A Family to Call Her Own

Children with Down syndrome are considered harder to place.

But that label didn’t stop this family from following God’s leading and bringing 2 little girls home. The following is their testimony.

We are the Colfack family.

My husband and I have been married 21 years. We have 3 wonderful biological children, aged 19, 15, and 13. Soon after our youngest was born we began considering adoption. We talked over options and contacted different places to get started, but the timing was never right. We even began to think maybe it wasn’t an option for our family.

But one night, I had a dream. In it, I heard a voice telling me, “Don’t give up on her.” In 2013, we came across a picture of a little girl being advocated for–we knew she was our daughter. We prayed and prayed for her. And we prayed and prayed for ourselves–was adoption possible? For our happy little family? For us financially? Heck, could we even travel that far? If this was God’s will for us, we knew we were going to have to take a huge leap of faith.

TUGGED BY GOD

The night before we officially committed to our daughter, my husband prayed–

“I aim to work and serve You better, Lord. Please help me know Your will and direction, and I will follow.”

The next day we were standing in line at the grocery store. As my husband was paying he felt a tug on his coat sleeve. He turned around to a young man with special needs who looked him in the eye. The young man asked him, “Who do you work for?” My husband knew in that moment that Jesus was reaching out saying, “Trust me.”

All we had to do was take the first step. 

Throughout the process of bringing our daughter home, God revealed himself as we had never seen before. Although I had already accepted Christ as my savior, I didn’t grow up in a Christian home. Through this experience, I have felt Christ’s presence stronger than ever before. It was life changing!

CALLED TO MORE

After returning home with our daughter, we knew that God had more planned for us. Visiting her orphanage really changed our lives. We knew we had room for one more and that we needed to go back. However, our first adoption took so much out of us financially and emotionally. We didn’t think it would be possible.

After a year had passed, we knew it was time when we saw the picture of a little girl with sad eyes that desperately needed the love of a family–our family.  Once again, we stepped out in faith. We had no idea how we could financially do it but knew if she was our daughter, God would once again get us to China to bring her home. God walked with us, opening all the doors we needed to finally get her home.

Both our girls were not “babies” when they came home. Our first adopted daughter was 5 and our newly adopted daughter turned 8 just a couple days after we got home. Because of their age and their special need of Down syndrome, they were considered hard to place.

But we know that God hand picked these two precious girls from clear across the world among hundreds of thousands of children to become our daughters. Our daughters!

TWO MORE PICTURES FOR THE WALL

Soon after our first daughter was home we added her picture to our wall with our other children. To us this was a formality–something our parents did and something we have done for our children. We didn’t think about how it looked in the eyes of a child who had never had a family of their own. Our daughter looked up at the wall, pointed, and said, “I on the wall.” We thought it was so adorable that she was identifying herself, only to realize she was identifying herself as part of our family.

Just recently we received the girls’ school pictures, so it was time to update our photos and add our newest daughter to our wall. We had talked about it ahead of time, wondering how she would react. When it was time for her picture to go into the frame she started jumping for joy! We knew what it was about. Tears filled our eyes as we hung it on our wall. Everyday she points to her picture with a big smile and a little happy dance. She, too, now has an identity–a family to call her own. What a beautiful gift He has given us.

Our adoptions were only made possible through God. Through organizations like Lifesong, we were able to meet our fundraising needs to make it all possible. This was truly a miracle. In their time at home, our girls have learned who God is and that through His love, they are able to be loved by our family. We could have missed this! Thank you to all the generous donors and Lifesong for helping us in our calling! Thank you for your part in making our family complete (well, for now… we never know God’s plans for our lives).

–The Colfack Family

CONSIDERING ADOPTION?

We provide adoption financial assistance to families like the Colfack’s through matching grants and fundraising tools to help bring children home.