What are you praying for?
Some may want a beautiful house or modern gadgets that make their life more convenient. Others may want to travel around the world and experience different cultures and traditions. But for married couple namely Anthony Edward and Ella Garcia, all they asked for is to have a child.
“We always pray to have a child.” said Anthony Edward in front of the Department of Social Welfare and Development – National Capital Region (DSWD-NCR)’s staff during its flag raising ceremony.
“I felt to be the happiest man when my wife got pregnant. Unfortunately, we lost our baby in her womb. Back then, we were upset but we needed to bear the pain,” he muttered.
The couple opted to undergo In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) process in Taiwan to avail the said medical procedure. IVF is a fertility treatment in which sperm and eggs are combined in a laboratory. The resulting embryo or embryos are transferred to the woman’s uterus, where they grow into a baby. Apparently, it failed and the doctors said that they will not going to have a child.
“We lost our hopes. Every day I pray to God to please bring back my child, the child that I lost, those two weeks of heartbeat,” he continued.
The couple almost given up until they have learned about the adoption, a socio-legal process of providing a permanent family to a child whose parents have voluntarily or involuntarily relinquished parental authority over the child. They decided to adopt and the DSWD-NCR assisted them throughout their adoption journey with a child named Jacob.
He happily shared, “In our tenth wedding anniversary, in God’s perfect time and perfect will, He gave us our perfect child. Coincidentally, Jacob was born on May 21, 2014, the day when we were told that we can’t have one. He is our God’s greatest gift.”
He shared that, “to build a nation, we must first build a family, one child at a time,” Today, the couple lives happily with Jacob and they feel very grateful to the DSWD-NCR for being God’s instrument in answering their prayer. ### (FO-NCR, Social Marketing Office)