‘A Miracle’: Jenny, Dave Marrs Celebrate 10th Anniversary of Daughter’s Adoption
By Movieguide® Contributor
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FIXER TO FABULOUS stars Jenny and Dave Marrs recently celebrated the ten-year anniversary of the day their adopted daughter Sylvie came home to them.
“I wasn’t there on the day she entered this world,” Jenny posted on Instagram. “I wasn’t privy to the miracles that took place that day half a world away. I don’t know what her first days and months and years looked like. There is so much I just don’t know. Looming, gaping holes from her earliest, most formative years are painful reminders of all I have missed.”
She continued, “Yet, what I DO know is on this day, ten years ago, I bore witness to a miracle. An honest to goodness God-sized, Red-Sea-parting kind of miracle.”
Jenny explained that the couple had been waiting for 602 days for Sylvie to join them in America.
“Make no mistake – a battle took place to bring our daughter home,” she wrote. “The exhale that took place when she was back in my arms on US soil was echoed in heaven. The spiritual battle that I couldn’t see during those long days and nights was finally over.”
Jenny continued, “I post this photo every year on this day to remember. I never want to forget the way the Lord fought on our behalf. The things He has in store for Sylvie must certainly leave the enemy shaking in fear or else he wouldn’t have worked so tirelessly to keep her from us. It’s hard to believe an entire decade has passed since the day when our family was finally under the same roof. HAPPY FAMILY DAY, SYLVIE-LOO!!”
She also shared a message for anyone else experiencing a “long, dark night of waiting.”
“I hope our story can bring encouragement for your weary heart,” Jenny wrote. “Your story isn’t over yet. Don’t despair. Remember, our God NEVER authors pain. He is only, always good. Sometimes, we can’t see past our current sight line but, just over the horizon, He has good, good things in store. Keep trusting.”
Speaking to PEOPLE about the adoption, Dave said, “It was a lot of emotion, because we honestly didn’t think that she would ever come home. It is 100% a miracle.”
Movieguide® previously reported on Sylvie’s adoption:
Sylvie, now 11, was adopted from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The process was supposed to take just six months, but it stretched into three years.
The Marrs decided to adopt when they were struggling to start a family of their own. The process was put on hold when Jenny became pregnant with twin boys, Nathan and Ben, now 12.
However, just a year after their birth, the Marrs were ready to look into adoption again and reopened their file.
The couple met Sylvie and quickly decided to bring her back to America.
“Her adoption had been finalized. She had her U.S. passport. And then the country shut down adopted kids leaving, so she couldn’t get her exit permit,” Jenny explained. “We were contacting anyone we thought could help us. We had people writing letters. We met with every one of our congressmen and senators.”
During the long wait to bring Sylvie home, Jenny got pregnant again and gave birth to Charlotte, now 8.
“I wasn’t able to really rejoice in the amazing news because we were so overwhelmed with sorrow that we couldn’t get our daughter home,” Jenny said.
Just eight weeks later, the Marrs received the amazing news that Sylvie would finally be allowed to travel to the US.
The Marrs family recently celebrated their annual Berry Fest, held on the family berry farm in Bentonville, Arkansas.
“This farm is one of the legacy’s Dave and I want to pass down to our children,” Jenny wrote in an Instagram post. “We want them to value hard work and nature and, most of all, generosity. We want them to understand that it’s never ‘us’ and ‘them.’ It’s not ‘here’ and ‘there’…With so much division in our world today, we pray these experiences will allow our kids to rise up as world changers and light bearers for their generation.”
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