Scripture Reading:
GENESIS 15
Little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them.
MATTHEW 19:13
WITH THEIR ENTIRE HEARTS Ben and Beverly Jameson wanted to be parents, but nothing they had tried through medical means had done anything to help Beverly get pregnant. They contacted a private adoption attorney and learned that the cost would be approximately twelve thousand dollars—money they simply didn’t have. Finally they contacted their bank and took out a second mortgage on their house.
Ben was a manager at a local supermarket. Beverly worked as a teacher’s assistant, but once they adopted she planned to quit and spend her days at home. If things got tight financially, Ben would take a second job.
The process took six months, and one afternoon they took the call they’d been waiting for. A homeless couple had contacted the Jamesons’ attorney and informed him that they wanted to give their baby up for adoption. The family was quickly matched with Ben and Beverly, and three weeks later their son, Eric, came home. Their attorney also told them that the homeless woman had gotten her tubes tied after delivering Eric. He would never have a biological sibling.
Beverly quit her job and became a full-time mother. Eric was the child of their dreams—a dark-haired, half-Hispanic child who loved them from the beginning.
The trouble didn’t start until Eric was three years old. Multiple bruises on Eric’s back and shoulders were followed by a high temperature, then a trip to the doctor and blood tests.
Within a week they found out Eric had leukemia. His blood type wasn’t listed in the bone marrow donor banks, so his family could pray for just one thing—that somehow someone would enter the registry as a match to Eric—a possibility that carried with it odds of twenty thousand to one.
The wait was terrible.
The Jamesons had none of the money needed to hold local blood drives, events that could add hundreds or thousands of names to the national registry. They met with their pastor one Sunday and explained how dire the situation had become.
Tears filled Ben’s eyes. “Even if we find a match, I’m not sure we could pay for it.”
The pastor organized an event with a sister church, and in one weekend they raised enough money for the Jamesons to pay their part of the bone marrow transplant cost. But they hadn’t found anyone to match little Eric’s blood and bone marrow type.
Siblings had a 50 percent chance of being a match, so that was an option Beverly wanted to hold on to. But the woman hadn’t had children before Eric; and after having her tubes tied, she certainly wouldn’t have more.
Another month passed and Eric seemed to grow stronger. His doctor confirmed that he was in remission but warned that the remission was only temporary. Often when a child with leukemia slips out of remission, his disease is more aggressive, worse than before.
Ben and Beverly kept praying.
Then one day a few weeks later, they took a call that stopped their world. Despite the fact that she’d had her tubes tied, Eric’s birth mother had given birth to a little girl a year after Eric was born.
“At first the woman wanted to keep the little girl. But her husband has a drug problem. They’ve been on the streets ever since the child was born. She’s two now. The woman is pretty sure she wants to give the girl up, and there’s only one place she would want her to be—with you and Ben. She’ll let us know next week.”
Beverly and Ben prayed desperately on multiple fronts. First, that if it was God’s will, the woman would agree to give up her daughter. Second, if they could bring this little girl home, that her blood would be a perfect match for Eric.
“It seems like too much to ask,” Beverly said.
“But we have a God who loves doing the impossible,” Ben reminded her.
Over the next few days, they survived on faith alone. Eric stayed in remission, but he was pale, thinner than he should have been. With every passing hour it was obvious he would need a bone marrow transplant one day soon.
But while they waited, their pastor and the sister church that helped raise money for the Jamesons all prayed around the clock. Finally the news came—the woman had decided to give up her little girl. Ben and Beverly rejoiced in the addition of a daughter to their family. They were shocked to see how much Eric and his sister looked alike.
The little girl’s name was Corinne, and the Jamesons chose to keep her name the same. That way she would have one less adjustment to make. Once she’d been home for a week, the doctor drew the blood to test her prospects as a donor for Eric.
By then, Beverly was convinced that a miracle was at hand. The sister who never should have been had wound up in their home. If they looked that much alike, of course their bone marrow would match. And sure enough, when they received word from their doctor they weren’t surprised.
Eric’s miracle little sister was indeed a match!
The operation was not a risk for a toddler, so the procedure was arranged and a month later the bone marrow transplant took place. Today, fifteen years later, Eric and Corinne are the best of friends. The miracle of Corinne’s life lives on in her brother, and Ben and Beverly are grateful every day for the answered prayers that came their way, the brilliant morning that followed the darkest night of all.
Everything is possible for him who believes.
MARK 9:23