On the morning of April 10, 2010,
eleven-year-old Nadia Bloom hopped on her bike, and sped off toward the wooded
area at the end of her subdivision to take some pictures of nature.
But she didn’t return.
“After twenty minutes, thirty
minutes, I stepped outside the door waiting for her to circle around and tell
her to come in,” says her mother Tanya Bloom. “When she didn’t do that, that’s
when I got in the car to go look for her.”
Tanya was especially concerned
because the area around the family’s home in Seminole County, Florida, is rife
with alligators and other predators. “I knew there’d only be two places she
could go,” Tanya says. “There is a little play place and there is a pond. So I
drove toward the pond first and I saw her bike in the cul-de-sac, and her bike
was parked neatly right by the pond, with her helmet on the handlebars.”
Tanya went looking for her daughter
in the dense thicket near the pond. When she couldn’t find her, she called
9-1-1. Within hours, local and state authorities set up a massive search
operation. “It’s a surreal moment. You’re feeling like ‘This isn’t happening. I
can’t believe this is happening,’ and ‘Where is she?’”
Soon, night began to fall and still
no sign of Nadia.
“Everything that you believe
about God is going to be tested. And you have to make a decision. Is He who He
says He is? We chose to believe that, no matter what.”
As word spread throughout the
community, the Bloom’s pastor gathered people to pray. “It was a very open,
honest night of people just calling on God and just saying, ‘Please God,
intervene. This is beyond our control, and we really need you.”
The search continued for
several days, and Nadia’s story gained national attention. Nadia’s father, Jeff
Bloom, says his hope started to fade. “As time went on, the other alternatives
to her being found start to become more of a reality. And you start trying to
come to terms with those other events happening.”
Tanya adds, “There were times where
I would have hope and then, you think she could have been taken by somebody.
And that’s a whole different avenue of, if someone took her, what could be
happening to her.”
All the while, townspeople continued
their outpouring of prayers and support.
“Her school had sent home some letters from one class and there was a child that wrote, ‘Hope will bring her home,’ Tanya remembers. “And I just started weeping. But again, that restored the hope, from this little kid.”
“Her school had sent home some letters from one class and there was a child that wrote, ‘Hope will bring her home,’ Tanya remembers. “And I just started weeping. But again, that restored the hope, from this little kid.”
Jeff adds, “One of the prayers that
I prayed-and it was almost constant--was that, whatever happened, God would be
glorified through these events.”
Four days passed and still, search
and rescue teams came up empty handed. Then, there was a lead. But it
didn’t come from a search party or helicopter. James King, a member of
the Blooms’ church, says God told him where to look for Nadia. “It was a still
small voice,” James says. “But He led me, in different cases telling me, ‘Yes,
go this way,’ or ‘Don’t go that way.’[James King, who was helping in the
search, found her in a dry patch in the middle of the swamp and called
authorities. He started walking at daylight and found her several hours later,
he said.]
That afternoon, James made the call
to 9-1-1 with news that the Bloom family and the town of Winter Springs had
been waiting four days to hear.
“To go from that depth of emotion to
that exhilaration in a span of a few seconds is unbelievable,” Jeff Bloom says.
“I ran into the bedroom and I almost broke down the door to tell Tanya and the
whole house erupted. It was awesome.”
The people in the Blooms’ neighbourhood
threw Nadia a welcome home party. Jeff Bloom says his prayer that God would be
glorified was answered. “There were people around the world that sent us
letters and called and sent emails praying for Nadia. I had emails from people
who did not have faith, and they would say, ‘I don’t believe, but this is as
close to a miracle as I’ve ever seen.’”
Some of the details of the ordeal
are already starting to fade for Nadia, but she’ll never forget that there is a
God who still does miracles today. “It’s very miraculous, Nadia says. “I
remember when I was little, I questioned if God was really there for us, but He
does that, I mean really.”
“No matter how scary it is,” her
father adds, “you have to keep your trust in Him.”
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