title: Unexpected Tears: Trusting God through a Painful Adoption Process (Surviving the Valley)
author: Rachelle D. Alspaugh
description: Rachelle D. Alspaugh writes both poetry and prose. Her heart beats for missions, and she enjoys traveling and leading womens Bible studies at her church. Rachelle teaches elementary school outside of Dallas, Texas, where she lives with her husband and their two sons.
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  # Alsea Rising
  
  
  ## The Seventh Star
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Fletcher DeLancey
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Heartsome Publishing
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  For all those who love.
  
  
  You bear within you a spark of the divine.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Alsean Tree](../images/00001.jpeg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  When our sea-dwelling ancestors forgot the importance of family and lost their
  future children, they cried out to Fahla to save them. Our Goddess wept, for
  she could not repair the damage they had done themselves. Instead, she offered
  a second chance. She gave them new bodies to bear the next generation,
  embedded them with her divine spark, and bid them leave their cities in the
  sea to build new lives on land.
  
  
  
  
  
  We are those children. Yet we did not learn from the mistakes of our parents.
  We made similar foolish choices, chasing status and limiting love to the forms
  which met our approval. We forgot that love is divine. As our ancestors lost
  their children, so we l