My dear friend called me crying, saying, “You’re not going to believe it!”

Naturally, I thought something terrible had happened, but after a couple of minutes, she regained her composure enough to tell me our years of constant prayer had been answered. Her twenty-three-year-old estranged daughter had come home and wanted to be just that — their daughter.

My friend and her husband had adopted Ariel as a newborn. She learned of her adoption when she was a little girl and had never had a problem with it. Like most young people who are adopted, she eventually developed a need to know more about her biological family. The people she found lived godless, sinful lifestyles and sadly, Ariel chose to reject her upbringing and embrace this lifestyle, too.

For three long years, my friend and her husband lived with the heartache of rejection and fear for her safety and her salvation. But now Ariel had come home to ask their forgiveness, to thank them for their love and for saving her from a horrible and hopeless life, and for teaching her to know and desire Jesus.

“I think I know what God and the angels feel like when someone repents,” my friend told me. “It is a joy like none other… one no words can explain.”