A Letter To Our DAUGHTER!!

Dear Sonya love,

Oh, how we have prayed for you, little one! We have prayed for you since the first time we heard your name. Our prayers have changed so much over the past year, but I can assure you they never stopped.

The first phone call we got from our sweet home-finder led us to a prayer about whether we were the right home for you. We knew that you had some challenges to overcome, and we knew that you were most likely going to need a forever home soon and we didn’t plan to be that home for you. I remember going into your Daddy’s office at the Wade Center and praying. I had been sick for the weeks after we had become approved to foster… sick over the unknowns of this child who would come to live with us for awhile. Would we get to love on a girl, or a boy? Would this child be outgoing or shy? As soon as we prayed for you that first time, that sick feeling went away. I knew you were the child that we had been anxiously awaiting. We planned to bridge the gap for you and help you overcome your challenges so you would be ready when the time came for you to go to your forever home. Our home-finder said she envisioned our home being a healing home, and we couldn’t wait to be that for you. The first picture we saw of you brought tears to our eyes.

Then you arrived in our home. You immediately found your place in my heart and in your Daddy’s heart. It was quite a big place! Our prayers quickly turned to prayers crying out for help. You had more pain bottled up inside you than anyone I’ve ever known. You were so broken and helpless. You were also so tough, because you had needed to be; you had been protecting yourself for so long. It took many of those prayers as we tried to understand how to help you. We surrendered your pain over to God so many times. You still have so many wounds you don’t deserve to have, but God is slowly healing them and teaching you how to share your burdens.

As school started, we prayed for your mind. We prayed for him to open up your mind so that you could learn everything you needed to… which was quite a lot since you were so behind. You hadn’t been given the security you needed for your mind to soak up what it needed to. We prayed for you to learn and to love learning. You were blessed with the most wonderful teacher who had so much room in her heart for you as well. And slowly you started learning. When we first met you, you couldn’t write or recognize a single letter, couldn’t count to ten, and couldn’t even spell your name. But now look how far you have come! Not only do you write your name beautifully, but you know all of your letters and sounds and can even sound out words!! You have amazed us with how quickly you are learning.

As you have started praying for yourself and asking questions about the world, we have prayed for God to reveal himself to you. You are so young, but we can already see how He is starting to in little ways. We love watching you pray for Sissy, for your friends, and for everything that is going on in your life. You inspire me in that no matter how mad you are, you always talk to God.

The one day we realized that the place in our heart had grown so much, it wouldn’t survive if you had to leave us. What would we do with out your daily dance performances, contagious laughter, and sweet cuddles? What would it be like to wake up in the morning to a quiet room instead of our bundle of energy hopping in our bed? What would it be like without someone calling out “Mama” every two minutes to ask for something? That was something we didn’t want to imagine. Even though you are six years old and your Daddy and I have only been married two and were not ready to sacrifice our freedom, we also weren’t ready to imagine a life without you.

So our prayers changed again. While we continued praying for all these other things, we started fervently praying that we could give you a forever home. We wanted to be able to tell you that you could stay with us “all day long.” We wanted to get to continue to watch you grow and learn. It seemed like the waiting and praying for this would never end. And then it happened… we got the text saying we were finally able to adopt you. I cried tears of joy, and wanted to go wake you up even though you’d been in bed for three hours. I hesitantly waited until the next day. You woke us up by jumping in our bed like you always do. I immediately told you the news. You were so filled with joy and exclaimed, “This is my BEST family!”

Just because you are “officially” a part of our family doesn’t mean these prayers will stop. What a journey this past year has been! You have been such an adventure, and we can’t wait to see what happens next.

Welcome to the family, Sonya Elizabeth Workman!

Thank you SO much to our sweet friends, Lily + Elyse for capturing these beautiful family photos we will treasure forever!

xoxo,

Katelyn Workman

Photography: Lily Elyse Photography