On October 1, we received an email that our dosser would be mailed out the very next day! This means our dossier began its journey to China on October 2! We celebrated as a family going to Ichiban. Okay, yes, we know that’s a Japanese restaurant, but our waiter was Chinese!
As the papers make their way across the ocean, my mind reflects upon our three prayers for our adoption from China:
- We pray our daughter will be as young as possible. Due to our ministry where we travel a lot and both feel called to stay involved in ministry, social workers encouraged us to wait longer for a referral and seek to adopt a younger child, rather than older. Often children adopted earlier from orphanages have an easier transition into families and do better with adaptability.
- We pray our daughter will be raised by a foster family. Upon research, we discovered that China was encouraging foster parenting attached to orphanages. Children who have a foster mom typically develop an ability to form strong attachment. This ability to form bonds of trust develops primarily between birth and 18 months.
- We pray our daughter will be from an area of China with little access to the Gospel.
Our two biological children on earth (we have one with Jesus) have the ability to adapt, change, travel, and join us in ministry. We always say God stamped “travel DNA” into their blood.
As we have entered into adoption, we do so having to trust God for what we cannot see. We know He has blessed our ministry. We know He has called us together for the purposes of His mission on the earth.
With adoption, we have chosen to believe that God can look over all of China and see all the kids in need of adoption. We have chosen to believe that the child referred to us, God will stamp with “travel DNA” on her blood. It is not so much that we want her capable of flying without crying. Rather, we hope that as she grows older, she jumps into the journey God gives our family.
We keep reminding ourselves of Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith if being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Five verses later, the writer of Hebrews states, “And without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6a).
Our papers may be on their way to China, but our hearts keep connecting to God lifting up our three main prayer requests in faith as he chooses our daughter among millions of children in the world who await for their families.
