We stepped out to adopt our daughter, having not a single penny saved for her adoption. We knew we were her family, so we simply relied on God to provide all the funds necessary to bring her home.
Every step of the way, we watched as He provided.
Some of our sweet little friends surprised us by running in a local race and asking their extended family to sponsor them. They donated the money to our adoption
Our local homeschool group put together a Walk-a-Thon to raise money. This was very successful, and we felt very supported to see our friends meet together to walk in support of our adoption.
I could write about many miracles in our adoption journey. One example was the day that we owed a certain amount of money to our home study agency. The check had to be written that day. We didn't know where the money was coming from, but we knew He had promised to provide. We wrote the check, and then just a few hours later found an unexpected check in our mailbox (for almost DOUBLE what we had needed!). This was the way it worked every time we needed to pay for the next step in our adoption. The moment we needed it, God would provide. (If you've never relied on God like this, I will tell you that it's unbelievable how He works when we are trusting Him!)
So, in the meantime, in the midst of doing paperwork (and more and more and more paperwork), we began to learn sign language. With the language issues that we were facing (a child with Down Syndrome as well as having Chinese as her primary language for 3 years), we took on sign language to communicate with her. We practiced all the time and learned the very basic signs so that we could communicate with her.
Her birthday rolled in, and we went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. We placed her photo album on the table and celebrated her birthday on the other side of the world.
And then, just 2 days after her birthday (and 9 months after we had first seen her photo on Reece's Rainbow), we received what is affectionately known in adoption circles as "the call." Our adoption agency called us to say that all our paperwork was complete and we were invited to fly to Taiwan the following month!
That month flew by, with preparations to travel. Soon, our bags were packed!
I have skipped many details in our adoption journey, but if you are interested in reading the play-by-play version, please feel free to visit the blog we kept during our adoption.
The road from start to finish was littered with trials, tears, frustrations, challenges, enough paperwork to undo our sanity (almost!), and many nights of wondering if our baby was okay on the other side of the world. But in every twist and turn of the journey, HE was faithful. There's something about stepping out onto the thin air of faith that gives new dimension to life.
Our obedience, plus His faithfulness. Psalm 68:5 says He's a Father to the fatherless. The next verse says He places the lonely in families. Remember that we...the Church, His Bride...are HIS BODY. He is a father to the fatherless THROUGH US. He places the lonely in families THROUGH US. It is not enough to simply agree with an Amen. It requires stepping out into His Will for us. The ride is like no other!
Next blog post will cover our amazing trip to the beautiful island of Taiwan...
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