How God used a special boy to give us courage to adopt

I saw a picture today of  a special little boy on his mommy's Facebook. His name is Peter and he had Trisomy 18.  Brought back a special, life changing memory...

When we were getting ready to go back to Ukraine to adopt Lily (after not being able to adopt her with Sean, due to her not being available yet), we found out about a little boy named Taras who they said had Trisomy 18. While he was adorable laying in his crib (in the picture we had), we didn't have much information about him except several diagnoses. As I was looking into that, a mom from Reeces Rainbow group connected me with a friend of hers named Mary, Peter's mom.

Mary shared with me about Trisomy 18, and about her experience with her son.  I remember most that she told me what an indescribable blessing Peter was to her and her family, and how thankful she was for him.  I was touched by that, and I believe God used her to open my heart to being willing to adopt Taras...and thus accept the gift God wanted to give us. I am so grateful....I never could have imagined how I would grow to love our son, whom we named Joshua, and how he would bless each of us. 

Peter went to be with the Lord, and his family misses him everyday. Yet, his influence goes on! Mary has a ministry she started called "Prenatal Partners for Life" that ministers to and supports women and families that have an adverse diagnosis when pregnant. They support them during pregnancy and afterwards, and share about G0d's love for these special children through the testimonies of others and helping to meet their needs.   This ministry blessed us also when Joshua was in the PICU for 5 months with gas and food cards.

BTW, it turned out that Joshua didn't 'have Trisomy 18, but is missing the half of his 14th chromosome....and he is more profoundly disabled then we had been told....yet, it was all in His plan.    If he didn't have Trisomy diagnosis, I would probably never would have "met" Mary, and may have not had the courage to adopt. We sure would have missed out!  Isn't it incredible how God in his sovereignty and wisdom can use human mistakes to bring about good and blessing for us?

Please visit Mary's website and be blessed, and especially, share it with anyone you know who :

need support either in pregnancy or afterwards:

Here is the link (in white so don't miss it!):  http://www.prenatalpartnersforlife.org/index.htm