Ady’s Barracks – Isla

Meet Isla Grace Craft. She is 3 years old with a beautiful smile that melts your heart. Let me tell you how her story began.

Lee and I joined Grace Life Baptist Church in Bessemer, AL in March of 2014 . We wanted to get in to missions so our Pastor suggested something domestic. We ended up in Springdale, Arkansas the following May to witness and share the Gospel with a large community of Marshallese people. Our Senior Pastor, along with two other families in our group, had adopted from this community and brought their babies to visit their Ohanas to share the gospel. When we left Arkansas, our hearts felt as if we were leaving something behind.

There were no medical reasons why Lee and I had not been able to have children, but God has this plan our plan. In April of 2015, we were matched with our birth mom. In May we returned with our GLBC mission group and met Isla's mom, along with the birth dad and their 8 month old son. We met our new Ohana(family). October 10th we got a text from Isla's mom that she was about to give birth. Amazingly the Lord had prepared us, as we were packed and planned on going up a week early. Two hours later, we received a picture of our baby girl. She was amazing, beautiful, and bright eyed. We drove for 9 hours and finally got to hold our precious daughter. Four weeks later she was officially a part of the Craft family through adoption. We got to bring our baby girl to her new home. She was now 1 of 5 Pacific Islanders attending church at Grace Life. We had our own little community of Marshallese under one roof.

Isla was just an amazing little person, developing ahead of her age group through her first 14 months. She had over 25 words she would say, not copy, but could say. She began walking on her 1st birthday. We were in awe of God’s Glory. He made this perfect little angel for us to love. Between 14 and 16 months we noticed she was slowly losing words. By 18 months, her words were lost. She began doing the cutest little hand flapping. She would find cabinet doors and open and close them over and over. She lost interest playing with her toys. Isla's social interaction with peers and adults grew distant, with very little eye contact. So began our quest to find out what was “wrong” with our baby girl. She started Early Intervention at 2 years. She had a Special Instructor, Speech Therapist,and Occupational Therapist visiting our home twice a month each. We were beginning to learn and hear the words "Autism Spectrum Disorder".

Weeks and days went by and not one without tears shedding. We were so caught up in what she can’t do, she won’t ever do this, who will take care of her when we are gone, what kind of therapy will she need, how will we ever afford it. But God………..He showed us what He can do, and what she can do, and that we can not do any of it without him. He said, “Be still, and know that I am God…….” Psalm 46:10.

He has put so many people in our path to lead us where we needed to be. Isla goes to public pre-3K twice a week and receives speech and OT once a week at Mitchell’s place. We are working on starting ABA therapy as well. She loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Doritos, McDonald's chicken nuggets, and giving kisses on your cheek. She loves school and is finally sitting and listening for more than 5 minutes at a time. She loves playing outside. She loves swinging in her swing. She loves floating in a pool or lazy river. She loves bath time so she can lay on her back and float. She likes to walk the yard and have alone time. We are so excited to be considered for Ady’s Barracks. For us to have a fence that will keep our girl safe would give her freedom to wander....to be a normal child. It would be a true blessing for all of us. Quote From Anonymous-”Hard things are put in our way, not to stop us, but to call out our courage and strength”.

Our girl is very courageous and God is our strength.

We couldn't do this without you!

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