A dream and a prayer

As a 9-year-old girl, Kelly Jolly had a vivid dream about being a mom one day. It was so vivid that she could recall specific details of the child she longed to mother. The child was a girl.
Years later, in August 2013, a group of children from a Ukrainian orphanage was being hosted by a church in Mississippi. Kelly and her husband, Jay, offered to help transport the children to watch the Mississippi Braves (former AA affiliate of the Atlanta Braves) play baseball. In that group of children was a girl who looked just like the one from Kelly’s childhood dream, and right away, she knew – That’s my girl!

The girl from the dream
The first time the Jollys saw the abused 11-year-old girl, she was fighting with another child. She did not speak English and was not legally available for adoption. In addition, Kelly and Jay had only talked about the possibility of adoption, but when Kelly revealed the girl as the child from her dream, their course was set.
Since the girl had been left temporarily at the orphanage by her mother, she was not technically an orphan or available for adoption. However, that didn’t stop Jay and Kelly from pursuing the process of adoption, confident that God was going to bring her into their family.
When the girl returned to the U.S. on a second trip at Christmastime, her situation had changed. Her mother never returned for her, parental rights had been terminated, and she was now adoptable.
In May of the following year, the girl was officially adopted by Jay and Kelly, and she became Anna Leah Jolly.

The importance of communication
“I had to learn how to have parents and not be super independent,” Anna Leah told The Stand.
Despite language and cultural barriers, Anna Leah credits her parents with going to great lengths to welcome her, ease her past trauma, and help her succeed through the transition of adoption that brought her into a whole new world.
“There is so much my parents did right, especially [when it came to] communication,” Anna Leah said. “It really helped our relationship. It helped me … [be] honest and open with them.
“For me, open communication was important,” she added. “They stuck to their words and … they never overreacted but just sat me down and talked about why something was wrong.”
However, Anna Leah knows that not all adoptions go as smoothly as hers, often because of a lack of communication between parents and their adopted children.
She explained that it is because the kids do not feel safe enough to share what they are feeling, and the parents do not understand why their kids act the way they do.

Her platform and purpose
It was this realization regarding the importance of good communication in adoption that inspired Anna Leah to become involved in the pageant circuit so that she could focus on adoption and foster care as her community service initiative.
As part of her initiative, she partnered with Mississippi’s CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) to pass legislation establishing guidelines for CASA volunteers and restricting Child Protective Services employees from serving in that role. This is to ensure that the best interests of the children are represented from an unbiased, independent viewpoint. Anna Leah realized that her advocacy for the legislation really did make a difference.
So, Anna Leah began asking the Lord what kind of legacy He wanted her to leave behind.
In response, she launched a community service initiative called Limitless (limitlesspower2connect.com), which presents inviting and fun ways for parents and children to communicate with each other – to share and understand their emotions while working through trauma.
In 2025, Anna Leah was crowned Miss Mississippi, making her the first person born outside of North America to hold that title. She went on to place in the Top 11 in the Miss America competition. She now serves as global ambassador for the Christian adoption agency Lifeline Children’s Services (lifelinechild.org), while also attending Belhaven University in Jackson, Mississippi.
Anna Leah is an accomplished dancer and the owner of Studio A Dance Company in Flowood, Mississippi.

Her prayer and His work
Anna Leah knows it is only God’s hand that could rescue her from an orphanage in Ukraine and give her a national platform in America, enabling her to advocate for children in the foster care system and to share the need for emotional intelligence and communication in adoptive families.
Although Anna Leah did not formally hear and receive the gospel until she attended a Christian camp during her first year of being adopted, she recalls what she believes was the turning point when God revealed His work in her life.
“When I was still in Ukraine, … I was literally on the verge of dying because my biological mom locked me in the house for a week with no food and water,” she said. “I remember praying – and I thought as a kid that was just something you make up, like a fairy tale – but I remember thinking: If there is Anyone who exists who’s bigger than humanity, I pray that He would take me out of this situation.
“[Less than] a month later,” she added, “not only did He take me out of that situation, but He ended up putting me on the other side of the world and gave me a new name – Jolly, which is ironic because my childhood looked like anything but joy or happiness. So, the Lord gave me a brand-new name and a brand-new start, and He gave me a mission.”