vivian: Now I have a real tender spot in my heart in the area of adoption, transracial adoption. And as an Asian-American, often when I’m in white spaces and I’m speaking, inevitably in the audience, if there’s an Asian. If they come up to me, typically, they are adopted. And they are in a journey with their ethnic identity growing up in predominantly white spaces, all of that. And I know that really, it’s a blended family in many ways to have an…an adopted child with your biological children. How did you communicate with your biological kids? How did you blend your family? I would love for you to speak to some of that. What was that like for you? How did you help your children and your family? How did you guys bond?

Rochelle: Our families were always very accepting from the moment we said we wanted to adopt internationally, and we were looking at different countries. They were just always very welcoming. Our children were very excited about that. I think because my husband and I love the diversity of the world, it just was very natural that we…we adopted internationally. You have to know my daughter. She is a very strong-willed, very, very self-confident child from day one.

Eryn: I love that.

Rochelle: I…I kind of almost wonder like, because you know for 21 months, she didn’t have a mama and a daddy. And I just kind of wonder like, she had to fend for herself.

Vivian: Yeah.

Eryn: Yeah.

Rochelle: And she is uber…even when she first started walking, and she would fall down, and her knee would be bloody and skinned her knee; she’d just get up and start walking.

Vivian: Wow.

Eryn: Wow.

Rochelle: I mean like…like a resilient…like super resilient. And so when it comes to some of those issues, they’re not really issues for her. I think the Lord has shielded her for some of those…from some of those things. In fact, one of…one of the jokes that we have is, we’re Lutherans in denomination and German in background—very white, you know, staunch whatever. And if you would ask her when she was like four years old, you know, someone would say, well what are you? She says, “I’m a German Lutheran.” I mean sh…that’s what she…that’s what she was. And she would still say that. And…

Eryn: I love that.

Rochelle: …when I would ask her when she was little, who do you look like? You know, I look like you, mama. Like it wasn’t until she start…cause she saw my face. And even when she started looking in a mirror and realizing that, it never fazed her. It never fazed her. The one thing that was different for her was, she would see pictures of me pregnant with the twins. And one day when we…we were getting ready for school once, for preschool, she looked at me. And she said, “You know, I’ve been thinking. I know Aspen and Sierra were in your tummy. Where did I come from?”

Vivian: Wow.

Rochelle: And you know those questions, moms, when like you know all…

Eryn: Yeah, sure.

Rochelle: …the big questions of life where you think you’re gonna have these nice, you know, conversations.

Vivian: Right.

Eryn: You’re gonna plan them. you’re gonna sit them down….

Vivian: Yeah, right.

Eryn: …have this moment.

Rochelle: No, they just come out, right? And I was like, well, so…and I explained. You do have a biological mother and a biological father. And for whatever reason, they decided that someone else could raise you. And God always knew from day one that we were gonna be your parents. And we love you. And I talked in, you know, in Scripture about how we are all adopted into God’s family. And just she has always known she was adopted. And so it was very natural, very normal. And she was like okay, I was just wondering. And that was that.

Eryn: Wow.

Rochelle: So she…there’s never been a biological-adopted problem. She is 15, newly 15. She’s in high school. Those things may come, right?

Vivian: Yeah.

Rochelle: So we’re not naïve enough to think that oh, we’re set. Because, and I even say to her, I said, “Honey, if you need to talk to someone, you know, talk to us. If you need to talk to a counselor or someone.” And she just looks at me and says, “Mom, I know what you’re doing. I’m fine.” And I said, “That’s great. That’s great.” But, I said, “If the day comes…

Vivian: Yeah.

Rochelle: …you know when she’s thinking of marriage or children or any of those things where some of those things hit…

Vivian: Yeah.

Rochelle: …I said, “We’re open. We’ll talk to you about it.” So she is very resilient in that aspect so far.

Vivian: Yeah, yeah, I love that your posture is such that you are answering all the questions honestly.

Eryn: Yeah.

Vivian: And keeping the conversation open. And she’s on her journey. And for my friends who are adopted who are of Asian descent, it really, for many of them, it wasn’t until they went to college and started having more Asian friends or, you know, with Asian backgrounds, that that journey started. But the fact that, at home, there’s a mom who’s willing to engage. I think the…the stories that I’ve heard that have been the hardest is when the moms weren’t open to that conversation and in that way.

Eryn: I would love to know, Rochelle, for you, is there something that you learned about yourself in adoption that takes you back to like your little girl self of going, wow? Like there’s like work to be done here.

Rochelle: Yeah. I would say parenting in general is the most difficult and the most rewarding thing, right ladies, that you will ever do.

Vivian: Humbling, humbling, humbling.

Rochelle: It is humbling, yes. Yeah.

Eryn: That’s what I mean. I really…that’s actually what I mean is that I’ve recognized all my insecurities.

Vivian: Right, right, yes.

Rochelle: Yeah, I think probably the biggest thing I’ve learned, and I don’t know if this necessarily pertains to just adoption, but parenting in general, is that we have an idea of what our life is going to be like, right? I know both of your stories. And I know they haven’t always necessarily gone as planned.

Vivian: Yeah.

Rochelle: Health journeys or divorce and step-momming and all these things. It’s not exactly what we see when we’re that teenager looking towards our life. And so I think watching my children be their own people, right? And letting them be their own people, that God has provided a journey for each one of us. And I thought, oh, they’ll do this, and they’ll do this. And they’ll do this, and they’ll be this way. My three children, even the twins—night and day. They’re all so different. But yet God has gifted each one of them with what they are supposed to be doing. And so I think for me as a mom to sit back and say, my journey, or what I had in hope for you is not necessarily, right, what God has planned for you. So I have to sit back and let them do their thing. And I’m a pretty…I’m not a micro-managing mom. I mean even when they were young, I’m like, go do that yourself, right. So I mean it…it’s not super hard. But yet it still is. It still is, right? Because you think you know what you want for them. And they’re like no, I’m doing this and doing this. And so that’s the biggest thing.

Eryn: You know what’s so beautiful about that? Your daughter knew independence, as you were saying, at a very young age. And God blessed her with a family that values independence. Y’all value empowering her to be herself versus try to control and shape. It sounds like you’ve just created that environment for all of your kids. And I think it’s just so beautiful. That’s just the sweetness of God to bless her with a family that’s already doing that.

Rochelle: Well, she’s made it easy. Bec…we…we often say like we’re glad she was our last one, cause she’s super like…she’s super spirited and super “This is what I want, and this is what I’m gonna do.” She was making her own lunches in kindergarten.

Vivian: Wow.

Rochelle: And she would sometimes make my lunch to take to work. I mean that’s this kid.

Vivian: Wow.

Rochelle: Another time when she was seven years old, we had a big dinner party. And I left to take these people back to the train station. They were leaving out of town. And my husband had work to do, so he was downstairs. And just leave…the kitchen’s fine. I will…I’ll clean up when I get back. Just whatever, don’t worry. I was gone for two hours. And as we came walking in, my daughter…my older daughter and I from taking these…these people to the train station, [Greyson] was just…the youngest daughter was just finishing up cleaning the kitchen.

Vivian: Wow.

Rochelle: And I walked in, and I…I said, Oh, my goodness. Did you clean this whole thing? She says, Yeah, I did the whole thing. I said, how many dishes did you break? Like joking. She goes, just one. And I’m like, oh my [inaudible]. Totally worth…totally worth the dish.

Vivian: Wow.

Rochelle: But she…I mean from seven years old, she loved to clean. And she loved to do…I mean yeah, I know. She’s like a little dream come true. But…

Vivian: Wow.

Rochelle: …but she yeah, she’s always been independent. And so it was easy to foster that really, cause she…she just did things. She was amazing. She is amazing. She even has her own Instagram page she started a few years ago, which, I know. We (ah) at 13, do we let…right? That’s always the thing. Do we let them on social media? What do they do? But she has an Instagram page called Saved by Grace 2008. And she gets on there and basically tells what she’s learning in Sunday school or through her Bible reading…

Vivian: Wow.

Eryn: Oh.

Rochelle: …or school or whatever. She’s kind of preaching the gospel out there.

Vivian: Yeah.

Rochelle: And…and she gets a lot of…a lot of comments from people her own age. But even adults will make comments on there about God isn’t real or…or that’s not right. Or you’re too young. You don’t know anything. And she will either let it go, because it’s not worth engaging, which…

Vivian: Right.

Rochelle: …is wisdom in that. Or she will simply say, well I may be young, but I know what Scripture says…

Vivian: Wow.

Rochelle: …and leave it at that. So she’s just very…she’s a very unique young woman.

Vivian: I love that there’s a story of her faith in all this as well.

Eryn: So you shared a little bit with us earlier about your marriage and just the relationship dynamic of how you both are wired differently and then now had adopted. How did your marriage get strengthened in that? And what did it reveal to you?

Rochelle: Sure. I would say between us, it’s just gratefulness. We both had concerns, obviously, going in…again, special needs child. And is it gonna be too much for us to handle? You know, what have we gotten ourselves into kind of thing? And we were both actually, the night before we adopted her, lying in bed thinking Oh did…did we…are we sure we heard God right? So there is like some nervousness of that going in. But looking back at the gratefulness of what God has done for us in that, I think we are more sensitive towards other people now going through that journey as far as the wait and trusting God in the wait and growing together in that. I think a lot of adoptions are more challenging, right? I don’t want to paint this wonderful picture…

Vivian: Yeah.

Rochelle: …of adoption is always perfect, because adoption is always trauma, right, at some level. It is always trauma. And so I don’t want to paint like oh, it’s just great; because she’s gonna have some trauma at some point that she’s gonna realize and have to deal with. And a lot of people go through that probably sooner than what we have gone through. And we’ve seen it as well in other couples. And so I think for us, it’s to just have an awareness of other people walking that road, holding their hand, praying with them, and speaking into their lives, and having them speak into our lives, right? And just kind of being in the adopted life together, right? There were eight other families, nine families total, that we traveled with. And they all adopt…we all adopted special needs children together.

Eryn: Wow.

Rochelle: And several of those families, their outcome was not as positive as ours, very challenging circumstances. And so we learned from that God blessed us with an…a slightly easier journey, I would say. But we pray for, and we feel for those people that have it a lot harder. And we admire them, right? Because they’ve had it harder. Their lives were completely…

Vivian: Yeah.

Rochelle: …disrupted, and we recognize that. And we see that, and we pray for them. Because where ours was beautifully enhanced in ways that we didn’t even expect, we walk side by side with those that are…that are going through that struggle.

Vivian: Yeah, I really appreciate that, Rochelle. Because I think your awareness does lend to a safety. And you speaking out that truth while also acknowledging that it is God’s grace, and…and there’s a gratitude for your story. But your story doesn’t describe every story.

Rochelle: No.

Vivian: And…and I think the recognition too that there is trauma inherent in adoption. And so in choosing to walk this road, there’s an agreement that so often in the stories that I’ve heard that haven’t gone well, because it was so parent-focused rather than child-focused, the message that the child always heard was “you just need to be grateful.” Instead of having the openness to be able to really explore, which is what I really see in your posture. Like to your daughter it’s like this may not ever be, but it may well come up later. And if so, as much as I can understand, I want to be there. And I think that that’s a really beautiful picture of that tension that we all hold. So would you have any advice to a couple that is considering adoption?

Rochelle: I am very pro-adoption. I will always say, “do it, do it, do it.” But that’s what God placed on my heart, right? And so I should say that adoption is for everyone in the fact that everyone can participate in it, right? There are those that choose to adopt children. There are those who choose to contribute financially because adoption can be very expensive. There are those that can choose to speak into and give respite care and walk alongside. So there are so many different areas of adoption that you can lean into.

Vivian: Yeah.

Rochelle: You don’t, you know, have to be the person adopting the child. But to the person, the people who do feel called and want to adopt, yeah. Number one, just know that it’s probably gonna be harder than what you think.

Vivian: Yeah.

Rochelle: And that’s just being honest. It will also probably be more beautiful than…than what you can ever imagine, right? God likes to do things like that for us.

Eryn: He does.

Vivian: He does, He does.

Rochelle: But just hang on, because what we learned in our case was God has that child picked out for you. And it may take a very long time, way longer than what we’re comfortable, right, sitting in that space. But He will bring His plan to fruition. Because I know couples who are infertile, and it didn’t work out for them. It didn’t. And that’s heartbreaking to me. Just last night, one of my good friends who is in the process of adopting found out that it fell through. And so we sat and cried together last night over that. So yeah, it doesn’t always work out the way we think it’s going to work out.

Vivian: Yeah.

Rochelle: It will work out to how God has it planned. And so I think we need to keep that in mind that, however we think it’s going to go or want it to go, you have to trust Jesus and hold His hand. Because His plan is best.

Vivian: What a word for all of us to hold Jesus’ hand. And for…I think all of us have parts of our story that things didn’t go the way we thought they would.

Eryn: Yeah.

Vivian: And in the midst of the disappointments and in the midst of the waiting, that He can be trusted, that we can take His hand. And we can choose to…to walk and trust and the importance of community. I mean how beautiful that your friend had you to sit with to cry and to understand, just having been in the space to know the ups and the downs of that. Boy, that’s another beautiful picture of the way I think God intended for us to be.

Eryn: Yeah, we can’t do it alone. Rochelle, would you close us in prayer?

Rochelle: Sure.

Eryn: And pray over those that want to adopt and maybe those that are in waiting and maybe those that are blending with adoption.

Rochelle: Sure, yeah, let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we just…we thank You today for being our Abba Father. And we thank You for protecting all the children around the world, especially those that…that don’t have mamas and daddies right now. We thank You for putting on the hearts of adults to want to adopt and to…to care for these children, Lord. And I just thank You for those that have adopted and that are doing their best Lord and that are frustrated, or those who are working on blending their families or whatever the situation is with children, Lord. We just ask that You would be in it. Give them encouragement. Remind them daily that You love them, that You’ve adopted us all into your family and that it might not be perfect, Lord, but You are with them. And it is Your plan to put this family together. I especially pray for couples that are in the wait, Lord. I’ve been there. So many people have been there. It is difficult, and it is challenging. But Lord, just remind them to be still, to be still, be still and know that You are in control and that You will bring Your plan into place. So I thank You for our conversation today. And we just ask that You would continue to bring little ones all over into their forever homes. We thank You, Jesus. In Your name we pray, amen.

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Eryn: What a great prayer. It is so beautiful to hear Rochelle’s adoption story and to know that she is there for her daughter. We’re praying for all of the people walking through the adoption process.

Vivian: Well, before we go, be sure to check out our website and find a link for ODB for Kids Volume I. The fun thing is Rochelle and her daughter, Greyson, they actually read the devotional together when she was a kid. You can find that and more at godhearsher.org. That’s godhearsher.org.

Eryn: Thank you for joining us. And don’t forget, God hears you. He sees you, and He loves you because you are His.

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Vivian: Today’s episode was engineered by Anne Stevens and produced by Jade Gustman and Mary Jo Clark. We also want to thank Kristi and Maggie for all their help and support. Thanks, everyone.

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Eryn: God Hears Her is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries.