As she prayed, Rebecca Morlock asked God a question.

What was His larger purpose in guiding her back to India where she had been several times before?

She knew God wanted her to reach out to orphans at a children’s home, but she sensed there was, in her words, ‘‘something more.’’

The answer, the ‘‘something more,’’ came Jan. 15, 2008, less than a month after the Millersburg-area native had arrived in India.

And it came in the form of a 3 1/2-pound newborn baby boy, a boy Becky named Kyle Aaron. A boy she chose to became her son. A son she wants to bring to the United States of America.

Two years later, Becky has been awarded legal guardianship of Kyle. She is awaiting a visa for Kyle from the United  States, so he can return with her to Pennsylvania and to her hometown.

As anxious as Becky is to be in Millersburg with her son, the waiting hasn’t tempered her love for Kyle or her enthusiasm at being his mother.

‘‘ ...here I am with the most amazing son in the whole world and I can’t imagine my life without him. What a blessing and a joy he is!’’ she wrote in an e-mail to family friends dated Jan. 15, two years to the day she first held Kyle in her arms.

‘‘My little tender hearted lamb.’’ A 1997 graduate (and valedictorian) of Millersburg Area High School and a 2001 graduate of Messiah College, Becky is the daughter of Wayne and Cindy Morlock, also of Millersburg. She has a younger sister, Annie.

An evangelical Christian, she had gone to India under the umbrella of Youth With a Mission in 2004 and served at The Little Flower Children’s Home, a Christian ministry located in the nation’s northern region. (A story on her was published in the Sentinel’s March 22, 2005 issue).

Since then, she had returned several times – for several months’ each time – reaching out to orphans and street children.

None of these trips surprised her parents.

‘‘Even as a child, she had a tender heart,’’ Cindy Morlock said. ‘‘I called her ‘my little tender-hearted lamb.’ ’’

Just before Christmas 2007, Becky – then 29 years old – returned to northern India, this time planning to stay long term, believing that God had prompted her to – in her words – ‘‘bless and encourage the children.’’

But that wasn’t all Becky believed that God had asked of her.

‘‘For this trip, she’d felt prompted to buy things for a baby,’’ Cindy said.

‘‘I remember shopping, wondering what I was doing, and feeling sort of silly buying a few onesies, baby gowns, a baby carrier, etc.,’’ Becky said in an e-mail to family and friends. ‘‘I guess in my head I rationalized it; well, because we like to do that with God, don’t we? I thought that maybe I would meet someone on the street who needed these things, or maybe I would help a young, single mother, or who knows?’’

"For such a time as this." As Becky herself would later say, God knew – and He was about to let her know as well.

On or around Jan. 14, 2008, Becky received a phone call from a friend. Would she be willing, the friend asked, to take custody of a baby whose birth mother didn't want to keep him?

‘‘ ... and I just knew, this is what God wants for my life,’’ she said.

The next day, following an hour-long ride on the back of a motorcycle, Becky arrived in the city of Kalimpong and met the friend. They then went to the hospital where the baby had been born.

Once at the hospital, Becky and her friend were appalled at the conditions.

‘‘I can’t even imagine having a baby there. The maternity ward was a mess! Wooden floors with blood on them, the beds were full, and women were also laying on the floor on mattresses; the smell alone made me want to gag,’’ she recounted in her a-mail.

A nurse at the hospital then introduced Becky to the baby’s birth mother, a young single woman.

‘‘I am shocked as I see her and her sister trying to feed a tiny little baby warm cow’s milk on a spoon. She wasn’t nursing; maybe she didn’t want to bond with him at all,’’ Becky said.

Speaking to the young woman through a translator, Becky learned that the baby, a male, was sick and that the woman didn’t want him. 

Only the woman’s immediate family knew of her pregnancy, and if the word got out in the small village where the woman lived, ‘‘their family could be destroyed, their reputation ruined,’’ Becky said.

‘‘It was not an option (for the woman) to keep the baby,’’ Becky continued. ‘‘Besides the fact that she would never be able to afford or care properly for a baby, she just wanted to walk away empty-handed, to be released from her shame, to move on with her life.’’

Even so, in a prayer she offered for the woman, Becky ‘‘thanked the Lord ... that despite the obstacles, she chose life for her son ... I prayed that the Lord would bless her and help her, and I prayed a blessing over the baby.’’

After the woman had been discharged from the hospital and left the city, Becky said she still thought about her.

‘‘I stood there on the street ... and I cried,’’ she said. ‘‘I can't even imagine what that mother must have been thinking. What does it feel like to leave your child with a stranger? What does it feel like to have carried and birthed such a tiny miracle and to – at the same time – know that you can’t keep him, or that you don't want to keep him?’’

Stronger still was Becky's sense that God had brought her and the baby together and that He had directed her to return to India ‘‘for such a time as this,’’ she said recently, quoting a portion of Esther 4:14 from the Old Testament.

‘‘She always believed she would have children of her own or adopt children, but with a husband,’’ Cindy said of her oldest daughter.

‘‘But we believe that God directed this to happen and this is why he guided her back to India,’’ she added.

‘‘A wonderful journey.’’ Becky named the baby Kyle Aaron. According to Cindy, Becky always has loved the beach and the name Kyle was inspired by kai, the Hawaiian word for ‘‘sea.’’

Kyle’s middle name was inspired by Becky’s conviction that God wants to use her son to someday proclaim His message, as did Aaron, Moses’ brother, in the Old Testament book of Exodus.

Kyle was a ‘‘preemie’’ baby and nursing him back to health has been a challenge in India, according to Becky.

‘‘I remember taking him for immunizations for the first time. I had to take my own needles, purchased at the pharmacy, because needles are reused in the hospital,’’ she said in an e-mail.

This month, as mother and son start their third year together, Kyle is ‘‘healthy and happy,’’ Becky said. They marked the second anniversary of ‘‘Gotcha Day’’ (the day they were brought together) with special activities.

Moreover, all the challenges Becky has faced not only being a single parent, but being a single parent away from family and friends, and in an environment markedly different than Millersburg, have been worth it.

‘‘I love Kyle more than I could ever express and I love being a mommy more than I could ever explain,’’ Becky said.

Mother and son are on ‘‘a wonderful journey that is only just beginning,’’ she added.

Making history. Becky and Kyle’s next leg on that journey is leaving India for America – and leaving together, since Becky will not have it any other way, according to her mother.

‘‘Becky longs to return to America. She wants to be able to work to support herself and Kyle. She would like to raise him at home near her family and friends,’’ Cindy said.

Becky has not been back in the United States for more than two years. Almost ever since she and Kyle were brought together, she has been working toward obtaining legal custody of him.

That journey has had more than a few challenges along the way.

Becky soon learned that as a non-citizen of India, she was not allowed by India law, to legally adopt Kyle. She could, however, seek legal guardianship. Once they are in the United Moreover, she also discovered that that no American has ever gained legal custody of a baby from India where the baby was handed directly to the guardian without Indian agencies being involved.

Becky spent eight months solely on finding an attorney who believed it was even possible for her to become Kyle’s legal guard-ian. She also moved to India’s capital city, New Delhi, because of the time she had to spent in the courts.

Finally, the process also included Becky speaking before the highest court in the nation, the Supreme Court of India.

In the end, the young woman from Millersburg made history in India, becoming the first non-citizen to be granted legal guardianship of a child apart from the intervention of Indian agencies.

Kyle loves ‘‘coookiiieees!’’ Becky is working through the final step – securing a U.S. visa that will allow Kyle to legally emigrate to America with her.

While mother and son wait for permission to leave together, they ‘‘spend some of their time visiting childrens’ homes and spreading their compassion to the people with whom they come in contact,’’ according to family and friends.

Even so, it’s not only Becky and Kyle who are anxious to come home. In Millersburg, Wayne and Cindy Morlock are anxious to meet their first grandchild, while Annie Morlock looks forward to seeing her nephew face to face.

‘‘He’s a very happy, outgoing little guy,’’ Cindy Morlock said of Kyle.

Kyle loves to dance and goes for walks. He already knows several English words, likes to snack on pretzels and goldfish crackers and enjoys watching television programs such as ‘‘Little Einsteins’’ and ‘‘Sesame Street.’’ He’s particularly fond of the latter show’s Cookie Monster character.

‘‘If Becky puts him on the phone with me, he’ll say ‘Cooookiiieeesss!’ just like Cookie Monster does,’’ Cindy said with a laugh.

‘‘When I am on the phone with Becky, he will be in the background, acting like he’s on his own phone. He calls it his ‘hello,’ ’’ she added.

Also, when they are praying, Kyle prompts Becky about who they should pray for, including ‘‘Poppop, Nana, Annie (and) E.’’ ‘‘E’’ is Elijah, his ‘‘long distance friend’’ whom he knows through Skype, according to Cindy.

Whether Kyle was born in another nation, or how he came into their lives, makes absolutely no difference to the Morlock family.

‘‘He’s our grandson, through and through,’’ Cindy said.