During the waiting our family participated in the Down syndrome walk in September 2018. We had participated the year before and were back to support our buddy Ezra. Andrew, our oldest, had been a community helper at his elementary building a couple years ago and was assigned to help a student with Down syndrome named Ezra walk out at dismissal each day. His love and compassion for this student was immeasurable from the moment he started. He was inquisitive about Ezra and realized right in front of his eyes that God created this happy little boy for the world to love and despite his challenges was a super star. At that walk in September of 2018 Brian felt a connection to that community, to the people and supports surrounding this population. He didn’t say this directly to me but I believe God planted that thought in his heart for the right moment. Because shortly after that I came across something on the Bethany Facebook page about the Bamboo Project, a project specific to Bethany, meaning if those other two places had of had a domestic program or been taking new families we possibly would have never been introduced too. This project was started to help bring awareness and increase adoption among waiting children with Down syndrome in other countries, countries where access to all the amazing things we experienced and witnessed at that walk are not necessarily present. My heart broke for these children. On a drive home from an adoption training I brought the possibility of a special needs adoption up to Brian. We had already ruled out international adoption because the cost was too great. It just wasn’t an option. Until God said it was. On that ride home I talked about the Bamboo project, Brian talked about his feelings at the walk and we quickly realized this was surely what was happening in our waiting. God had this planned all along, he knew what he was doing.
To read more about the Bamboo Project and their great work, visit https://www.bethany.org/campaigns/bamboo-project.
Gard Family Adoption Adventure 