Prayers for the Chapman family

Please keep Steven Curtis Chapman and his family in your prayers during this terribly painful time. They lost their 5 year old daughter Maria tonight. She was struck by a car in her driveway while playing outside. Such a tragic accident. I pray Gods peace fills their home. I must have looked at Maria's photo a thousand times while waiting for our referral for Annabel. I can't tell you how many Sundays I carried a photo with her and her two sisters, also from China to Church with me. During praise and worship I kept looking at their faces and trying to imagine what our daughter would look like. For those of you who may not know who he is, he is a Christian artist who advocates for adoption and has been used by God to influence thousands of families to open their homes to orphans. It was at his 2005 Christmas concert that God spoke to both Mark and I about adoption. My heart aches for their loss. I pray their family strength and complete faith in God will carry them through. Below are the words to a song he previously recorded. I am sure they never thought it would be about their youngest daughter. A website has been set up where you can view a sweet video clip of Maria and her dad as well as leave your prayers and blessings for the family. http://chapmanchannel.typepad.com/inmemoryofmaria/

With Hope

By Steven Curtis Chapman
1 Thess. 4:13-14 / Heb. 6:9, 10:23

This is not at all how
We thought it was supposed to be
We had so many plans for you
We had so many dreams
And now you've gone away
And left us with the memories of your smile
And nothing we can say
And nothing we can do
Can take away the pain
The pain of losing you, but ...

We can cry with hope
We can say goodbye with hope
'Cause we know our goodbye is not the end, oh no
And we can grieve with hope
'Cause we believe with hope
(There's a place by God's grace)
There's a place where we'll see your face again
We'll see your face again

And never have I known
Anything so hard to understand
And never have I questioned more
The wisdom of God's plan
But through the cloud of tears
I see the Father's smile and say well done
And I imagine you
Where you wanted most to be
Seeing all your dreams come true
'Cause now you're home
And now you're free, and ...

We have this hope as an anchor
'Cause we believe that everything
God promised us is true, so ...

We wait with hope
And we ache with hope
We hold on with hope
We let go with hope