By Amy Keller

It is an irony how we think we see so clearly what our destiny in life is and yet God may have other purposes for us. My adoption journey was just such a process. I had felt that God had led me to adopt a child from another country. I seemed so sure that He was leading me to adopt from the country of Georgia. Shortly after my dossier arrived in Georgia, the Rose Revolution took place and my hopes for adoption seemed dashed. Adoption Pros suggested that I gather my dossier for Azerbaijan. As if a deja-vu had occurred, Azerbaijan closed to adoption also. My agency e-mailed a few days later stating that they had a referral of a three day old baby girl from Guatemala who needed a mother. I e-mailed back that she was welcome to send the referral but that I did not know what my answer would be. I was so terribly confused as to what God was saying to me.

To be honest, I had never had an interest in Latin America and had never even given adoption from Guatemala a thought. I prayed that night that God would make it abundantly clear to me what He wanted me to do since I was so confused. I asked if this was my child that God would fill my heart with love for her when I saw her picture. When I arrived at my office the next morning there was the e-mail with the referral. As I opened the photo attachment and the picture began to drop down, my heart was filled with love for her, and I finally knew that the statement, “I felt my heart melt,” was no longer a figure of speech. I knew that that 4 pound 9 ounce little girl was mine.

The process of adopting her took a full fourteen months. There were many delays for various reasons, one of which was the fact that the biological mother was a minor herself. I have to admit that there were times I doubted that I would ever be able to bring her home. During that time, I grew in my love for her and waited with great anticipation for any pictures or word of her. I was also given a great length of time to make a study of her country and the Mayan culture, and I grew in love and respect for a people that I had never taken the time to know.

Finally, I received the invitation to travel! I was filled with mixed emotions. Will she accept me? Will she be afraid? Being a first-time mother, I was filled with many worries. As I saw her across the hotel lobby for the first time, I was so filled with emotion but knew that I needed to curb my desire to rush over and hold her since I was a stranger to her. After our introductions, I knelt on the floor to begin writing what the translator was telling me about the foster family. As I knelt there my daughter came over to put her arms around my neck and kiss my cheek! At that moment the waves of emotion that I had pent up inside came out and I held her thanking God for this great reassurance that all would be well.

All has been well as my daughter has made a wonderful adjustment to her new home. She is a happy, compassionate and gentle little girl. She has completed my life, and I cannot imagine life without her. I realize now, that everything that I had originally thought was tragic had to happen in order for me to adopt the right child – my child. I believe that God has demonstrated to me in my own life that He is never early or late but always on time.