It was February 29th when I first saw the profile of my soon-to-be-son pop up on my Facebook newsfeed. Jim and I had just sat down with bowls of ice cream, hoping to catch up on the news when I first saw his face. I read his story, as I often do, and my heart was moved, as it always is. Already immersed in the foster/adoption world, seeing the profiles of children in need of families happens often, but it hurts every time. I understand that we cannot become the family to every one of the 153 million orphaned children in the world, but still my heart breaks for every one of them to know the love, commitment and devotion of a family. And so I take a moment and just silently pray for the children I see.
This time, I also passed the laptop to Jim and said, "Oh, Jim..."
He took the computer and I studied his face as he read about this 10 year old Chinese boy, abandoned at 1.5 years old because of a genetic blood disorder that required lifetime medical management. As an orphan for the past 9 years, he was not receiving adequate care for his condition, and therefore, his life expectancy would be no greater than 20 years old. Half his life already lived?! But, adoption was his chance at life. With adoption came the opportunity to receive proper management of his condition and to prolong his life well past 20 years old. He needed medical care to live. And he also needed a mommy and daddy to love him. This boy needed to be adopted.
With misty eyes, Jim handed the computer back to me. He calmly and confidently said, "See if you can find out more about him."
A quick email to the social worker and a phone call the next day informed us that there was a family who had his file and was considering proceeding with adoption. We were elated that this boy could possibly have a family and rejoiced... though the kids had hoped the family would be ours. "How do we know that this family will tell him all about Jesus and his love?" one of my sons asked me. "We can just pray," was my response. And pray for him we did.
On Monday, March 7th, we celebrated my daughter's 13th birthday. All she wanted, she said, was to be this little boy's big sister... she no longer had any gift wishes, except for him. As I sent her off to school that morning, we had no idea what the next couple hours had in store and how our lives were about to forever change.
A call from the social worker just after lunch brought words I was not expecting, "the other family has decided to pass. Would you like to proceed?" For several moments, I couldn't quite breathe ... but these words from Jim, spoken with great certainty and clarity sealed the deal, ""He needs a family. Let's go get him and bring him home."
We didn't know at the time the mountains of paperwork that lay before us, the astronomical fees and payments that would need to be made, or the lengthy amount of time it would take both working feverishly and waiting with great longing... But, it didn't matter. God had lead us to this little boy, He broke our hearts for him and created a passion to make him our son and give him the care he so desperately needed and deserved. No matter how daunting the task, our lives belong to Christ and we trust Him to lead us on this journey to our son. Obedience may not be easy, but it brings abundant joy and purposeful life. We look forward with great hope to God growing our family again.
https://youtu.be/I8_BAZHNpvw
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