For years, Debi McCrea and her husband Mike had attempted to adopt an infant. Twice they’d almost signed papers, but arrangements had fallen through. Then in April 1993, they learned that a young pregnant woman had selected them to receive her baby. “We were thrilled, yet fearful of being disappointed again,” Debi recalls. Tentatively they began to know Anna. “

“She had a difficult home life,” says Debi. “Her relatives all wanted her to keep her baby, but she was determined to give it a better life with an adoptive couple. We admired her courage.” But as Anna’s delivery date approached, the pressure on her intensified. She stopped phoning the McCreas.

Debi was devastated. Had Anna changed her mind? Would they lose yet another chance to be parents? One desperate day she went to church, and stumbled into a pew. Slowly she began to realize that, although she had prayed every day for the baby, she hadn’t been interceding with the same fervor for Anna. Yet didn’t Anna need the support that only heaven could provide? And who else was praying for this lonely unwed mother during this heartbreaking time?

Debi would do it. She lit the only candles left in the rack, one for Anna and one for the baby. God, she prayed, Please be with Anna, and do what’s best for her, even if she decides to keep the baby. She really needs You now.

There. It hurt, but she had surrendered her will to His, and put Anna’s dilemma ahead of her own. Tearfully, she sat back in the pew, and her hip hit something hard. Debi turned to look at the object. It was a baby’s pacifier.

A sudden burst of joy washed through her. Was God sending her a sign?

Four days later, Brianna was born. The moment Debi saw her she knew immediately that their long wait had had a purpose, that this was the baby God had chosen for them. Anna knew too. Although there were some hurdles to overcome, Brianna eventually became the McCrea’s legal daughter. “We still keep in touch with Anna,” Debi says today. “Our prayers for her have formed a bond that will never break.”

Copyrighted 2002 by Joan Wester Anderson. For more stories, check the website at http://joanwanderson.com.