This was the first of several major operations our little son, whom we named Derek Kim, would endure over the next few years. He survived each one with the help of blessings, special prayers, and fasting in his behalf. The high medical costs of these surgeries brought a change in our life-style. We sold our luxurious home and other material things to pay the bills. My counseling career was replaced by nursing classes at our local college as I slipped into my new role as a home health-care provider. Many friends could not understand how we could give up so many of our material possessions. My feeble attempts to explain that worldly goods didn’t mean that much to us were difficult for them to understand, but to us a house is only a house. It takes a loving family to make it a home. Derek Kim was now our son, and he was worth every sacrifice.

A price tag cannot be put on the joy I felt as I helped this child with his first steps and his first prayers, or when I hear him say to me, “You are the best mommy in the whole wide world. I love you.” When his little arms squeeze me tightly, I know it has been worth every sacrifice. And as the years have passed, my heart has been full of joy as I have watched him walk to the pulpit during testimony meeting to bear testimony that he knows Heavenly Father and Jesus love him. Derek Kim’s little voice breaks with emotion, and tears come to his eyes when he speaks of his love for us and his Father in Heaven and of his commitment to return to Korea someday to teach the gospel to his people.

To those who still question my decision to go back into the “baby business,” let me share a poignant statement by Steven Grellet: “I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow-creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” (The Home Book of Quotations, sel. Burton Stevenson, New York: Dodd Mead and Co., 1935, p. 1493.)

Yes, Derek Kim has changed our lives in many wonderful and satisfying ways. But, most important of all, he is no longer a forgotten child. He is a treasure to his family, his friends, and his Heavenly Father.

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