Yesterday I shared my first miracle story with you. Today, I will continue with another inspirational story that I hope will encourage you and warm your heart. Miracles and blessings still happen each and every day.
As I shared about discovering my biological grandmother in my last post, this story is about my first grandchild. She was born into a tumultuous situation. When I heard my daughter was in labor, I went into action to drive the 1100+ miles to see her. It was two days of intense driving across the country by myself but I was excited to lay my eyes upon this child.
I arrived at the hospital just before sundown and was beaming as I held this beautiful little girl in my arms. I knew however, she was entering a life that was going to be difficult and daunting. The relationship between her father and mother was not good and I begged my daughter to leave with me the following week as I first-hand witnessed the abuse and dysfunction. She stayed.
I cried for hours as I left them knowing in my heart that things were going to escalate in a negative way. Indeed they did. Months later, my daughter and granddaughter made it back to Texas. I was able to help them out and couldn’t get enough of this beautiful little girl.
Sadly, a custody battle quickly began and when this child was 8 months old, she was taken from us by the other family. Now, at this time I prayed for her safety and care. My main prayer was that God would place a godly person in her life.
Now, I had the privilege of praying for a granddaughter from afar just as my own grandmother had prayed for me all of those years. (See yesterday’s post). The full circle of a praying grandmother began again. It was my greatest honor and allowed for me to have a God-connection that cannot be broken.
Hang with me as I share the miracle of this story. In order to fully appreciate what happened, these earlier details needed to be in place first.
Three years had passed since I last held my precious granddaughter. Now, I was enjoying my second grandchild, a little boy who was now a year and a half. We attended a weekly Bible study where he went to the children’s program while I attended my group. It is a huge group of over 600 women who studied from Sept-May.
It was the week prior to Easter and I received a random text from the baby daddy asking me if I could take my granddaughter for the weekend. Now, remember, I had not seen nor heard a word from these people in three years! My heart was beating out of my chest as I said, “Yes, where can I meet you and when?“
I’ll never forget getting out of my car and opening the back door of his truck to see this beautiful curly blond three-year-old. She immediately held her arms out to me and I collected her bag and off we went. I could barely breathe as I gazed at her in the rearview mirror.
That first night as I went through her bag to put her in her PJ’s, a Bible Study lesson fell out of her bag. This was the SAME Bible study I attended. As a leader, I called the Children’s leader and asked if they had this child in our class. She said, “Yes, she is in the class across from your grandson!” I nearly fainted.
Here we had been attending this same class for 8 months and had no idea my granddaughter was also there. The next week, I waited outside of her class as I picked up my grandson to wait to see who it was that was bringing her. (Remember, 600 women attended this class!)
My granddaughter came out of her class and recognized me. The woman picking her up was her grandmother and had no idea what was happening. And, of course, they had been dealing with their own custody issues.
I simply held out my hand and told her who I was and that I had been praying for someone to be a godly influence in this child’s life. And, here she was! We both cried and hugged tightly.
In summary, to this day we meet up with this family so sister and brother are able to get to know one another. Each child now lives with their respective grandparents and both are safe. Our granddaughter lives with her paternal grandparents and is thriving and we have now adopted her brother. Both children are now 11 and 13.
The miracle, of course, is the answered prayer of a godly woman who was in my granddaughter’s life. Also, the re-connection occurred and continues today. Thankfully, I did not have to wait 18 years as my grandmother did. However, through the power of prayer, I received this amazing re-connection gift.
May you hold onto your prayers and never doubt that your prayers are heard and answered in ways we don’t often live to see. God is fully in control and we must hold onto His perfect timing and His ways. Be blessed this Christmas and every day you live.
See the first post in this series below: