I know some of you who read this have adopted and I need you to tell the other readers about God's faithfulness in providing in all kinds of crazy ways to make that happen. This is a request from me to you to tell about how good God really is in order that those who are reluctant to start the process can be encouraged.
Please even just tell a little story.
Some have gone to pick up their kids recently, some have had them for a long time, I don;t really care which one you are please just share. I would love it if there were 50 stories on here about God's faithfulness. We can't praise Him too much.
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Hi Chuck. I am posting our adoption story that is on our agency's website. It might take a couple of postings to get the entire story on but here goes....
ReplyDeleteOur adoption story started 20 years ago as I read a Dear Abby Column in a newspaper as a teenager. I was struck by a poem someone sent in about a birth mom and an adoptive mom, and the roles they played in this child’s life. I didn’t know anyone who was adopted, and was not adopted myself, but something about this poem and all the feelings and emotions in it made me certain I wanted to be a part of that someday.
Fast forward 13 years later and I met and married my husband, Mark. I had talked to him once in awhile about my desire to adopt a child someday and though he thought it was neat of me to feel that way, he never had a strong desire himself to adopt. A few years past and I actually started thinking it would just not be something in our future. We were blessed with 3 biological children and thought we were probably done adding to our family. To our surprise, I unexpectedly got pregnant with our 4th child. Though we had not planned for this baby, we were thrilled and so were our 3 children, to welcome another little one in the family.
In God’s sovereign plan for us, He decided to take that baby home with Him 12 weeks into the pregnancy. We were all heart broken, especially our 11 year old daughter, Alison. A couple of months past and Mark and I started talking about if we wanted to try again in bringing a child into our family. It just felt like something was missing after losing that little life. Immediately adoption was on my mind. It wasn’t for Mark though. I started praying to God to give Mark the desire to adopt a child if that was His will for our family. In the meantime I started searching online and investigating the adoption process. It seemed impossible that we could afford to do it on a police officer’s salary, and me staying home with our kids. But I kept praying for God to open Mark’s heart. Our daughter Alison started sending Mark emails and websites of children who needed families. I remember one of her emails saying “Papa, is God trying to tell you something?”
continued....
ReplyDeleteOne day, while Alison and I sat in the living room and Mark was in the kitchen, we were having another casual conversation about just looking into the process. I will never forget the words when Mark said “Alright…lets start looking into it.” Immediately Alison and I jumped up and down for joy.
A couple of weeks later we went to an information meeting at Bethany and the rest is history. God took over every step from there. He supplied the finances when it looked impossible, He guided our paperwork to get it just where it needed to go at just the precise moment it needed to be somewhere and though we thought for certain we were more than likely going to have a new daughter soon, He had a little boy already in mind before time began, who He knew would become our son.
We initially had applied to adopt a healthy girl. As time went on though, we were drawn more and more to the Children of Promise. We decided to start praying that God would guide as we decided what kind of child with special needs our young family could provide for. We received the COP list from our social worker and after praying, chose 4 children on that list that we felt comfortable we could provide a loving home for and requested to be matched with one of those children. 2 of those children were boys. I remember sharing with Mark that God had brought us down this particular path, and had put this particular list of children in our lives for a reason. If 4 of those children were someone we could love and care for, what was it for us to decide if they happen to be a boy or a girl? And our hearts then opened to the possibly of bringing home another son.
continued....
ReplyDeleteOn November 13th, 2006, at around 5:30 in the evening, we got the call that Jiang Xin Qi was our son. A 1 ½ year old special needs little boy from China was soon to be joining our family. There are just no words to describe the feeling I had when I heard on the other line “Hi, Kimberley, this is Pam Baker from Bethany Christian Services. We have some good news for you.” After that, I don’t remember much of the conversation. There was celebrating going on in the house and Alison was crying so hard from pure joy.
We went to the computer to look at his file and when we saw his face, the name Ben came immediately to my mind. “He looks like a Ben” I said to Mark. Mark agreed too. And that became his name in a matter of seconds. We never had Ben on a list of boy names in our life. After naming him, I looked up the meaning of Ben, and found out that it is a Hebrew name for “son”. We also found out he was 1 ½ years old and that the week he was born was the week I had that miscarriage. Alison often shares with others that God took that baby up to Heaven with Him, so Ben could become a part of our family and live with us. I firmly believe that. If it hadn’t been for that pregnancy, I don’t think adding to our family would have even been on Mark or my heart.
About 4 months later, we were on our way to China to get our son and bring him home.
It was the experience of a lifetime. It was one of the hardest yet most rewarding things I have ever done in my life. I will never forget the moment we stepped through the doors in the airport in Minneapolis and saw our other 2 boys waiting for us and running to us as we were reunited as a family after bringing Ben home.
Ben had surgery a few months later for his cleft palate. He had one of the most severe kinds, but we were blessed to have such an excellent surgeon doing his surgery and after a few weeks of recovery, he was back on his toes, and has been doing typical 2 year old boy things ever since. He is currently getting speech therapy through the school district once a week and is doing really well.
I often look into his crib and am amazed at how good God was to bring this tiny precious life into my home and that He allowed me to be his mother. To me, Ben is a walking example of the Gospel. I am reminded everyday how God came after me, someone in dire need, and God rescued me and adopted me into His family and called me His own.
I could not imagine our life without this little guy in it. He loves his Papa so much, and is the most affectionate little thing. Mark loves this, as our other children were never very cuddly as babies, and Mark is a very affectionate person. So those 2 spend a lot of hours on the big chair in our living room, reading books and just cuddling. It’s a pretty amazing sight to see this small Chinese little boy, not 25 pounds yet, and this big 6 foot 5 police officer loving each other so much.
Ben will never be short of kisses or hugs and neither will we! We praise God for planning before time began that he would be our child. In the book of Romans it says that God works everything out for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. In this fallen world we live in He can take something sad and turn it into good. He gets the glory and we get the blessing. With man things are impossible…but with God all things are possible. Nothing has shown me this more, than when I look into the face of my sweet boy, Benjamin.
Thanks Kim,
ReplyDeleteI needed to read this today and I am certain there will be others who are equally encouraged by God's goodness.
He is an AMAZING God.
Thank you, Kim!! Reading your real life story, even if I only "know" you through coments on Chuck's blog, is so encouraging! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI have really thought about posting, but if it can help just even one
ReplyDeletefamily to even consider adoption, I hope it will. I will say it is
long and need to do it in a couple of posts.
This is about our journey to our son, our second child we adopted from
China.
We had decided to go the Special Need (SN) route for the 2nd time and
the same need as our daughter whom we also adopted from China in 2007.
We decided to adopt a child with Cleft lip and palate.
We identified our son on November 30, 2007. Sent in the necessary
paperwork to request him to be our son. We were approved! So we had to
update our homestudy report to reflect the current information and to
comply with the new rules China set forth in May 2007. We had to renew
our fingerprints as well and do the number of things that is required
for an adoption to happen. Each step seemed as though we hit a
stumbling block. But we managed and got through each one, because I
kept focused on the fact that we would be bringing home our son! So any
thing we had to go through was worth it.
Then one day in June 2008 I had asked for updated measurements, a long
shot. China usually gives updates just before you travel and that's
it. Just their way of doing things. So to my surprise we were able to
get the updated measurements through our agency.
When I saw them something seemed off. He gained only a pound in 14 mos?
That can't be right. Mind you we had measurements from when he was 7
mos old and now he would have been 21 mos old at the time of the new
ones.
I contacted our agency and she inquired for us and they said they were
correct. So I left it alone.
Then one day in August, our agency gal called and gave us some
heartbreaking news! We were told we would not be allowed to adopt our
son. My mind was reeling. We have known about our son for 9 mos now, we gave
him an American Name, it was to be Camden. What do you mean we cannot
adopt him, we asked.
Now think back to the updated measurements, remember I thought they
seemed off? Well we were now being told there was something medically
wrong with our child. We asked if we could get an updated medical
report done on him and they said yes. They would get back to us once
they had some information.
So for 3 weeks our minds raced with, wait what just happened? We prayed
and prayed and prayed. Throughout this whole ordeal, God has been
faithful and stayed with us the entire time!
So 1 week went by and no news, 2 weeks, and we were told they couldn't
get any answers because he wouldn't cooperate with getting the tests
done. So we would have to wait some more. I prayed some more, asked God
to show us what was wrong with our little one. Then after another week,
it came. We had our answer. We consulted with the international medical
doctor here in Seattle and they concurred with the doctor in China and
it was not good. Without saying what it was that was wrong with him, I
will say that God had given us His answer.
So we had to say good-bye to our son. It was the hardest thing we've
ever had to do. But I truly believe that God knew what he was doing! So
we cried and grieved over the lost of our son and we still pray for him
to this day. Pray that he is growing now and thriving. But we will
never know. But God is watching over him and taking care of him for us.
Thank you God!
PART 2...
ReplyDeleteSo now onto how God worked for us to bring our son home!
We identified another child, also a boy, also with cleft lip and
palate. The deciding factor was his birthday is the same day as my
brother who passed away almost 4 years ago now.
So in Sept 2008, again we sent in our paperwork to request him to be
our son. Again, we were approved! Remember I said, that we seem to hit
stumbling blocks with every step we took with our first son? Well let
me say this was completely different. Everything went smoothly and
quickly! If that can happen in adoption, lol. :) But it seemed to this
time.
Even with more new rules that went into affect and we had to comply
with, but we got through them. Once we received our Letter of
Acceptance from China that yes we wanted to accept this child as our
son, we hit our first stumbling block a huge one, and it was financial.
We were short the money left needed to pay for the adoption.
Did I stress, yes. Did I pray, oh yes! So we had come up with many
fundraising ideas to try and raise the money. I have never worked so
hard in my life to get the money together, that's for sure!
So with travel to China looming over us, we were raising money up to a
week before we left. But yet again, God provided everything we needed
by the gracious people we know and even strangers (this is how we met
Chuck and Teresa) to help donate or buy what we were selling and little
by little the funds came together!
We had yard sales, 3 of them and our friends had one for us also. We
put on a dinner at church and invited people to come and they did! We
sold our Wii and video camera and some gold that I hadn't worn in
years. All ways to help get the money together.
Through all of it, God kept showing me he was there helping us,
watching over us, letting us know, don't worry you will be bringing
your son home!
So in July of this year we went to China and brought home our son! We
named him Elijah. It means, Lord is my God. It just seemed so fitting
after everything God had done for us. He is our Lord and He is our God!
I am still amazed and humbled even now, how we got the word out and
people came and helped us. How God made it all happen, wow! We thank
God every day for our son and for our daughter. For allowing us parent
these very precious blessings!
Thank you for allowing me to share our story with you.
God Bless!
Hi there Chuck has asked me to add a comment a while back and life got a bit hectic here so will try and post a bit about adoption and fundraising here.............
ReplyDeleteThere is not enough room to write our story so will try and do a quick abbrev version here. I am adopted and my husband has two adopted sisters - but this was not what led us to adopting a child from China.
Our journey started in 2000 after getting married later in life and wanting a family and after a couple of years of waiting we started the journey to start our own.... quickly we learned it was not in the cards to do this naturally so went a ways in fertility - got preg then miscarried, had other chemical preg and realized it was time to look at domestic - we found a girl who was having a baby and that door closed, we went to Guatemala with Bethany and as we finished our papers the USA closed that door too.... we were pretty tired and confused at to how God was leading us on this journey. The next day our agency asked us to come in - they suggested we consider a sn child and our 2nd Country was China. That night God spoke to me about getting a Cleft Lip & Palate child since a dear friend just had given birth to one and i was confortable with this. The next morning we shared our desire and our social worker noted she just received a file on a 11m old boy with CLP - i knew right then he was ours! 9m later he was placed in my arms and i was changed - he was a perfect little boy and now at 7 still is
I was already 41 so felt maybe i should settle for one but my husband felt i needed a girl so 6m later we started the journey again - this time looking at heart babies and God again picked our child for us and in Jan 05 submitted her file and in June we got her! She was 21m and was a real sweetheart - she was very different from her brother but still a perfect fit for our family and they instantly became best friends
Both these journey's had financial challenges and God provided from a grant from Show-Hope to a sudden gift that arrived the day we were in China - that both adoptions were paid for once we got our kids.
6 more months and suddenly God prompted my husband and i to talk about twins???? Here we both worked F/T i traveled for my job and were would the money come from? China would not allow us to have twins and suddenly we moved from MO to WA state - 2 m after moving a women on a chat group noted she was adopting 2 kids from China. We got talking and next thing i was signed up at her agency looking at getting two more kids??
This journey became a very difficult and painful one there were some highs but many lows that we had to just wait on God and trust Him by walking in faith. Not always an easy task and many times one with many lessons to learn along the way.
Part 2:
ReplyDeleteWe were matched with 2 a boy and a girl from the same orphanage then suddenly China changed all the rules to adopting and told us we could adopt 2 boys not a boy and girl. We kept the girl which had some major sn's and released the boy - but in time another family was matched to the boy we kept trying and found anoter boy and China said no again and got upset and just about at travel time canceled our adoption - we were devistated and wondered why? a wk later our agency was able to get it back on track and we were now heading to China. We were excited to get Taylor who was 3.5 yrs old and only 8m younger than Kaitlyn - once there we found we had a bigger issue to deal with - our daughter was terribly behind and neglected and was more like a 10m old than a toddler - we wondered if we should proceed? but felt God had pulled us this way for a reason. We brought Taylor home and kept working with her to get her on track for her age. She has made huge strides and in 2 years is almost there. This journey we went into debt, i believe we did not fully trust God with our finances and it was a lesson learned.
2m home and exhausted with all of Taylor's needs i wondered could we do another child? but realized Taylor needed someone closer to her age - I saw a request for a little boy who's file was going back to China since nobody had come forward to adopt him - i felt this could be my boy? We called the agency and I had to convince Scott that while broke God was calling us to adopt him. Scott agreed and we were matched to this boy with TOF of the heart. He was scheduled to have surgery in China and this adoption was a breeze. Each step of the way we had to get creative with money since there was none and we still owed on the last one. We wrote family and friends and raised almost 1/2 of the money through KKids, then used our tax credit from Taylor for Winston's adoption. Each step the money came in right on due date. We were matched Nov 13th and on June 15th 7m later Scott flew received our 4 year old Winston on Father's Day in China.
We did 4 special needs adoptions in 4-1/2 years plus moving - each step of the way God provided financially and also with medical needs as i write this from the Hospital as Taylor has had major surgery and all funds have been paid for. God had a plan for each child to be part of our family and through them many more have been blessed and step forward to adopt sn kids as well. I have loads of fundraising ideas if you want just email me at LavonneD @mail.com
to give you all some context "Happy Momma" is the person who kick started our adoption since they were in the middle of their 2nd one they could not adopt Vince. She is the person who talked to Cherilynn and Cherilynn emailed Teresa.
ReplyDeleteShe alluded to the fact that we went to her fund raising dinner and at that dinner we sat next to Lavonne and she is the person who introduced us to KKids and Michelle and that is how we ended up going to Ethiopia.
And none of this would have happened if Mo would not have been praying for us- w/o anyone knowing it- for 4 years that God would work in our hearts to be excited about adoption.
The only One Who is able to make all those things fit together like that id God. He is BIG!
I hope you can connect all those dots.
About a year ago, after 6+ years with an empty nest, God stirred my wife's and my heart with a desire to serve Him by ministering to children. At first, we did not know specifically what He had in mind. In addition, adoption seemed somewhat absurd given our age and life circumstances so we did not even discuss it with each other. Still, I'll talk about "us" because He worked in both our hearts simultaneously - while we were oblivious to that fact.
ReplyDeleteAfter several weeks of increased prayer time, it became clear to us that God wanted us to adopt two children from Ethiopia. We did not fully understand why He chose us and we felt so unworthy of such a blessing.
Eventually (after 6 or 7 weeks), we could contain it no longer and we discussed God's call. We were both amazed at how God had revealed to us the identical plan. We finally discussed adoption and prayed together. Following that, God opened all the doors to adoption and has provided incredible blessings (including meeting Chuck & Teresa) throughout the process.
We have had new opportunities to trust God as I lost my job. Unemployment, which I had feared, has turned into a tremendous blessing as I've been home with our boys much more than I would be with a full time job. And, in true "God fashion" our financial resources continue to hold out. I am confident God is preparing the perfect job for me even now.
Meanwhile, the boys (ages 7 and 9) are fitting tremendously into our family. They both love the Lord. They were well prepared for adoption and have adjusted to life in America quite well. We've been home with them for seven weeks now.
A year ago we could not have imagined how big God's plan for us are. But we were encouraged to open our hearts and minds and to allow Him to show us His big plans. We continue to be amazed at how big His blessings are!
Randy and SJ
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. I would love for you guys to post a couple of pics on the blog and also to hear from Chris and Jeff and how their process is going.
God is so creative in all He does, including way to make our dependence on Him evident to us in such a personal way.
Hi Chuck. I'm not sure how to post pictures on your blog. There are quite a few links to pictures on our blog (www.averillnet.com). Here's an attempt to post a link to a slide show with six pictures in it: http://reaverill.smugmug.com/photos/swfpopup.mg?AlbumID=10381859&AlbumKey=kYDai Hope it works.
ReplyDeleteBlessings (and continued prayer for your agency situation),
Randy
OK. It looks like the link didn't work so you might want to delete (or edit) my last post.
ReplyDelete