ZIBELL FAMILY

From Stephanie herself! 

"What a huge blessing to be a part of this community of support! My husband (Scott), myself (Stephanie) and my chatty toddler (Emara) can’t thank you enough!

I have wanted to adopt since I was a little girl. I had big dreams of a HUGE family and that family was going to come from all over the world. But, of course, my “plan” was to wait until we were older and more financially stable to adopt, after we had a few babies naturally.

Boy, was I way off course.

{Thank God for that}

I could literally spend hours talking to you about our story. First, I would want to tell you how incredible and good God has been to our {at times} fragile hearts. I would want to walk you through every moment of joy when we would celebrate a pregnancy. I would want you to join me in our complete excitement and emotional lovefest when we discovered we would get to bring a tiny little person into the world. Then I would want to cry with you as I tell you about all of my precious babies.  Little lives who have changed me, wrecked me for the best. I am the proud mother of 7 children. But, five of those children, I will never get to meet until heaven. In one paragraph, I cannot honor them enough, explain to you my love for them enough.

My five little ones in heaven. 5 portions of my heart poured out and waiting to be filled again. God knows you. And He loves you more than I ever could. And so, my heart rests in that. But, gosh, I miss you. To the core of my body, I ache for each one of you.

Emara Jane. She is my miracle. Our miracle. She should not be here. By the total grace of God, my body grew her and she is a thriving 2 year old who loves life and shows me Jesus every. single. day. There are no words that could describe the gift that you are to me and your daddy.

And our little Ethiopian baby. Our 7^th child. We have been waiting for this little one since August, 2010. Praying, hoping, wishing, crying, yearning. Our dossier made its grand entrance to Ethiopia in May, 2012 and not one day goes by that you don’t cross our mind, sweet child. Not a day goes by that we don’t pray for you. Hope that the phone will ring with our referral. We are {IM}patiently waiting. Your room is ready. And so are we.  

As you can tell, it is hard to talk to you about my children without wanting to talk directly to them. My heart is for my kids. And our little one in Ethiopia has been “mine” since 2010. This child has been my longest pregnancy!! And my expectancy for him (or her) to come home is so magnetic and palpable.

With everyday that we don’t get that referral phone call comes a tiny smidge of sadness that we still have to wait that much longer.

But, we know that the story God is writing for our lives is far more beautiful than the one we could ever try to write ourselves. 

So, we find hope in that as we wait for our little one to come home."