We find ourselves in the throws of our second adoption, an adoption that we would have never imagined undertaking. But, God had other plans for us. During the three year wait to adopt May Lee, our now two year old daughter from Southern China, God afforded me (Steve) the opportunity to meet a special five year old boy outside of Beijing, China. In July of 2007, one of my best friends, Jarrett Potts, offered me a free trip to China to work (really play) with children, in a foster home outside of Beijing for a few days.
Once I safely arrived at the foster home I found myself in a converted school full of special needs children, some with club feet, some with cleft lips, some disfigured, some with serious illnesses, some even terminal. Through God’s grace I was able to play with these kids, love on them and even fall in love with them. What an incredible impact these kids had on me. How could I leave here without one of these kids, without doing something? There were three older boys, in particular, that I really bonded with, one of those boys was named Dang DaJian, a five year old that thirsted for a father, a Baba (the Chinese word for Daddy). DaJian was a joy for me to be around, a very loving boy. Little did I know that God had already ordained him to be my son. This boy was not even available for adoption, he did not even have paperwork to be adopted. So why would God give me such a heart for him? Why would He allow DaJian to call me Baba when I was with him, does he know something I don’t?
Months passed, and we finally received May Lee’s referral in February of 2008. We traveled to China in March and brought our beautiful second daughter, May Lee, home with us in April 2008. Over the next several months we were overwhelmed with illness and eating issues with May Lee, doctor’s visits, various medical tests and weight loss. Would this little baby girl ever eat? Would she thrive? We found ourselves on a very difficult road with her health, but God is good and he provided us with praying friends, great doctors,and incredible wisdom. He gave Lynley the perseverance to provide what our daughter needed to heal. May Lee is doing great now, eating, walking and even pooping on the potty! It was all worth it, it is worth it, she is such a blessing to our family! It hasn't been easy, but God has always provided what we needed, when we needed it!
Through that summer of 2008, we had been feeling that there would be some big changes coming for us, but had not quite figured out what that was. Through all of this and the difficulties with May Lee's health, we could still not shake this little boy, DaJian (Joseph), from our minds, our thoughts, our prayers. We began to fast and pray how God would want us to be involved. We were praying that Joseph would become adoptable, that he would have a father and a mother. We were slowly figuring out that God wanted us to be that father and mother, but how? How was He going to make this happen? China does not let you choose your children, they choose them for you. How were we going to pay for another adoption?
We questioned how all this would happen, but God worked out every detail. He has put people in our lives, literally at our table and front door, to find Joseph's paperwork, have China allow us to adopt him, and to sell our house, which was not on the market. We have even been given an incredible financial blessing from my Father to pay for the adoption costs, and we found a new house (which also was not on the market) with a smaller mortgage, to help pay for Joseph's surgeries and medical needs. So, we have been preparing a loving home for Joseph and all we lack is our travel approval to fly to China to bring him home to his forever family. Lynley, Coleman and I will be traveling to China, while Graham and May Lee stay with my Mom and Step-Father. My Mom has been an unbelievable blessing with the amount of time she has sacrificed to care for our family. We hope to travel this September, 2009 to China to finalize Joseph's adoption. We look forward to caring for him, loving him and watching him grow into a man. God only asked us to be obedient, He took care of the rest. Don’t miss out on the miracle of adoption, after all God adopted us as sons and daughters!
