I have been loving reading all the Memorial Box Monday stories that you all have been linking each Monday.  Thank you each for sharing your stories!

Today’s story is a sobering reminder of the value of continually hearing God speak.  It is a very personal story as well, but we share it to remember how God loves to whisper to us.

I will never forget the day that Dw and I fasted and prayed about the possibility of bringing Jubilee Promise home.   As our day of prayer and fasting drew to a close, it was late at night in our little log home, the kids settled in to bed for the night and we were able to talk about what the Lord had spoken to our hearts.

We both had heard a resounding “yes!”.  We knew that Jubilee’s needs would mean that she would live with us for the rest of her life {which we refer to, in our home, as being a “lifer”}.  And yes, Ruby is a “lifer” too.

On a side note and personally speaking, we are overjoyed to know that empty nesting is not in our future.  We acknowledge that we would be dreadfully bored.  {To all you empty nesters, that is not a slight in any way.  We just know us.  We couldn’t do it.  And personally speaking, I would get into way, way, way too much trouble.  I just know me.}    And yes, we fully believe that there are a few more “lifers” out there that we will be adding to our ever-growing pile of treasures.

Anyway, that night in our little log home, when we said “yes” to Jubilee, Dw said through tears, “Hurry Linny, email the agency, tell them we want her.  Tell them before someone else comes forward she’s ours!”   Such a tender hearted guy that man o’ mine is.

We received confirmation back from the agency and they were excited.  They had been advocating for a home for her for a long time.

Well a couple of weeks passed and out-of-the-blue I received an email from our agency.  It said, “Linny, we found something on the internet about your daughter {meaning Jubilee}.  It is not good and we felt that we are obligated to share it with you.  If you decide to stop the adoption we understand.”

Talk about getting the wind knocked out of your sails!

I clicked on the link to what they had found and with an instant stomach ache I quickly read what they were referring to.

Jubilee had been living at an organization’s private group foster home for part of her life.  The organization that she had been at, had a couple of years earlier posted a report about each of their kids, complete with a picture.  I recognized her immediately.   And the report attached to hers was less than glowing.  I actually bristled as I read it.  {Talk about the mama bear instinctively coming out…grrrrr.}

The report posted on the web  was less than glowing.  It included this line, “When the nannies call her, she will not come, but runs the other way.  She refuses to come when called.”

As I read it, yes, my stomach felt sick.  BUT I also thought it sounded like the person writing it, definitely didn’t like her.  I mean, come on, the report was going to be published on the web.  There has to be some good qualities to little treasures, yet not one had been included in her report.

Besides feeling sick, I was also ticked.  Come on, they couldn’t publish anything nice about her at all?  Was she really that much of a naughty little girl?

I went around the site and read other kids reports.  Not one sounded like hers.  She was either really, really naughty or she was not liked {at all} by whoever wrote the report.

When Dw read the report his eyebrows raised, “What do you think?”  I told him my thoughts.  He felt the same way:

We had fasted.  

We had prayed.

We had heard God speak.

Jubilee Promise was ours.  

The report did not sway our decision in any way at all.  

We notified the agency that we were going full steam ahead.  They were relieved {but I can’t help but wonder if down deep they were thinking “Ummm, yeah.  Good luck with that.”}  haha

Little did we know it would take close to 2 years to get our Jubilee Promise home.  I well with tears at all the stuff that delayed it.  Losing our log home to the fire.  The aftermath of the fire.  Refiling.  Rebuilding the house.  Immigration.  Refiling again because of our address mistakenly showing our address where the fire was {and we were living in a rental in town instead}.  Ugh.  Ugh. Ugh.

Oh.my.heart.  What Jubilee had to endure waiting is beyond what my heart can stand to dwell on.

There is no doubt that Jubilee had adjustments when she came home two days before her 8th birthday.  Who wouldn’t have adjustments at 8 years old?  But we were smitten and it was clear, she loved her new family and she loved being home.  We fell into a beautifully new-improved-family rhythm.

In the early days, I admit to occasionally wondering about that internet report.  Every now and then wondering if the ‘shoe would drop’.  But it didn’t.  At.all.  Yes, she had her bouts of stubbornness, but she was definitely not the willfully defiant kid the report had described.

And one day our precious all-time-favorite pediatrician, Dr. Pakhi, suggested that Jubilee have her ears checked at a specialists office.  And little did we know but soon the “she doesn’t listen and turns away when she is called” mystery was about to be solved.

Imagine our shock when we found that Jubilee had “profound” hearing loss on one side and “severe” loss on the other!!   Not once had any one in all her paperwork wondered if there was hearing loss.

And here’s the link to Jubilee hearing with the BAHA for the very first time.

We couldn’t imagine our family without our precious Jubilee Promise.