Making It Fun!

I can't believe it has been almost a week since I posted here on my dear little bloggy thing.  So much has happened that last week seems like a lifetime ago, and yet the time has flown by so quickly that it seems like I was writing my thoughts of missing Jim just yesterday.  This journey of faith we "officially" embarked upon just a mere 10 days ago continues to overwhelm me.  It has daily encouraged me as well as tested the very fibers of my being.  We have seen daily examples of just how big God really is, and been given daily tests of just how much we are willing to trust Him.  I'm happy to say that this has all left us in a place far better than we could have imagined - and I am happy to share the miracles of this past week with you.

Last Friday my day began with that fateful trip to the ER.  It was followed by a morning of straightening up and carpet cleaning, and it produced the blog which is now posted directly below this one.  It wasn't a typical morning given its start, but it certainly wasn't a day I expected to change my life forever.  Yet that is just what it did.

Shortly after composing the draft of my "I Miss Jim" post I received an email from a representative from Show Hope regarding our "No Calorie Bake Sale!"  She had received a copy of the bake sale email from my friend Kathy McKinney, one of the leaders of my China trip, and wanted to know if I would write an article for Show Hope regarding fund raising ideas.  I of course said "yes" and in the email conversation that pursued the Show Hope representative asked me if I would like her to contact CCAI for us with the little bit of identifying information Show Hope had regarding Jim.  The idea being that when we began working with CCAI to try to track down any file that might exist for him this would be a little bit more help.  I said that I had not planned to do this until after I got official notice that our CCAI application had been received and approved, but if she thought it was okay to do so already I was more than happy to accept any help that might be offered.  Show Hope thus provided the information to CCAI.

I'm not exactly sure what I expected to come from this interaction, but I guarantee I was not expecting what transpired.  Remember, we went into this entire adoption trusting that the Lord would provide as He saw fit.  We knew which child our human hearts were desiring, but also understood upfront that finding him might be impossible, that he might not be eligible for international adoption, and might not even have an adoption file.  But we jumped in committed to trying to locate him while praying for God's guidance as to considering other children as well.  Well, that contingency plan, apparently, was never in God's plan.  When CCAI received the bits of information that Show Hope could provide the immediate response was, "We know that child."  As it turns out, Jim's file was sent to CCAI earlier this year and they had subsequently returned it to China in July when they were unable to find a forever family for him.  The Waiting Child representative that received the information email not only recognized Jim and informed us of this past interaction with his file, but immediately went to work searching for the file so that she could request its return.  Unfortunately, the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) website was down on Friday and she was unable to get into it to search before the close of the business day.  That did not stop her, however, as she tried again late Sunday evening, once the business week had begun again in China, and resumed her search.  At midnight Sunday night, an email was sent to us stating that the file had been found and a request had been made to CCAA to return the file to CCAI for review by an interested family.  Keep in mind, our CCAI application had not even been logged in yet!  This was just days after we had put it in the mail.

By mid-afternoon on Monday, CCAI had logged in our application packet (which had been delivered in Saturday's mail) and had forwarded Jim's file to us for review.  I quickly forwarded the file to my brother, a pediatrician, so that he could review the medical issues as he had for both Jolene and Becca's adoptions.  By dinner time I was simply holding my breath.  We knew this was the child we wanted, and we whole-heartedly understood that there was no way this file should have ended up in our possession in just a matter of hours.  It had literally been less than a week since we put our adoption application in the mail and here we were with the entire file in our hands, able to accept him as our adoptive son-to-be with a few key strokes and an email.  This was unreal!  And yet, it was happening.

On Tuesday I had the opportunity to discuss Jim's medical file with my brother and ask many questions regarding the issues which cause Jim to be labeled "special needs."  As we expected, there was no information found that would cause us to question our decision.  This is the son we want to bring home.  This is the child that God has created for us.  We quickly sent CCAI an email stating just this, and we went to work completing the paperwork necessary to submit our request to China for an official match.  By the grace of God we even had some family friends willing to pay the request fees for us so that money once again was not a factor.  By the end of the day on Wednesday this paperwork was completed and submitted and we are now in the holding pattern of waiting for pre-approval from China which will link us to Jim for adoption on both the U.S. and Chinese sides of the world.  And it has still been just a week from mailing that application.  A search that we originally compared to looking for a needle in a haystack turned out to be one of the best examples ever of God providing the desires of our heart.

Last Friday afternoon I literally jumped up and down in front of my computer when I received our first positive response from CCAI.  By the third or fourth email I was crying.  Overwhelmed does not even begin to describe the emotional roller coaster of processing the news being fed to me one short message at a time.  The enormity of the situation was unreal.  It wasn't supposed to work like this. We didn't even know if he had a file, let alone a file that had already been in the hands of our agency and was able to be found and requested within hours.  We had long passed the point of wondering if this adoption was God's plan, but now there was less and less chance of others doubting His hand in our journey as well.

I know there are those who initially worried that Dan and I were a little bit out of our minds to even consider another adoption.  I know this because a few have been brave enough to tell me.  And that's okay.  As I stated early on in a blog, I too initially found this whole situation a bit on the crazy side.  But as each day passed and brought with it new miracles, connections, and provisions my doubts and concerns were revealed to be exactly what they were - human doubts and concerns among the vastness of God's wisdom.  Those same people who have shared that they doubted, mind you, have listened to the happenings of the past week and, like us, now find Godly intervention impossible to ignore.  There is no way that this is all a fluke.  One coincidence, maybe.  Two or three, probably not.  One or two or three a day, for more than a week - I seriously don't think so. Our God is an awesome God and He truly is in control.

Not one of the people involved in this matching can take an iota of credit for anything falling into place.  We didn't do anything.  We didn't arrange for things to be just right at the right time.  We can merely say that we have tried to listen, we are doing our best to follow, and we are relying on God to keep hold of the reins.  Steps of faith, absolutely!  An exciting journey, you bet!  But we are blessed to know that God is in control, and He so dearly wants us to sit back and enjoy the ride!  When Dan and I first met one of the versus that came up often among our group friends was 2 Corinthians 5:13a.  It states, "If we are out of our minds, it is for the sake of God..."  That verse suits us just as well now as it did 18 years ago.  Crazy?  Maybe.  But that is what makes it fun!