Scripture Reading:
GENESIS 29:31–35
Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.
PSALM 27:14
KATE ENGLISH FELL IN LOVE WITH KURT after her junior year in college. He shared her faith and love of the outdoors and he wanted a whole houseful of kids. Kate felt that God had hand-delivered Kurt to her. Wedding plans were under way.
But a few months later, their car was hit head-on by a drunk driver. Kurt broke his leg, but Kate was left with a crushed pelvis, internal injuries, and a jagged scar across her right cheek. Because of the pelvic damage, she would never be able to have children.
Three weeks after the accident Kurt visited Kate and poured out his feelings. “I’m having second thoughts about getting married. I want children, Kate. The reason I want to get married is to have a family.”
His words pierced her heart. “I can’t have kids, so you don’t want to marry me.”
“I’m sorry. I know it sounds terrible, but I can’t change the way I feel.” It was the last time Kate ever saw him.
Finally, her parents insisted on counseling and over the course of the next year Kate began to find a new life, earning her Emergency Medical Technician certificate. Gradually her faith returned, and she found great peace in her relationship with God. No matter if Kurt had left, no matter how many people stared at her face, God would be there for her. He hadn’t allowed the car accident. Drunk drivers were part of a fallen world. And she couldn’t navigate a fallen world without God.
Kate pursued becoming a paramedic with a passion, and the job turned out to be everything she hoped it would be. But she always felt men were looking at her scar, not seeing who she was on the inside. And so she kept walls up around her heart. All the while two desires burned in her heart.
“Please, God, help me learn to love. Bring someone into my life who will accept me the way I am. And please let me care for a child one day.”
Months became years and still Kate felt helpless to move beyond her fears. Finally, on the morning of her twenty-seventh birthday she prayed, “God, if you don’t want me to find love, if children aren’t in my future, so be it. I give my whole life over to you.”
That day Kate and Tom, a single paramedic whom she’d known for three years, were dispatched to the scene of a fatality. The victims’ car had gone off the freeway and rolled into a ravine. A deceased man and a woman were trapped inside the crushed car. Special machinery was working to get the bodies out, and halfway through the procedure the small, stifled cries of a child came from the backseat.
Kate and Tom rushed past the other workers. Strapped in the backseat were two children—an infant in a car seat, eyes wide open and alert. And a boy, maybe two or three years old, in an upright car seat. He was crying, his head bleeding, his eyes filled with terror.
In fifteen minutes Kate and Tom were able to get the children out of the vehicle. Kate stayed with them, taking their vital signs, making sure they had no serious injuries. The boy held tight to Kate’s hand and his little sister’s hand and cuddled close to Kate. By the time Tom had helped to remove the bodies of the two adults, Kate felt a bond with the children that went beyond explanation.
Details came in. The children’s mother was in jail and had signed over her parental rights to her only living relative—her sister. The deceased couple was the sister and her husband, both of whom were drunk. The boy’s name was Peter, and his sister was Cassie. They were placed in a temporary foster home.
But Kate couldn’t get the little boy out of her head. A week after the accident, Kate dreamed she was caring for little Peter and Cassie. Parenting them. The next morning she talked to Tom. “I’m thinking of seeing if I can get emergency approval to foster them, maybe even adopt them one day.”
Tom’s eyes sparkled. “Let me know if it works out. I’ll do whatever I can to help.”
Four weeks after the accident, Peter and Cassie were placed in her home as long-term foster kids. From the beginning Kate knew they were an answer to prayer in her life.
Tom came around several times a week. Sometimes he’d play with Peter or rock Cassie to sleep. Other times he’d stay and talk to Kate about his life and dreams. What started as a friendship soon became more. Tom told Kate he was falling in love with her, and Kate fought her desire to shut him out.
Six months later, Kate got approval to officially adopt the children. That night, Tom pulled out a ring and asked her the question she never expected to hear again. “Will you marry me, Kate? Let me love you all the days of my life?”
Tears filled her eyes as Kate took the ring, kissed Tom, and told him yes. They were married on her twenty-eighth birthday. Two months later, Kate and Tom stood hand in hand as a judge finalized the adoption, and Kate marveled at the turns her life had taken.
One car accident had shut the door on what she thought was her future, but the other had brought about not one, but two miracles.
… to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
ISAIAH 61:3