A third-place finisher on The Amazing Race.
A pageant queen...Miss South Carolina 2002 and Miss America 2003 top 15 finalist.
A pastor's wife.
A mom of five children.
An advocate for orphans and victims of sex trafficking in India.
Founder of Loft 218.
An author.
What do all of the following things have in common? They all describe one person. Pretty crazy, huh? All of these things describe my cousin, Kelly McCorkle Parkison.
I guess you could say it all started with The Amazing Race, and the fact that one of the legs of the race in season 7 was to travel to India. After Kelly's first experience in India, she made the vow that she would never go back there.
But the Lord works in crazy ways, and in ways that we would never expect.
Kelly was given the opportunity to return to India for a mission trip a while after her time on The Amazing Race, which she reluctantly agreed to. Little did she know, this trip would change her life. While Kelly was in India this time, she felt God calling her to adopt a little girl from India.
Many people don't realize the shocking reality of what it means to be a girl in India. It has been said that India is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a girl. Women are constantly discriminated against, treated as property, and are considered to be a disappointment when they are born. According to an online article titled "The Tragedy of Being a Girl in India", if a female baby survives the pregnancy and is kept by her parents, she is typically mistreated, malnourished, and neglected. Often times, young girls are even abducted and sold into the sex trafficking industry or are forced to marry.
All personal desires aside, the reality of the treatment of girls in India should be enough to make anyone want to adopt a sweet, innocent baby girl and give her a chance at a better life.
Kelly and her husband, Scott, eventually started the process of adoption. However, international adoption, especially from India, is a long, arduous, faith-testing task.
But just as with anything that is challenging, it is something that is completely worth every tear shed, every dollar spent, every heartbreak, every prayer prayed...you get the point...it's worth it.
Kelly has written a book about their process of bringing home their sweet little girl, Lyla, from India. The book chronicles everything, from Kelly's first experience in India, to God's call for her to adopt, to the fundraising efforts, to the referrals of children, to the paperwork, to her own biological children, to visiting India and meeting their daughter for the first time, to finding a doctor to perform a necessary surgery on Lyla, and then their arrival back to the United States as a family of seven.
I was lucky enough to get to read the book early, as it hasn't been published yet. Kelly sent it to me on a Monday afternoon a few weeks ago, and by that same Monday night, I had read every single page. I couldn't put it down.
It is such a great story of their adoption process with Lyla, but also a great reminder of the love that our Father in Heaven has for us, and how we were adopted by Him and brought into His family as his children as well.
Her book is set to release on May 3, and I recommend that you get a copy and read it! I am positive that you will love it just as much as I did.
You can purchase it here: Click Here!
Be prepared to laugh and cry and be reminded of God's love and faithfulness throughout the book as you join the Parkison family along their rollercoaster of an adoption journey.
