The next morning Joe went out to the barn to see Frank, the fawn that had been rescued after her mother had been shot by bad people. Even though the fawn was a girl, Haley had insisted on naming her Frank. Frank had been quiet and upset the whole night, and Haley had stayed in the barn the whole night and tried to comfort Frank. Frank was still upset, but now she was also very hungry!
Joe went into the storeroom and brought back a bottle and handed it to Haley. The bottle looked like a baby’s bottle, but it was bigger. Joe told Haley she would have to feed Frank milk because he was too young to eat other food yet. Haley ran to the house, warmed up some milk on the stove (without spilling it), poured the milk into the bottle and attached the top. She then ran back to the barn with the bottle of warm milk. Joe was surprised that Haley had been able to do all those things without having an accident. Maybe having a fawn to take care of would help Haley to be more careful!
Haley tried to shove the nipple of the bottle into Frank’ mouth, but Frank was scared and ran away from Haley! Haley chased Frank around the barn and finally cornered her in one of the stalls. Haley used her right arm to hold Frank still and tried once again to shove the nipple into Frank’s mouth. Frank squirmed and tried to get away, but Haley held onto her. A drop of milk came out of the nipple and landed on Frank’s nose! Frank licked the drop of milk off her nose, and then she became very interested in that bottle of milk. Haley was able to shove the nipple into Frank’s mouth, and Frank began to drink the warm milk.
Haley was so happy! She said to Joe, “Look at how Frank is drinking the milk! I love feeding her, but will I have to chase her around the barn every time?” Joe laughed and told Haley that Frank now knew that the bottle had milk in it, and she would not run away from it again.
That afternoon, Joe told Haley that he needed her to go into town with him. He said that he needed to get a few things in the store. So, they got into the station wagon and Joe drove to the store. Joe gave Haley the list of things to buy and gave her the money to pay for them. Haley looked at the list and got excited! She saw that there was cake and ice cream on the list! She asked Joe why they were getting cake and ice cream, and Joe told her that they were going to have a party. Joe said that it was a surprise party, and he would not tell Haley anything more about it!
When they got back to the farm, Joe asked Haley to put the groceries away while he went and checked Medford Forest to make sure there were no more problems. Haley took the groceries into the house and put them away quickly because she could hardly wait to go out to the barn and spend more time with Frank.
That evening after supper, Joe said that now they were going to have the party! It was a surprise party in Frank’s honor! It was Frank’s adoption party! Frank was now part of their family, and they were going to celebrate! Joe told Haley to bring out the cake and ice cream!
Haley went to the kitchen to get the cake and ice cream and then Joe heard her scream, “Oh no!”, and she started to cry! Joe quickly grabbed his crutches and went into the kitchen to see what had happened. Haley had put the groceries away so fast that she had made a mistake! She had put the cake in the freezer and had left the ice cream sitting on the shelf in the kitchen! Now the ice cream was completely melted, and the cake was as hard as a rock!
Joe tried not to laugh, but he could not stop himself! He laughed and laughed, and soon Haley was laughing with him! Joe told Haley to carefully chop off a section of the cake and put it in the microwave for a short time. He told Haley to be careful not to leave it in the microwave too long, Joe did not want the cake melted, he just wanted it to be thawed out a little.
While Haley was microwaving the cake, Joe got out some tall glasses and poured each of them a glass of melted ice cream to drink! Soon they sat down to their celebration! The cake was crunchy and very cold, and the ice cream drink was warmer with pieces of cold cookie dough floating in it! It was quite a celebration!
After they had finished eating, Joe told Haley that she could learn a little bit more about who she was from this experience. Haley laughed and said that they had learned that she was still clumsy and made a lot of mistakes. Joe laughed and told Haley he had known for a long time about Haley’s clumsiness, but the thing that they were going to learn tonight was about adoption. Haley said, “Oh no! Are going to tell me that I am adopted, and that you are not really my father?” Joe said, “You misunderstand me. I did not adopt you! You are my daughter, and I love you so much! Your mother and I were so happy when you were born, and if your mother were alive today, she would love you so much and be so proud of you! I am talking about another kind of adoption. You and I, and every other believer has been adopted by God! When we believed in Jesus, prayed and asked Him to forgive our sins and come into our life, God adopted us into His family!”
Joe opened his Bible and read Ephesians 1:3-8
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace He has poured out on us who belong to His dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins. He has showered His kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.
Haley thought about the verses that Joe had just read, and she said, “These verses say that God knew me before He created the world, and He loves me just the way I am! That is incredible! God does not care if I am clumsy or make mistakes, He just loves me! I have been adopted into God’s family when I asked Jesus to forgive my sins and come into my life!”
Joe said, “That is right! God loves us so much, and He is also very patient with us when we struggle in this life. Just like you are understanding and patient with Frank, you love Frank and are not going to give up on her, no matter what!”
“That’s right!” said Haley.