We finally got the call that it was time to pick up our new little girl. All the paperwork, tears, excitement, doubts, trips to the post office, anticipation were finally going to be a reality in a few days! We were blessed with the privilege of getting a new 16-month old girl! God did some amazing miracles to get her here when He did!

Our story begins a little bit before this new little life. I married Martha Fussell in 1991.

We were happily married and lived in Denton, TX. We gave birth to our first child Dane on July 5, 1995. Two years later, we joyfully found out we were pregnant again. Martha was told by a physician that it was all right to train and run a marathon, which she successfully did. We had all that a young couple could ask for. I was attending Dallas Theological Seminary. We were involved with many different ministries. God was using our family to share His Word with others. Little did we know that God had another marathon He desired for us to run.

Martha was diagnosis with cancer. We did not know it at the time, but she had ran the marathon pregnant and with a melon size tumor under her breastbone. The doctor immediately told us to "abort the fetus" and move on with treatment. We decided to trust God and allow Him to decide what would happen to our child. The doctors' said our child would never survive the 8 harsh rounds of chemo. We prayed, took the chemo. and on June 20, 1997, we gave birth to a beautiful, healthy, 3 LB 14 oz baby girl. Her name is Madison. We felt blessed. Martha's prognosis was good, and Madison was healthy. Two weeks later, Martha began feeling ill and the doctor's discovered the cancer had spread throughout her body. She went to be with the Lord 4 months later.

I was a widower at 33 with a 2-year-old boy and a 4-month-old newborn. As God usually does, when I felt things were their darkest, He soon brought light back into our world. He had taught me many things. First, He is in complete control and I am not. Secondly, His love for His children runs deeper than I will ever know. He also taught me to never take my family for granted. I began to pray for Him to bring a completeness back to my children and I. He continues to do that even today as I sit and look at my new daughter from Korea. He began to do that by bringing Marty Heflin into my life. The first and only woman I pursued after Martha's death. We were married August 1, 1998.

God blessed us with a little boy in 1999. At this time I really felt like our family was complete. I pursued permanent birth control measure. As time went on, Marty and I began to feel like our family was incomplete. However, Marty was not feeling well. She struggled with health problems for 2 years. Later was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and also had to have a hysterectomy.

The option of getting pregnant was not a possibility. We consider adoption, but that possibility was not great either as we had great amount of medical debt due to Marty medical procedures. We met a wonderful couple at our church that works for Family Life with their Hope for the Orphan ministry. Paul and Robin Pennington adopted 5 of their 6 children. After meeting them, my wife was sold, we were pursuing adoption! We let the Pennington's' know that we would be interested in adopting a special needs baby. We would love a deaf little girl. God quickly allowed us to get a referral of a little girl from Korea. She was deaf. We were so excited. We had no way of paying for the adoption, but prayed that if the Lord truly desired for us to adopted this child, he would provide the means. We filled out adoption papers, forms, information, meet with social worker, etc. What a process adoption is. It is not for the faint at heart!

We had heard that there was a group called The Manna Group that helps families financially with adoption. We quickly got in touch with Andy and started filling out an application. First and foremost, we were so encouraged by Andy. What a godly man and what an encourager he was to us. We were thrilled to visit with Andy because he has such a vision for children who are orphans. When we spoke with Andy, we felt refreshed and ready to finish the race.

I can't describe to you the true joy we felt when on Christmas Eve Maleah flew to Houston, Tx from Korea!! I don't have room to go into all the details of her travel, but I will tell you that this was a huge miracle. We could not get a flight out to pick her up in Korea until late Jan. Plus, we did not have to fly anywhere, she landed two hours away from our home~ God is perfect and gracious. What a miracle she is.

She is truly a special gift from heaven. We feel so grateful to The Manna Group for all you have done for us. You not only have changed our lives forever, but also everyone we come into contact with. Our church friends, extended family members, even strangers have a heart for her and think that she is wonderful. It is such a neat opportunity to tell others what God did for our family. It is also an opportunity to plant the seed for others to adopt. We have had several families’ state that they may be interested in adopting. We have only had Maleah for 3 weeks!