Miriam had five children. That is no small number! She and her husband Warren had raised almost half of them to adulthood– one was in dental school, another headed that way, two in high school and one in sixth grade. Warren was one of the only missionary dentists in Africa and she was sending her kids one by one from Kenya back to America to spread their wings. Miriam would soon be down to just one child in their home.
Until, they met a baby.
One minute the woman was there, holding her newborn, and the next she was gone, the baby alone in her bed. In a region where survival is painstakingly scratched from the Earth and the infant mortality rate is almost ten times higher than we know in the U.S., perhaps this women saw a better future for her child if she left her in the arms of strangers. Miriam and her family walked to the mission hospital nursery to pick the tiny babe up out of the crib and rock her in their arms. After a week of daily visits, a doctor allowed them to watch her in their home so that she could be held and cared for by a family. The hospital chaplain named her Hope.
Hope at 11 months
It had been twelve years since the youngest had been born, but Miriam welcomed baby Hope into their home and surrendered her life to the needs of a newborn. With every diaper change and midnight bottle, Hope’s life began to mesh with theirs and they felt as if she’d always been there. They delighted in this sweet little human and celebrated her growth and accomplishments. But Miriam knew that every day brought them closer to an uncertain future for Hope.
As Miriam walked through those days, she prayed and sought God’s direction for her family. She and Warren wanted the very best for Hope. They knew God had placed her with them for a little while, but maybe it was best that she grow up with a Kenyan family? Miriam felt God place a special verse on her heart, and she hung a sign in their home for a constant reminder.
The LORD will work out his plans for Hope’s life—
for your faithful love, O LORD, endures forever. (Psalm 138:8, NLT)
After months of praying, listening, and seeking God, after months of diapers and feedings and bath times and sweet kisses from a precious baby girl, they knew God had brought them into an unexpected new role – as parents to little Hope. With joy, Miriam announced they would adopt Hope, now eight months old.
Miriam and Hope–2 Years Old
With that decision, Miriam and Warren stepped out in faith that God would work out the details for their expanding family. They knew full well how unconventional the Kenyan court system could be. Added to the typical roadblocks of an international adoption was their strange situation of fostering Hope since birth and learning that they would be the first adoption since the Hague Convention went into effect (an effort to more closely monitor international adoption). A year of social workers, court dates, and forms passed. And then another. Miriam sent another son to college in the U.S. Hope couldn’t leave the country, and so neither would Miriam.
When Hope was two and half years old, the family learned that their judge was no longer granting adoptions to Americans. Just when they were in sight the end, with a final court date scheduled in the coming weeks, the situation appeared utterly hopeless. And yet still Miriam claimed the promises that she read in her Bible. The scheduled day came and went, the judge postponed the case yet again, and all hope seemed lost. A network of believers around the world united to pray that the judge would look favorably on them.
And God worked mightily in the judge’s heart. On April 28th, 2011, the judge recognized what Miriam had already known – that Hope was her daughter.
Miriam, her husband, mother, and six children together in the US, December 2011
Despite her legal adoption, Miriam and her family struggled through more red tape trying to get a visa for Hope to travel the United States. After eight more months of petitioning, Hope was finally granted traveling papers just before Christmas. This Christmas Miriam was in America for the first time in four years, surrounded by her six children, praising God for the ways He has shown Himself faithful.
Erica Yezerski has a handful of international moves in her back pocket and once ran a marathon through an African game preserve. These days her triumphs are limited to what she can accomplish during nap time, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. Erica keeps record of her little family of husband, baby boy, and bulldog at The View from Erica. She also tweets @EYezerski.