Jenny Marrs Offers Hope For Those Struggling: ‘Joy Will Come’
By Movieguide® Contributor
HGTV star Jenny Marrs recently reflected on how she has experienced joy following her daughter Sylvie’s painful adoption journey.
“My photo memories reminded me that 9 years ago we were visiting a beloved place at the edge of the sea,” Marrs wrote in a recent Instagram caption, accompanied by a photo of Sylvie at the beach.
“This was the place we first announced our adoption to our family. This was the place where, one month after visiting Sylvie and what we believed was one month before we would bring her home, we learned the devastating news that Congo had shut down its borders and our daughter was stuck there indefinitely,” she added. “This was the place where we learned the amazing surprise that little Charlotte was joining us in utero on our vacation while we desperately waited for Sylvie to be permitted to exit the DRC.”
“On the morning I snapped this photo, when we were finally all together here, I recorded these words: ‘Answered prayers abound in this place. The dark night has given way to the joy of the morning,’” Marrs recalled.
Marrs’ comments continued, offering encouragement to followers going through a dark time.
“I pray this can serve as a reminder to everyone reading this that the dark of night is inevitable. But, mercifully, Light always breaks through,” she wrote.
“Even when the night is harder and more painful than you think you can possibly fight through. Even when the tossing and turning and desperate pleas feel relentless. Even then. The sun will rise. Joy WILL come in the morning. Just hold on,” her post concluded.
Marrs and her husband Dave have previously opened up about their decision to adopt Sylvie.
“I feel like God put [it] on our hearts that she was ours, and right when you knew, it was just like, ‘Yup.’ It was a key in a lock,” Dave told PEOPLE.
“Adoption is a part of our family. It’s a part of our story, but they’re all just our kids,” Jenny added in a separate interview with PEOPLE.
Movieguide® previously reported on the eight-year anniversary of Sylvie’s adoption:
Hope had nearly been lost. Despair had slowly seeped in. We had no way of knowing if our daughter would ever be back in our arms. 602 days of waiting, 602 days of praying and pleading and calling Congressmen and Senators and flying over the sea to beg the US Embassy to help. Emails and letters and phone calls with no traction toward getting her home left us depleted.
Make no mistake – a battle took place to bring our daughter home. 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.
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 eight years have passed since this day when our family was finally under the same roof.