Betty's marriage was failing when, one night, feeling all alone, she prayed a desperate prayer. Betty asked God for a child to love, and the Lord granted her prayer. Yet two years later, God would require the child back, when placing her for adoption seemed like the only way to secure the health care she needed. Betty gave everything she had in an offering to the Lord, and he blessed her by giving it all back.
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Betty's Offering
I was married for six years when my husband and the father of my children decided he wanted a divorce. Although I was raised in church, John and I had just started attending a local church together. His sudden announcement took me by surprise. Although he made no move to leave, I lived in fear constantly.
A Hiding Place
I began to read books on every subject known to man. I needed to learn how to get God to make my husband love me again. Then one night I picked up one of my many books called, The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. Once I started, I stayed up all night until I read the last page.In tears I fell on my knees and begged God to help me. I didn't think I loved God enough to go through what Corrie did. I asked him to give me the kind of faith and trust that Corrie Ten Boom had. Little did I know that prisons aren't always buildings. And little do we how how much we can actually love when faced with trials we don't understand.
When John did not change in any way, I grew more desperate waiting for the day he might leave. One night in prayer I was feeling very alone. I asked God to give me something to hold onto. Then the thought came to pray for another child. We had two daughters, and my mind thought, Yes! Another baby.
A Gift from God
I asked God to give me a child as a gift—someone all my own to love. The older girls were part of John's life, and that had kept him from leaving sooner. Yet something in me added, "If you require this child back, I will give it back to you. Please, even if for only two years, let me have this love of my own."On Christmas night, my third daughter was conceived.
I was seven months pregnant with Debbie when John packed his bags and left. He said, "I hate you and that baby." I cried that night until no tears were left to shed. I thought of my baby and again I called out to God. I asked him to give Debbie a daddy that loved her. I asked him to be her daddy until she had one to care for her.
About 4 weeks later, I went into premature labor. John came home feeling guilty about the kids, but once Debbie was born and he found out she was ill, he wanted out again. Debbie was underweight and jaundiced. I had to leave her in the hospital for several weeks. For some reason John stayed with us until she was 13 months old. He left then, never to return.
He had a new girlfriend and they moved to Oklahoma. Soon after he left, Debbie started having seizures. They were so bad that I had to spend more time in the hospital than at home. My heart and soul were so tired. All I could think of was Debbie. So I asked John to please help me with the two older girls, until I could get on my feet. He had them in Oklahoma before the next night. I never saw my little girls again until they were in their teens.
John wanted to be rid of Debbie, so he told an aunt and uncle about her and how sick she was. This was a missionary couple and they wanted another child. They had lived in Spain and had one son. So they were going to adopt a child anyway. But I didn't know all this at the time, when I received a call from them.
John had dropped our insurance, so I was unable to help Debbie as well as I wanted to. I agreed to let her go home with them to help me out for a while. The whole time I was thinking, "I am coming to get you very soon." In the middle of a battle over my other girls, and Debbie gone, I got mad. I was mad because I had done nothing to deserve this. So I prayed and decided to go get my baby.
My sister drove me to the town where Debbie was living. I walked through that door and saw my little girl dressed in blue and so radiant. It was hard to believe. They had taken Debbie to a doctor and found she had to have eye surgery soon, as her eyes were crossed. If not corrected, she would never have good vision. She also had a staph infection and needed a blood transfusion.
An Offering to Jesus
This all toyed with my emotions. I still wanted her, but something was holding me back from just leaving with her. Suddenly the front door opened and Jessie, the husband, came in. Debbie was showing me her doll. She looked up and burst out laughing as she ran, lifting her arms saying, "Daddy."Need I say another word. The promise I had made was before me.
I signed adoption papers that day. Debbie was two years old at the time. I gave all that I had to give to Jesus that day. And Jesus gave me hope for a little girl that had no hope.
Debbie ended up with brain damage to her motor nerves, yet with special care, she went through Junior College because she was given the best medical care a child could get.
God showed me my Hiding Place in the years since then. My oldest daughters and I have a beautiful relationship. So do Debbie and I, and her parents. I think to myself, How can anyone doubt God? He is so holy, and far more than able to turn water into wine. He gave me the child I had asked for. When he required her back, I gave her back to him. Then he blessed her and gave her back to me.
I was wounded and he healed me, lost and he found me, alone and he gave me love greater than I had ever known. I am my beloved's child—a child of the King.
