# @hopewdm on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/B9E9PMODzxn
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/16338704-hopewdm-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/0b20442078.jpg
- **Posted:** 2020-02-27T16:43:21.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** HOPE (@HopeWDM) — https://gondola.cc/HopeWDM

## Caption

"We believe it’s no accident that you’re here."⁣
⁣
It seemed so strange to hear those words because for my entire life, I believed it was an accident. And not just here at this church, but here on earth ... I believed my life was an accident. Born as a result of teen pregnancy and adopted as an infant, I struggled to believe my life was created on purpose. As we started coming to Hope in 2014, I took the Alpha and CORE courses and began to understand more about our identity in Jesus. I learned that God planned for us before we were in our mother's womb, that we are all chosen. There’s no footnote, no except for, no qualifier. And that meant that I could place my identity and purpose in God instead of letting other people, society and this world define who I was. Finally, I knew who and whose I was.⁣
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As I was coming to this understanding, I continued to pray that if it was his will, that he let me learn who my birth parents were. No longer because I needed to know them to know who I was, but because I wanted to know who they were to thank them for what they did and the choice they made to put me up for adoption.⁣
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After seven years searching, but mere days after praying with new perspective, my prayers were answered. All the information I needed to identify both of my biological parents came together and the path to contact them unfolded easily. The best part ... everyone: birth parents, half siblings and grandparents alike, were all in Des Moines this entire time. After 33 years, I found the family I had been searching for... some of which just so happened to be members of a little church called Lutheran Church of Hope. My birth father was attending a service right here at Hope when he received my very first message.⁣
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Within a few weeks I met both my biological parents, three half siblings, and two grandparents. Little did we know that God had spent 33 years crafting this reunion and planning all the joy that has followed.⁣
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#PiecesFromHope⁣
⁣
Wendy B.

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## Tags

piecesfromhope

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