"My Perfect World Would Be a Whole Lot Perfecter if That Would Work"

I actually heard someone say that the other day.  It made me giggle.  It also made me think of this sweet face:

It's never seemed right that Miss Jess wasn't home.  There were too many miracles that brought us to her in the first place for it to just end with a man taking her and trying to sell her to us.

I received a very sweet letter from our dear friend, Shannon this week.  Shannon is one of the founders of Haitian Roots.  She was in Haiti on the last trip in June to see the property.  She and Chareyl knew that we were hoping to find out SOMETHING about Jessica on that trip.  She told me of a very sweet experience they had in Haiti. 

She told me that at one of the Haitian Roots activities they had on this trip, Brent was introduced to a little girl in the HR program named Viviana and that Brent and Viviana just "fell in love with each other".  (No, we're not adopting Viviana - that's not what this story is about).

She sent me these pictures of Brent with Viviana.



She said that it was just so sweet to watch them together.

Shannon said, "I've been praying for you guys and Jess a lot and going to Haiti I kept thinking, 'It is so sad that Jess can’t be with her family.  But that’s Haiti.  I truly hope that Brent and Lori can at least get some closure from this trip.'"

She said the day after they met Viviana, she was sitting at the restaurant with Brent.  She said she'd been preparing to tell Brent that maybe it was time for the Rosenlofs to "move on" and let Jessica go.  She was prepared to tell him that maybe the experience with Viviana had been a sign that there could be a different little girl out there for the Rosenlofs.

But what she experienced next wasn't what she'd expected.

"As I talked to him about how his little experience with Viviana seemed to be some kind of a message, I was seriously surprised and almost shocked at the waves of the Spirit that kept pouring over me and telling me, 'You were wrong before.  Viviana’s love WAS a message.  They can’t give up hope.  They MUST have hope.'  Even typing that, I am covered in goose bumps again."

She continued, "Why?  What does it mean? I don’t know.  I know I am not to receive revelation for you.  Yet when there is truth, the Spirit will testify of it.  What is that truth?  Should you not give up because she IS STILL COMING TO YOU?  I do NOT know.  But I do know that you still need to have HOPE."

 I agree with Shannon - I know that there have been so many miracles in this process that I couldn't have planned out the way things would turn out to get Nathan home.  I know God knows the beginning, the end and everything in between.  I know that the Spirit is the way the Lord helps us recognize truth, and I know that, through all this or whatever else life throws at us, we have to have HOPE.

The Lord never cheats anyone.  That includes Miss Jess.  That includes the man who has her right now.  That includes us. 

Do I know what's next for us or Jess?  No.  But I know we can keep praying for Miss Jess every day and hope that she can come home soon.  And we can be ready for wherever and whatever the Lord has in store for us.