Dear Friends & Family,
This is the first email in a multi-part series entitled “From Miracles to Emmanuel.” This series will tell about our newest adoption, time spent in Colombia, and about many things God has been teaching us. We pray it encourages you to say yes and to trust God for your next step. Please reach out to us if you have prayer requests or would like to share what God is doing in your life. We’d love to hear how God is working and pray alongside you!
With Love, The Leebrick Family
Email #1 From Miracles to Emmanuel – The Call
In spring of 2024, Brandon and I sensed God stirring our hearts. It felt like a welling up of anticipation and purpose, but we didn’t know exactly what we were supposed to do. Rather than sit in uncertainty, we reflected on and worked all summer completing any outstanding things God had already called us to do.
Through the fall, we prayed, met with church leaders, and waited. Then one November morning, I woke up with the words “Father, Father, why have you forsaken me?” echoing in my mind. I began to picture Jesus on the cross and for the first time it struck me that Jesus knew how orphans feel because He too had been forsaken by His Father because, though he was sinless, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” (1 Peter 2:24). I went to record these thoughts, but as I began writing, it struck me that “Father, Father,” weren’t the actual words Jesus had spoken. I reread Matthew 27 and my memory recalled the familiar phrase “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” But Matthew also recorded the actual Aramaic words Jesus had cried – “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?”- and the word Eli in particular caught my attention. I then discovered that in Mark’s account it’s recorded as Eloi , meaning “chosen” – the same word Brandon had recently mentioned to me in another context and the name of our church’s adoption ministry. As I took in all these connections, I glanced at a sentence on one of my research pages. “A derivative of the name ‘Eli’” it said. I looked at the name Eli and wondered if there was a child named Eli that God was calling us to adopt.
With this thought in mind, I decided to go to Lifeline’s list of children waiting to be adopted. The waitlist is password protected, but I paused as I remembered I had the password in my email from when Brandon recently had forwarded it to me out of the blue. As I retrieved the password and entered the waitlist, I saw the option to filter the waiting children by their age, gender, and country. I considered using filters, but decided against it. Since I was specifically looking for a child named Eli, I would leave it wide open for God. I took a breath as I scrolled down from the filters to the first child’s profile. I stared in disbelief as I saw his name was Eli. I was shocked. What was God doing? I glanced at my still sleeping husband on that early Saturday morning,
Our family, of all people, should understand the miracles surrounding adoption. In 2021 we adopted a little girl named Milagros (Mila) and her very name means miracles. Through Mila’s adoption, we had seen God reiterate what He has been revealing since the Old Testament. He loves and redeems the fatherless. And on this early morning, He was calling our family to go get Eli.
I looked on from the name Eli to read the minimal information provided. Eli was a baby boy from Colombia, the same country we had adopted Mila from. He was listed as having multiple neuro-developmental disorders. Instead of a profile picture, I saw only the familiar colors of the Colombian flag.
I waited until Brandon woke up to tell him what had happened. We agreed we should inquire about Eli and sent an email that same day. We were shocked when we got a personal reply a few hours later on that Saturday!
A couple weeks later, we were on a video call to learn more about Eli. They told us his mother lived on the streets and was unable to care for him. He had been born prematurely and would have lasting medical needs that stemmed from his rough beginning. There were so many questions that didn’t have answers. How would he develop? Would he thrive? Would he walk or talk? Would he be able to engage and connect with others? No one knew the answers because he wasn’t even a year old. We would have to wait and see. Then the case worker told us something that took us by surprise. “You probably already know this,” she began, “but his real name isn’t Eli. That is just an advocacy name.” Brandon and I were shocked. We had no idea that the name God had used to get our attention wasn’t his real name. The social worker continued, “His real name is Emmanuel.” Emmanuel – God with us. The name was even more fitting. Emmanuel was just another reminder of God’s presence in all of this.
And so, in 2025 we spent our time navigating the familiar Colombian adoption journey: forms, interviews, appointments, waiting, and praying. Through it all, God once again taught our family about His abundance, reminding us that He can do more than we ask, think, or imagine.
In the next email, I’ll tell you more about why we said yes.
