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The file folder Amanda and Jared Stone held in their hands told of a child who was thought to be unadoptable at one time. But the couple’s testimony tells of a mighty God who can orchestrate mighty things, turning what others call impossible to probable and the probable into the miraculous.
“We began the adoption process never expecting to wait three years,” Amanda says. “We knew God had laid this on our hearts but it was hard.” Jared says they embraced God’s calling. “You can count on God,” he says. “His calling is always followed by a wilderness experience. He prepares you for the promise and gives you hope for what is coming.”
The little girl was born at 29 weeks. She struggled for life. The Philippine orphanage where she first lived was overcrowded. Initially diagnosed with Down syndrome, she struggled to eat and digest food. Her future looked dim. With little notice, she was moved to a Christian-operated orphanage. What was thought as hopeless became probable as “gentle hands poured Jesus into her every day.” Loving attention brought progress, although it was slow. Despite the care, some of the little girl’s disabilities lingered.
“It was God at work,” Jared asserts. “The three years we waited were years God transformed this sweet little girl’s life and prepared us to be her home.”
Six-year-old Princess wakes in the morning and her “feet hit the floor running.” Amanda and Jared say she is so much like her older sister, ten-year-old Audrey. The two girls are both full of energy and outgoing, never meeting a stranger.
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Audrey dreamed of being a
big sister. Her mom and dad say the wait to adopt Princess may have been the hardest on her. But it was a wait she says “was worth it.” “It felt like a long process at the time but CAS walked with us every step of the way,” Jared says. “Princess has been home with us now for almost two years.”
Christian Adoption Services (CAS) has been connecting children in need of forever families for more than 40 years. Through international adoption, homes are found for children who are in need of a loving, stable, Christian family. CAS is a ministry of Baptist Children’s Homes and has been accredited by the Philippines as a child-placing agency for more than 40 years. This international adoption program places healthy, waiting children who are over age 8, children with special needs ages 2-15, and sibling groups. There are three different tracks to adopt from the Philippines: regular, special home finding, and relative adoption with wait times between 12-48 months.
“We did not initially request a child with disabilities,” Amanda says. “But we could not turn away.” It was daunting as the couple
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considered all of their new daughter’s needs. “The special needs listed in her file were all true, except for being Down,” Jared recalls. “But since coming home, we have witnessed God’s healing in Princess’s life.”
The couple attest that only God can take a child from the other side of the world and bring her to North Carolina. “It is as if we have always been together,” Amanda says. “God works out everything for His glory. All the healing has come from Him.” The couple agree that what the Spirit brings together is as powerful as the blood a family shares. They say adopting Princess has changed the way they “think and see.” “I cannot stop thinking about what God is doing in the world and how we can be a part through international adoptions,” Jared says.
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To learn more about adoptions through CAS, visit online at www.christianadopt.org or call 704-847-0038.
Written by Jim Edminson, Editor of Charity & Children
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