By Kayla DeKraker
Jenny Marrs celebrated her daughter Sylvie’s 14th birthday and reflected on her incredible adoption journey.
“On January 16, 2017, her first birthday at home, I wrote these words,” the HGTV star began an Instagram post, reminiscing on the first birthday Sylvie spent with her and her husband Dave.
“‘Oh, my girl. I am so very honored to be your momma,” Marrs wrote at the time. “You are brave and kind and funny and sassy. You are so very smart, I stand amazed as I watch your little mind work to figure out something new. You are daring and you have overcome so much in your short life. What a privilege it has been to have a front row seat to God’s miraculous healing power in your heart. You are going to do big things, my girl. May this new year on this earth be full of joy and laughter and silliness and wonder. We love you with an unending love!’”
Like any mother, Marrs admired what a brave and strong young woman her daughter is growing into.
“Now, all these years later, I marvel at the fact that so much of who she was then has grown and developed into who she is today. She is brave, strong-willed, fiercely independent, has a heart of compassion and a deep love for God,” she reflected.
Related: ‘A Story Only God Could Write’: Jenny Marrs Shares Twins’ Birth Story
She continued, “She met Jesus in a real way when she was waiting on us and we were waiting on her, and, even if her mind doesn’t remember, her soul does. She exudes his love and light and I continue to believe God has big plans in store for my girl.”
Marrs can’t believe Sylvie is already 14, adding, “…she is today beautiful inside and out and I continue to be immensely grateful and proud to have been given the honor of being her mom.”
The FIXER TO FABULOUS star concluded, “What a gift you are to the world, Sylvie-loo! May this next year be as it was then: full of laughter and joy and silliness and wonder. May your days as a 14-year-old be some of the best days to date! I love you to the moon and back times a billion trillion! 🤍🎉”
The Marrs family often speaks about the struggle they experienced trying to bring Sylvie home when she was a baby.
TV Insider reported last summer that the Marrses first came across Sylvie’s adoption file in 2012. They finalized her adoption in August 2013, but before Sylvie could come home to them, the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s government shut down. She didn’t arrive in the United States until 2014.
“…twelve years ago, when we were still stuck in our adoption wait and our daughter was hospitalized and very sick half a world away. I was helpless to comfort her. I was helpless to care for her. I was helpless to calm her fears. I was broken and longing to be there holding her,” Marrs said of her heartache at the time.
She and Dave continue to praise God their miraculous unification with their daughter.
“The exhale that took place when she was placed back into 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,” Marrs said. “The things [God] 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.”
Praise God for how He’s working in Sylvie’s life!
Read Next: Dave and Jenny Marrs Discuss Journey to Adopt Their Daughter Sylvie
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