Adoption update Dec. 2012: part 5

A week before Griffin's due date toward the end of June, our paperwork was officially accepted in China and we were "logged in", ready to be matched with a child when the time was right. At this same time, our agency announced it's impending partnerships with 3 orphanages in China. We had to do a home study update upon Griffin's arrival and by the time he was 3 months old, our home study was updated and we were paper ready and waiting. Every step of this process has taken longer than we anticipated, so, when we got the e-mail that said the wait time for a girl under age 5 with minor special needs had increased to 3-6 months, we weren't surprised. We didn't expect to get matched for several months. so when we got the totally unexpected call that there was a match for us on October 26th, we were shocked! We gladly accepted the chance to review her file, and with a pounding heart full of anticipation, I went to open the e-mail that would reveal the sweet face of my daughter! Her "mild intelligence delay" and "muscle weakness" is thought to be due entirely to her circumstances. I know the Father's hand has guided every step of this process! It has been and continues to be a walk of faith, but what an exciting journey He has called us to.

 

How I had agonized over that list of special needs we'd accept- I'd revised it 4 times! Trying to decide what I thought I could and couldn't "handle" with Joey gone so much. But, the Lord knew all along. He had to make me willing to accept what I didn't think I could handle, but then gave me what He knew I could through Him. We thought we would adopt from MaoMing- an orphanage that is a rare find in China- it's "nice" as far as orphanages go- the children are well cared for. But instead, He's called us to stretch ourselves and embrace a child from the lowest of the welfare institutions. All of the children's heads are shaved and they are fed straight out of a pan in their cribs. We were told she has likely never been outside the four walls of her orphanage room. She does little but lie in her crib and stare at the sterile walls and ceiling- the back of her head flattened from remaining in the position for so long.

 

While this process has been long and at times exhausting as we navigated through piles of paperwork and thousands of dollars, we wouldn't trade the experience for anything. The Lord has used this adoption process to break me- to bring me to see things that are difficult about myself and about this fallen world we live in- one full of brokenness, and so in need of the love of Christ!  I am so excited to be a small part of His plan to show His love for the lost, broken, unwanted and unloved.  I am thankful that the Lord uses weak people like me to do unexpected things for Him so that He can display His glory. He's broken me out of a rut of comfortable complacency that is so easy to stay in because it's familiar. A part of me has grown disgusted with how much we have and how little so many others have.  That is part of what made us choose the song we did to show our adoption journey to little Charlotte Mae.