Baby Rachel Graduates From College

Sunday's church sermon was about Baby Rachel and the trials she has faced in her life.  This is Baby Rachel back in 1989.  You may remember the story about her...she was known as "Dumpster Baby."  Born September 27, 1989, baby Rachel was sealed inside a garbage bag with her umbilical cord and placenta still attached.  The trash bag was thrown into a dumpster.

The gentleman in the photo below is Thomas Stephenson.  He was taking out some garbage to that dumpster which was located behind his wife's floral shop.  He heard a baby crying and just before baby Rachel ran out of oxygen he retrieved the bag.  The precious little girl had a fractured skull and hematomas on both sides of her head.

Over in Dunkirk, Maryland, Jenifer and Dane Clark were watching the developing story on the news.  The couple had been hoping to adopt a child and had been on a waiting list for 8 years.  While baby Rachel was being cared for in the hospital, the Clark's filed the necessary papers to adopt little Rachel.  They were approved and took Rachel home to raise her.

For the first six years of her life, Rachel experience terrible nightmares.  Despite all the love bestowed upon her by her adoptive parents, Rachel was obsessed with the idea that they would die and leave her alone.

Rachel received a lot of therapy well into her teen years.

This is Rachel with her adoptive parents.  Even today, at the age of 23, Rachel struggles with fear of abandonment.  However, she is so grateful that her parents took her "kicking and screaming" to get the therapy that she needed.

Rachel is graduating from the University of Maryland this year...a Straight-A student.  She is getting married this summer and then wants to write a book about adoption.  Rachel and her fiance hope to have a least 4 children!

Rachel is still searching for her birth parents.  She forgives them.  She wants to tell them that she forgives them!  What a lesson we can all learn from this young girl about the power of forgiveness.