I've asked Mandy to share her life's journey with us. The way the Lord reached out to her special need brought me to tears.
"I'd say my story is more of the lost sheep...but it's mine nonetheless.I was reared in a wonderful Christian home. I was very comfortable in that world surrounded by Christian friends, family, church and even, my Christian
school. But it soon
turned into complacency and I started taking things into my own hands. At college I hung out with people I should've stayed away from and
participated in activities I should never have even considered. As soon as I graduated from college, I was married. It only
last 3 years and I was very much a part of that marriage ending in divorce.
Shortly after that, I married my husband Cary. We were both rebellious and far away from the Lord. On
our wedding night, as Cary was sleeping next to me the sudden the
realization of how far I had fallen overwhelmed me. I was so lost...that night
I cried out to God, hoping He could and would forgive me for all the sin I had
chosen to engulf myself in. I had my doubts but God is much bigger and much more gracious than we can ever imagine. So I
surrendered my life to the Lord that night.
I woke up the next morning with hope but also knowing that I had just married a
man who wanted nothing to do with God. Through my poor choices, I had
alienated most of my friends and family, so I went to the one place I knew I
could go to ... my Savior. My first prayer went something
like this "Dear God, please let Cary want to go to church, any church" the very
next day Cary looked at me nonchalantly and
said " you know what, honey...I've been thinking...maybe we should start going
to church". I thought "WOAH! This is amazing. So I continued praying for Cary and for us. It wasn't
the next day, but one day I found Cary in the back of our house
looking out over the fields that lay behind it. As I approached, I saw
he had tears coming down his face. He looked at me and said, "I'm not going to
fight Him anymore." I found later thatCary had gone to a basketball
outreach from a local church at the age of 18 years old and had given his life
to Christ. And yet he'd been running from Him ever since. I never knew...we hadn't
talked about God. That night we dedicated our lives (and our marriage) to God.
Cary started to grow so fast my head was spinning. He couldn't get enough
of the Word. I remember calling dad (who lived about a hour and a half a way)
and saying, "Dad -- he's got so many questions," and Dad would come and sit and
talk with Cary - no matter what time of the night it was. However, In the year that we were married, we found out that we would probably not have
children naturally.
I remember one night, standing on the back of the porch with a blanket around my
shoulders because of the chill, fighting with God. I
secretly thought that this was His punishment for my sins....to be childless, yet
to give me such a desire for children. I stood under those stars
with a big hole in my heart. But just about that time, God was knitting a precious child in the womb of another
on the other side of the world. And when He came to that child's heart, He
dropped a stitch. That child was born with a hole in his heart that mirrored
the one I had on the porch.
About 2 years later, I received a call from my mum saying that some
missionary friends of ours had been in Romania and developed a relationship with
a woman who was a doctor and ran the orphanage in the small town of Medias. As
soon as we heard his name,
Andre...we knew that he was ours. And when looked
into the face of that beautiful child nine months later in the orphanage...I
knew...God's way was better than my way. What a miracle!
It shook my idea that I was being punished so, in my silly brain, I
declared that, because Andre' was almost three when we got him, my punishment
must be that I would never experience the baby years...those special bonding
times with a newborn. How foolish I was...
Nine years later, we recieved a call from the woman who said she was looking through old files
and came across our name. She felt God had laid us on her heart and she said
that she had a child that was to be born in 3 months and she could find no one
to take him. 2 1/2 month's later, I was in the birthing room, being a leg
holder for Caleb's birth (his birth mom thought both of his mothers should be
there) and as I watched him come into this world...I knew, once again, God's
ways were so much better than ours. All my defenses fell and I realized that I had waiting for a punishment
that had already been nailed to the cross...I had repented...and He had carried
my burden.
All through this time, our life has been a joy of sharing with others the
miracle of what God can do with the lowliest of low...we share our story
wherever we go and travel to jails, churches. schools, fairs,
festivals,....anyone who will have us about the love of Christ and His amazing
grace.
