PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 150: THE CHALLENGES OF WELCOMING CHILDREN

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 150 –  THE CHALLENGES OF WELCOMING CHILDREN

Sonia Ramsay from Oregon joins me today. You will be blessed as you listen to her story. Sonia began her  married life with the vision to welcome children, but it wasn't all plain sailing. She was challenged by infertility, miscarriages, a difficult adoption, and then conceiving a Down's Syndrome baby. If you have faced any of these issues, you will want to tune in. 

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Well, hello again, ladies! Now today I have with me Sonia Ramsay, all the way from Oregon. Now Sonia, she has been organizing Above Rubies retreats for ladies, and then family camps for quite a number of years now, up there in Oregon. So I got to know Sonia over the years. And it's such a joy to now actually have her right here in my home!

And even better than that, we have just had her beautiful daughter, Ellie, with us for three months as an Above Rubies girl. She has been such an amazing blessing. It's just been a joy to have her here.

Colin and I are so blessed, having these Above Rubies girls come into our home. They always come from the most beautiful families, and Colin and I say we have the cream of the earth coming into our home. We're so blessed. And they help me in the ministry of Above Rubies during the week. Then the weekend, they have time to have fun, go out with all the young people on the Hilltop, well, they do through the week as well. But it's a great time.

Well, now, Sonia is here to rescue Ellie (laughter) and take her back home again. I think that they are pretty desperate to get her back after being away for three months. I don't think she planned to stay for three months.

Sonia: No, she planned to be gone for two months! She had a lot of fun though and it worked out.

Nancy: Yes, it's been great. Well anyway, Sonia actually came about four or five weeks ago because they are deciding to look at some property down here in Tennessee. And when she came, we did a podcast together, but you never ever heard it because it disappeared into cyberspace! We don't know where it went! I've had that happen a few times.

So amazingly, Sonia is here again, so praise the Lord, because living up in Oregon it could have been OK, that's it, we'll never get a chance to do it!  But here she is this morning, so it's worked out so wonderfully.

Now in the new magazine, Above Rubies, # 98, it's rolling off the presses now. You should be getting it very, very soon. I told you were getting it earlier. But I got it all together, and then I still had to wait for my turn on the presses. It's printed on the great big web presses and sometimes we have to wait our turn to get on. But anyway, it's just about finished printing now, and you can be looking forward to seeing it.

And in this new Above Rubies Sonia has written her testimony. It is called, what did we call it? “Am I A Child Welcomer?” That was huge question, because Sonia went into marriage with a longing for children, and just longing to welcome children into her home. But it didn't actually happen straightaway, did it?

Sonia: No.

Nancy: Wow. That can be pretty hard when you're just wanting to have children. I know some of our lovely young couples on the Hilltop that got married, and they've been hoping for honeymoon babies! Because they all want children! And some have had honeymoon babies. And others have to wait. You just never know. You can't plan it. It's God Who is in control, isn't He?

So what happened, Sonia, when you first got married? How did you feel with no babies coming on?

Sonia: Yes, it was so sad! We were ready and we were praying, “Lord, we'd love to have some children,” and then waiting and waiting. A few years went by. We were seeing doctors, and they said, “Well, we don't know what's wrong. We don't know why.” They said, “Well, you can do whatever you want to do. We'll write a prescription. You just tell us what you want.”

We said, “Well, we don't know. We'll just pray, for now.” They said, “OK, well, call us when you're ready. So we prayed, and we had friends praying. So we actually decided to go to an adoption seminar. We snuck away because it was nothing we were familiar with.

We heard how adoption is a picture of the Gospel and how we're adopted as God's children, and so when we adopt it's very much part of God's plan to show the world the picture of the real Gospel. And we got excited, and I thought, “Oh, we're going to be parents! It's going to be great! We can do this!”

And so, shortly thereafter, we became pregnant, and we were convinced though, that the Lord wanted us to move in the direction of adoption before He was going to give us a biological child. So we knew already, OK, even though He's given us a biological child, we were supposed to adopt. We know that now.

Nancy: Yes.

Sonia: So we went ahead and did that after our oldest was two.

Nancy: Yes, that's wonderful! So you went from this heartache of infertility, then the blessing of a baby. That was so wonderful! You know, I've had testimonies of some couples who have waited and waited and longed and longed. And after ten years, got a baby! You never give up! You never give up, because God can always come with a surprise!

Sonia: That's right!

Nancy: Yes, yes. And so you know, you started out thinking, “Oh, will we ever have babies?” but today, you are blessed with nine children!

Sonia: We  have nine!

Nancy: Isn't that just so amazing?

Sonia:  It is amazing!

Nancy: Oh, God is just so good! But if, you know, you had lots of challenges along the way, yes. So you adopted. First of all, you adopted two.

Sonia: One to start with. She's from Vietnam.

Nancy: Vietnam?

Sonia: Yep, then the next one we adopted from Ethiopia. And then after that China.

Nancy: Yes. What happened then?

Sonia: The first two girls were babies when we brought them home. And there were some challenges, so we worked through those. Our little guy from China came home at two-and-a-half, and he had some special needs we didn't know about. So when he came home, he was just very terrified. He had a lot of institutionalized behavior and it made it just very disruptive in our house.

There was really a lot of screaming. We couldn't go anywhere. If we walked into the church foyer, he was overstimulated and would just go off like a siren. We couldn't stop him. He would not settle down, no matter how long we would sit. I would have to run to the car and sit down.

So that went on for a year. I would get screamed out of Costco and everywhere.

Nancy: You couldn't go anywhere else.

Sonia:  No. And I kept trying. I would go on a field trip and I'd have to leave. I'd go to Costco, and I'd have to leave. I was like, everywhere I went for the first year, I'd have to turn around and go back home. It was very . . . we went through a lot of depressing times. There was just no peace in our home, with any of us, because he was just always having trouble.

Now I look back on it, and I see that he was afraid, and was having a hard time. He didn't have any coping skills, and he just needed to learn those things. He didn't know if he could trust us. You know, it's that kind of stuff, but living through it is very difficult.

Nancy: I think some of you who have adopted children, you've faced some of the situations like this. It can be very challenging. So here you were, Sonia, this wonderful, child-welcoming mother, how did you feel when you were going through this?

Sonia: So at that point, from the miraculous bringing home, having our first child, and then having everything worked out for adoption, we waited another two years, and had another. We had infertility more than once. So every time we've had a child, we've brought home, we've been so thankful and so excited, and so amazing.

And then he comes home, our little guy from China, and I came home and told my husband, “No more children! I do not want any more children!” And I had never said that. I never even thought that. I just said, “The more the merrier.”

Nancy: And now this was happening.

Sonia: So we knew there was something wrong. I had had it! My attitude was so bad. It took about a week, I think, maybe a week or two. And I was able to see that, OK, I am not acting in God's will here, and my own frustration is causing my judgment. I repented of that, and I came back to my husband and said, “OK, I'm back. I will accept whatever God wants. But I'm still having a hard time here.”

And he was too. The whole family was. It was a difficult time. It was about two years of very dark times for us to work through.

Nancy: And how is he now?

Sonia: Oh, he's great. He's great. He was non-verbal when he first came home for the first year or two. And then he started talking. And now he's doesn't stop! Ever. We say, “OK, you can take a break now!” (laughter)

But no, he's happy to be here. He just loves life. He likes to eat. He likes to dance. He likes to pester people. So daily, I still have challenges with him. He'll still have fits, but they will settle down. He responds well to my husband, so sometimes I have to call him at work and say, “Will you talk to him over the phone?” And he'll settle. But it's not anything like it was.

It's still challenging. We have frustrations. We're still limited to what we can do. I choose not to go on field trips anymore. It just is too hard. But he just turned ten. And he's doing so much better.

Nancy: Oh, that's so wonderful! Well, Sonia has, did we tell you, her children Ellie, well, this is Ellie who was with us. She is 17, and such a beautiful girl. And they have Shailee.

Sonia:  Shailee.

Nancy: Shailee, you say. She's from . . .

Sonia:  She's from Vietnam.

Nancy: Vietnam. And then Asher is . .  .

Sonia: Twelve. I had him.

Nancy: Yes, biological. And Atlee.

Sonia:  Atlee is from Ethiopia.

Nancy: Ethiopia. Ezekiel . . .

Sonia:  I had him.

Nancy: Ezekiel, yes. Nehemiah . . .

Sonia: Nehemiah is from China.

Nancy: I know. And then you had Shepherd.

Sonia:  Yes.

Nancy: And then you had Elisha.

Sonia: Yes.

Nancy: And then you had infertility again.

Sonia:  Well, we had . . . there's a five-year gap between Shepherd and Elisha. We had many miscarriages. And then a time of no pregnancies at all for about two years.

Nancy: Wow! That's amazing.

Sonia:  It was!

Nancy: Yes! Oh, how did you feel during that time, having miscarriages?

Sonia: The miscarriages were very hard. I had a hemorrhage that I lost half my blood supply, thought I was going to die. So it was just, I was very sick at the time. Also, outside of just the miscarriages, it was a hard time.

And then I wasn't getting pregnant anymore, and I thought, “Well, OK, I guess we're done. Sounds like God has closed that time in our lives, and we're just going to be thankful for what we have.” And I still wanted more, but I just figured we were done.

And I thought, “Well, I can go on a mission trip now because I'm not pregnant or nursing, and I'm going to do these things that I've been putting off a little bit.” And then I found out I was pregnant with Elisha. And I went, “Oh, OK, I guess I'm not going on a mission trip!”

Nancy: Oh wow!

Sonia: Yes, he was a surprise. And I was so excited! I felt like wearing him in my carrier and walking across the street in the parking lot. I felt like I had a trophy in my arms, that God had just given me this reward. Not even of my own, obviously not my own decision. Such a blessing!

Nancy: Yes! How wonderful!

Sonia: It was so funny, I was looking at all the other people and I thought, do they see him? Do they see what God has done?

Nancy: How wonderful!

Sonia: Yes, it was exciting.

Nancy: And then time went on, and you had another surprise.

Sonia: And then another one! Yes! Shocking. We thought maybe Elisha was our last little bonus, but no, Noah came along.

Nancy: And you were so excited!

Sonia: Yes, very excited, but I had just miscarried, right before him. And so, he came along, and in my house, I've had enough miscarriages that we don't talk about when the baby comes. We say if the baby comes. And the children know that. If we get to keep this one, we'll be so excited. And we celebrate every day of a pregnancy because you never know how long it will last. 

So yes, we just kept going, and everything was going well. And I felt so good, so good in fact, that I didn't have any symptoms. I was a little nervous to see that strong heartbeat, to see he was in there.

Nancy: And you were in your forties now?

Sonia:  Yes, I was 42 at the time.

Nancy: And yes, being blessed with another baby. You know, I think out there in the secular world, so many women don't understand that to have a baby in your forties is very normal. I mean, it's not normal in our society, but it's normal in God's economy. When you think of how God created that . . .

Isn't it amazing how we seem to forget how God created us? Because he created women to go through menopause around about the age of 50. Some will go through earlier, and just a very special one, maybe a little later. But He didn't plan for us to go through menopause, say at 35, or something like that.

Which means we are still in our childbearing years until we reach menopause. That's how God created us. And so therefore, it is normal to become pregnant, if the Lord should choose, even in your forties. And you were saying how you were feeling so good, and I have found so many women testify to this.

Often at an Above Rubies retreat, that question will come up. You know, “What about having babies in your forties?” And so I will say, “Well, who . . . ? Who had a baby in their forties here?” And so many hands will go up. And I say, “OK, let's hear your testimonies.”

So many will say, “It was” (or were, depending on if it was one, or even two, maybe three, in their forties), “my best birth, and my best pregnancy.” It seems as though God puts a special blessing and anointing on those who are in their forties. Because they're always saying, “It was my best pregnancy! My best birth!” You know?

Sonia:  I think that's so great! And people will say to me,  “I can't have any more children. It was so hard. My last one, when I was 30, or 32. And if I'm so much older, it will be that much harder.” I always tell them, “That's not my experience. I had some harder ones, and this one was not bad.”

Nancy: Yes. Yes. You had a beautiful birth with Noah, didn't you?

Sonia:  Yes, it was miraculous! Nothing short of miraculous.

Nancy: Yes, anyway, tell us all about the story of Noah.

Sonia: OK, at my 20-week ultrasound, we went in, and had no idea that anything might be different. And we found out that we were having another boy. He's our sixth boy. So we were so excited about that. We move on. It was on my birthday I went in, and I can tell the children on my birthday, that “Oh, we're having a brother!”

So I got a call about a week later, and they said, well, he has a soft marker, not a hard marker, but a soft one. They couldn't find his nasal bone, and “That could be a marker for some genetic abnormality, so you should probably do genetic testing.” Well, I was planning a homebirth, and my midwife agreed we should know what we're working with, so go ahead and do the testing.

Well, I blew it off, and said, “Oh, I'm sure it's nothing.” And about a month later, she called and said, “Well, did you get it done?” And I said,” No, I'm too busy. OK, I'll go in.” So I went, did the testing, and the doctor called me back and said, “You've tested positive for trisomy 21, which is Down's Syndrome.”

I will never forget that phone call. I just went, “Wow. OK. How about that?” Never crossed my mind that that was even a possibility. So it took a while for that to kind of sink in. Now our little Nehemiah from China has special needs, so it wasn't just him coming home and having a hard time. He also has some significant delays in his development, so we know that he'll be with us for the rest of his life.

So when I heard that Noah also was likely going to be with us, that was hard for us. That was really hard. I cried, a lot. And I went and actually called my husband at work. I shouldn't probably have done that to him, right in the middle of his workday. But I had told him, and he said, “Well, how am I supposed to work now?”

I said, “I don't know.” I said, “Why don't I come and have lunch with you?” He said, “OK.” So I took off driving to meet him at a restaurant. And on the way, I'm crying, and crying to God, and just saying, “I need You to speak truth here to me, because this does not look like a blessing. Help me. I need to hear Your voice right now.” And a song came on the radio. Now I can't think of the name of it, but I think I put it in the article.

Nancy: Yes, you did! I think this thing, because I have this here, actually. And...anyway, we'll repeat it.

Sonia: OK. So the song came on that basically talks about there's  . . .  “Reckless Love,” yes, by Cory Asbury. So he talks about, “There's no wall You won't kick down, no lie You won't tear down,” and I thought, “OK, thank You, Lord. You won't leave me in lies. You're going to show me the truth here.” So I felt like He had given me that back, and just right away, He gave me Noah, the story of Noah. And Noah, let me backtrack.

Part of my fit-throwing to God was that we tend to be kind of private. And I don't mind dealing with things in our home, but I don't want everybody to know. I don't share medical things with just everybody that sees us. I thought, Down's Syndrome is so public! Everyone who ever sees him will know exactly what is going on.

And I felt like that was going to be an invasion of our privacy, to not be able to just say, you know, “It's our thing.” And so it's like, Lord, everybody's going to see, and then they'll make judgments. I felt like people will just immediately see him and judge him and us.

The story of Noah is that God gives Noah a very public ministry. “Make this enormous ark for everyone to see.” It's going to be a ministry for his entire family. They all need to work together to accomplish this purpose. Everyone who ever walks by will know what they're doing if they accept the mission He gave them.

They could have walked away and said, “We don't want to look different. We don't want people to know that You've given us such a huge task. They'll think we're crazy.” But they said, “OK.” It just says, “And Noah did as God said.” It doesn't take to throw a fit. (laughter)

Maybe he did, but they didn't record it! He didn't throw a fit! So this family was going to work on this ministry for a very long time, like a hundred years. They were going to do it, and they would be mocked. They never converted anyone to realizing this was God's plan for them. So they were considered, most likely, fools to be doing this.

I thought, “OK, Lord, if that's what You want, if my family is to build an ark, a public ark, OK, what can we say? We must say 'Yes.'”

Nancy: Yes.

Sonia:  And then, immediately, oh, part of that was also that, everyone who saw it, would know that they were doing the Lord's will, because He would say God told us to do this. But anybody who did not accept this as God's plan, and the revelation of His truth, were going to die. Basically, this was the symbol of something that God was giving them. So I was thinking, “OK, we're going to do this, and we're going to say, “We do love life, and we are going to take this ministry on, even though the doctors are saying I should discontinue my pregnancy.”

Nancy: Yes, you always get faced with that.

Sonia: Yes, every single doctor I spoke with said if you can feel . . .

Nancy: Isn't that so sad?

Sonia: I can't even understand that.

Nancy: Yes, especially when you look at Noah today, how can you believe that they could even say it?

Sonia: It's just terrible. It's terrible, what they do. And so they scare these poor women into aborting their babies.

So I also thought immediately, right after that, John the Baptist comes to mind. And he stood outside of the cities, and he dressed differently, and he spoke differently, and he even ate differently. But he was out there, speaking the truth of life for anyone who would hear it. And so it was very . . . This baby doesn't need to look like everybody else to be speaking the Word of God.

Nancy: Yes, that's right.

Sonia: So those two came to my mind. I shared them with my husband. We sat quietly, just kind of stared off in the restaurant, like, “Wow, this is going to be big!” And I would love to say that at that point we were, “Oh, we're just going to embrace what God gave us!”

But we didn't. We stayed in our feeling-sorry-for-ourselves and foot-stomping. One moment I'd be OK. The next moment I'd be crying and saying, “I don't want to do this! It's going to be hard, and I don't want hard! I've had enough hard!” And then I'd feel OK. Now I'm up, now I'm down, I'm up. It was just . . . I was a mess for several months.

And I had friends that I would, I shared with a few people, and they would keep saying, “Oh, you're so blessed,” and I said, “I don't feel blessed!” But you are, and you will see. So we just kept moving forward in faith.

And a lesson that I did learn through adoption, when you are looking at, any of you who are mulling with adoption know that during the process they ask you, “What disabilities will you accept in the child?” You actually have to go through them, like check boxes, which seems so terrible.  Like, “Well don't ask me. Just give me a child!”

And so we wrestled out some of those things, and ultimately it came down to I feel like God asked me, “Maybe you wouldn't have decided to create this child with these needs, and then have them in an orphanage. That wouldn't be My idea. That sounds like a bad idea to me.”

But God already chose that for that child, so the question now is not, ”Do you think this is a good idea?” But “Are you willing to walk with that child through life and help them?” So we had to say, “Are we or not? Yes, we are.” So we accepted some needs.

So again, that came back to me. You may not have thought it was a good idea to make a baby that has Down's Syndrome, but God did, and He decided that was going to be what Noah was going to walk. “Are you willing to walk it with him?” I had to say, “I guess we are. You gave him to us. I guess we are.”

So yeah, and then we, I needed something. I felt more detached from him, because of this. And so I asked God for something, something that would help me bond with him. And I went to an ultrasound and in the ultrasound, we saw him really clearly just yawn. And it was the sweetest, little yawn. And I just went, “Oh, thank You! That's what I needed! Thank You!”

He just seemed like a baby again to me, not a problem. Like, oh, you know. So from that point forward, I was able to start feeling like “OK, we can do this. We can do it.”

But my last two deliveries were very difficult, and I always have very long, drawn-out 36-hour type deliveries. My last two were particularly difficult. And I was filled with fear over my last one, kind of a trauma from the one before.

I felt a peace, from the very beginning, that this pregnancy was going to go fine. It was a supernatural peace, because I'm more of a worrier by nature. So I kept asking God, “Please give me a manageable delivery, just a manageable one. And sure, I know I feel selfish, but can I have a short one?” And I just had peace. OK, this is, “I feel like You can give me that.”

So labor starts, and I'm settling in for a few days’ worth of this. I didn't call anybody. I just, my husband got ready for work. He said, “Should I go to work? Are we in for the day-long delivery? And I said, “I don't know. Maybe you should hang out, and we'll see.”

So I text my midwife, and I said, “You know what, these contractions are pretty tight and close together. But I'm fine, I'm managing.” And she said, “Well, why don't you get in the bath? See if you regulate into a rhythm.” OK, so I jumped into the bath and fall asleep for about 45 minutes.

Nancy: Oh, how beautiful!

Sonia: Yes, it was nice. My husband's out playing a word game on his phone or something. And I come out and start feeling like, “Oh, it'll be nice when I push a little.” And I was like, “Oh, wait a minute. Now I can't be ready to push. I haven't had enough torture. (laughter) This can't be right!”

And so I told my husband, “Maybe we should call,” and he said, “I don't want to deliver the baby!”

And I said “Well, you might have to.” So he called, and she said, “I'm on my way! Get in the position where you don't feel that” because I have weird labors where I can stall. So I did, OK, we'll wait it out. They came running over to my house. The team comes in, and he was born within about five minutes.

Nancy: How amazing!

Sonia:  I kept saying, “I can't believe I had a baby! I feel great!” It was only like five hours or so. Oh, unbelievable! It was a miracle.

Nancy: Oh, yes!

Sonia: And as soon as he came out, we looked at him, just to check him out. “Well, is it really Down's Syndrome or not?” And we saw little markers on him, and said, “Yes, he sure does.” And he was just the sweetest little guy. WE WERE IN LOVE.

Nancy: Oh yes, and so you know now, wow, just tell us how, what a blessing he is.

Sonia: Oh, as soon as he was born, within about an hour, I'm lying there in my bed, just happy as a clam, looking at the baby. And it hit me! That the entire pregnancy I had been thinking, “This is going to be so hard for us. We're going to have him with us forever. We have these two boys, and it's just going to be not what we had envisioned years ago. And how difficult for us.”

And then I thought, “How selfish have we been! We were only thinking of ourselves. And now that he's here, all I can think of is, “How is this going to affect his life? What's it going to be like for him? How can we help him become everything that God wants him to be?” And our focus completely shifted to him. And I love that He gave me that, because I felt like I hadn't even really seen how self-centered I had been.

And he has been nothing but JOY in our family. All the children want to hold him. He smiles, he coos, he loves everybody. And he's just a very content happy baby, and I thank God every day that He didn't listen to me in my fit that He knew what I needed. He knew what was going to be a blessing, and that His Word really is true, that children are a blessing. So it was just, it's been, he's been an amazing testimony. I love sharing it with anybody who will listen.

Nancy: So wonderful! Thank you for sharing, Sonia, and you will be able to read Sonia's testimony again when you get the magazine! You will just love it, and I think it just means so much more when you actually hear from someone personally. You'll be able to share it with others also.

Now, I know most of you are on the mailing list to get Above Rubies, but if you are not, just send in your address. Now that means you can do that from any country you live in. We send Above Rubies out all over the world, so wherever you live, and you're listening to this today, if you're not on the mailing list, don't forget to send in your name and address and we'll get the magazine to you.

Oh, by the way, anybody in any Asian countries and in Singapore, our dear lady who's been looking after there for many years, sadly, her mailing list disappeared! We've lost your names! So please send them in if you are listening to this today.

Now as we close, I just love to give you a Scripture. I always love to give you a Scripture so you're getting the Word. I love these words in Psalm 107, the last few verses. Verses 41-43: “He setteth the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock.”

God loves family! He loves to make families. God is the One Who makes families! He's the One Who gives conception. I mean, we can stop Him making our families, by stopping Him giving us conception. But God wants to make families like a flock.

Now, the one or two children, which is the average for today in our nation, is not really a flock. When you see a flock of sheep, you don't see one or two sheep. You see a little flock. And this is talking about the Middle Eastern flock. They were a small flock of sheep, not like in New Zealand, where I come from where they have thousands of sheep!

But it's that beautiful flock, where the shepherd is leading his flock. And it goes to say, “The righteous shall see it, and rejoice, and all iniquity shall stop her mouth.” I love that. “Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.”

You know, when a couple, when a family are having another baby, how do we react? “Oh, no, you're not having another one, are you?” Well, what are we doing when we say that? We are totally opposite to God's heart, because it's God Who makes families. God, Who loves to give conception. But what does it say>? “the wise, the wise they observe, they see it, and they praise the Lord, and they know that it is the goodness and the loving kindness of the Lord.”

So we've been blessed to hear of the beautiful loving kindness of the Lord to Sonia, and her husband, Kaleb. And how He's blessed them with these nine beautiful children  when they thought they may not be able to have any. Isn't God good?

Sonia: Oh, He's so good!

Nancy: Yes, well bless the Lord. We'll pray:

“Dear Father, we just thank You for another beautiful family testimony, and the way You have been building this beautiful Ramsay family. Lord, God, it wasn't always easy for Sonia, but You showed her Lord, how to be a mother who welcomes children, no matter what the circumstances. And Lord, You blessed them beyond measure.

We just thank You, Lord. Your ways are beyond our ways. They're so glorious. Help us, Lord, to always be on Your side, that we will think Your thoughts, and Lord, we won't grovel down in our own pitiful  thoughts. That we will come up to Your glorious plan, and know the joy of family, and how You love to build families. We just thank You in Jesus'\ Name. Amen.”

Transcribed by Darlene Norris

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