Getty Jenny Marrs at the Bentonville Film Festival on June 22, 2022.
Jenny Marrs is celebrating the anniversary of her “family day.” The HGTV star is looking back on the adoption of her oldest daughter, Sylvie, from the Democratic Republic of Congo in an Instagram post.
“I wasn’t there on the day she entered this world. 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,” the HGTV star captioned a photo of their family reunion. “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.”
The “Fixer to Fabulous” host and her husband Dave has been open about their adoption journey, telling People that they always knew they wanted to adopt. When looking through profiles, they realized “immediately” Sylvie was meant to be in their family.
While Sylvie became their legal child in August 2013, the Congolese government shut down the following month and prevented her from receiving the exit letter necessary to leave the country. With Jenny stuck in the United States because of her high-risk pregnancy, Dave was the only one able to visit her in Congo. According to People, the couple organized for Sylvie to be fostered by a Congolese physician they knew.
Calling it a “battle,” the “Rock the Block” alum contacted their senators, and congressmen. “I specifically went over to Congo, waited outside our U.S. embassy to try to get in and plead my case with the U.S. ambassador,” Dave previously told People. “When I tell you, anything that we could do … we were on the phone with congressmen, with our state representatives — like, the Vatican, we tried.”
Finally, Dave and Jenny were reunited with Sylvie in their state of Arkansas on July 9, 2014.
Sylvie is now 10 years old. The couple also shares twins Nathan and Ben, 12, Charlotte, 8, and Luke, 3.
Jenny Called Sylvie’s Homecoming a ‘Miracle’
On Instagram, Jenny called Sylvie’s adoption an “honest to goodness God-sized, Red-Sea-parting kind of miracle.”
“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,” Jenny continued writing in the caption. “602 days of waiting, 602 days of praying and pleading.”
The Welcome Inn owner shares the photo of their reunion every year as a reminder. She wrote, “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.”
Jenny Shared an Encouraging Message For Other Adoptive Parents
Jenny also shared a message for other adoptive rock parents going through a similar struggle.
“If you are in the middle of your own long, dark night of waiting, I hope our story can bring encouragement for your weary heart,” she wrote online. “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.”
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