It was just another hectic Wednesday morning in the Haines home trying to get the kids fed and ready for the day. Savannah almost forgot her homework, Olivia lost one of her shoes and Sam overslept. Finally, I got all three of the kids out the door and off to school. Yet despite the frenzied start to the day, I was incredibly grateful for the chaos of our full home.
Before I started in on my own busy day, I went into my bedroom, sat down on the bed and leafed through my Bible. A stray piece of paper fell out, an old letter that I had tucked between the pages ages ago. I picked it up.
“Thank you for sending in your prayer request. Guideposts will be praying for you and your needs during our Family Day of Prayer…” it read.
Immediately I was whisked back to those days about a decade ago. My husband, Steve, and I had been trying for over a year to have a baby. Rounds of doctor’s visits and multiple treatments had brought us no nearer to our dream of becoming parents.
I watched my friends and then my sister start families of their own. I was happy for them, but I couldn’t help wondering, Will it ever happen for me?
Then one day while I was reading Guideposts magazine, I came across an invitation to send a prayer request in for the Family Day of Prayer.
Family. That was exactly what I wanted us to have.
Quickly I grabbed a sheet of paper and dashed off my request:
“Please pray for me. My husband and I want so much to have a baby. I know that God is able to help us.”
I sent the request off that very day.
What I held in my hand now was the very letter Guideposts had sent back assuring me that they would be praying for Steve and me.
Surely all of those people praying will make a difference, I’d thought when I’d sent in that prayer request.
And it had.
I turned the letter over in my hand. The date at the top read November 12, 1999. Exactly nine months before Savannah was born.
The (first!) answer to all of our prayers.
