the all important LID

The China process for adoption is very streamlined. They've got a system and everything flows by the system and basically never deviates.

This is one thing I'm so thankful for with our adoption of our sweet baby girl. 

Typically, a family receives their log-in date about 1-4 weeks after their dossier to China (DTC) date. We got our log in date on Monday (6/13/16), a little more than 2 weeks after our dossier was sent to China.

Basically having the log-in date means that we are officially logged into the CCCWA's system and are able to receive a child's file when they become available. SO exciting! And yet...

Now we wait. We know the Lord knows who our China baby is. Adoption is His good plan for a world that is wasting away from sin - a good plan for a bad world. I wish that every child could grow up in their biological family, that no child had to endure the pain of separation from that which they once knew, that no child knew what it was like to be truly hungry, to be truly alone, to be neglected in terrible ways. And one day Jesus will come back and make that happen, He will come and make all things new (Rev 21:5).

But for now, on this side of heaven, we wait. We wait for heaven and long and hope for that day with eager anticipation. And we live as God calls us to live on earth in light of that. I am so sad for the brokenness and sadness that our daughter will know before she even comes to us, the depth of it that I can't even understand having not experienced it myself. But I am so thankful for a God who sees, El Roi (Gen 16:13). He knows our baby fully. He knit her together, not in my womb, but in her first mother's womb. With intention, with purpose. And I just pray that as we wait, as she waits, that her little heart will hold onto hope. Hold onto the hope that God sees her. That He cares for the orphan and He has a plan for her. That He will soon change her name - that she will no longer be called orphan, abandoned, unwanted, but beloved daughter, precious sister, beautiful grandbaby. And though her story involves pain and hurt, God has a good plan for her life --a plan to prosper her and not to harm her, a plan for a hope and a future. 

I wear a necklace often that says, "Blessed is she who has believed that He would fulfill his promise to her." It's from Luke 1:45 and it is Elizabeth speaking to Mary when she is pregnant with Jesus our Savior. 

And blessed is our China baby, who believes that the Lord would fulfill his promise to her, that "he sets the lonely in families" (Psalm 68:6). Pray for us as we wait, and especially for our girl as she waits. She is the one whose circumstances as she waits are dismal. The waiting time goes by quickly sometimes for us with big kids activities and time with family and friends and summer and school, but for her the waiting time is the same. The same crib. The same food. Nothing to look forward to. So please pray for her. She is so loved and treasured by us, but even more than that she is loved and treasured by the God who sees and knows her so intimately. Pray that her little heart would hold on to hope whatever that looks like for a baby girl, and that the Lord would bring us quickly together.

Praise God for LID!

when we pray, coincidences happen

It is amazing the way God works. Isn't it?

There's this great quote in a book called A Praying Life by Paul Miller (sidenote: This book is probably the most or one of the most influential books I have read as a Christian. It has hugely impacted my spiritual life, and it is so easy to read. Seriously you could read it in a couple days - though you might want to ponder over it for more than that. Check it out!) -
       In the book the author quotes Sir William Temple who said, "When I pray, coincidences happen, and when I don't, they don't." Isn't that true? We'll be praying for something and then it will happen and we will sometimes forget that we even prayed about it, and instead when the thing comes true, we will somehow attribute it to chance - coincidence - or we will somehow attribute it to ourselves (thinking that our good planning, or hard work, made xyz thing that we prayed for come true).
But y'all.
It's God.
It really is.

Well, God orchestrated something this year in Caleigh's 2nd grade class that I couldn't have even thought to pray for, I wouldn't have even come up with the idea. He is just that good. Here's the story of this good thing that He did (it's kind of a long story):

So (just pretend we're sitting down having a cup of coffee or a glass of wine while I tell this story)... when you begin an adoption, one of the things that you have to do is the dreaded medical checklist. Basically it's a giant giant checklist (multiple columns per page single spaced, multiple pages) of every medical condition you've never heard of (hello Dr. Google), and you have to go through and check, yes I'm willing to accept that or no, I'm not willing to accept that. Basically it was awful because when you check no, you feel like you are saying no to an actual child. I wanted to be brave when we filled out that form and I wanted to check yes on lots of things (and we did), but we had to wisely examine our family, our resources, the hospital and medical and pediatric specialists around us as we filled out that form. For example we decided to check no to osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease), because it requires you to be super fragile with those kids and super careful because their bones break super super easily. Well, as the youngest of 5 kids and with a dog and a trampoline in the back, that's just not feasible for our family. So these are the things we had to consider. Anyways, one of the things we are open to is cleft lip/cleft palate (CL/CP) - a common medical condition in China. It's definitely not a minor need, as many surgeries are required over many years, but it is manageable. I have been on quite the journey with CL/CP and I would not be surprised if our little China baby ended up with that as her medical need. Also have I said before on the blog that all adoptions from China now are some kind of medical special need? Hence the medical checklist... Anyways... So, in our conversations with our social worker she had wisely recommended that we start preparing our kids for the possible medical conditions that China baby might have so that they weren't shocked when the time came. So we started talking to them a lot in January/February about how God makes everyone differently and how no one is perfect. How some babies in the U.S. and in China are born with a "rip in their lip" which is what we are calling cleft to them. We showed them pictures of sweet China babies with cleft (and they were shocked, as was I, until I got used to it, and then loved it, and now I think a cleft smile is basically the cutest thing ever). And we talk about that, it's no big deal, it's just the way God made them, and it can be fixed up with a little surgery and then they'll have a scar. Which always prompts every kid to talk about the scars they have, especially Caleigh who talks about the scars she has inside her ears from 3 sets of tubes (very true). So this conversation was just a constant for a month or two at our house. One night at dinner we're talking about this again. And we're talking about how if China baby has CL/CP, she would just have a couple surgeries and a scar but how it's no big deal, because once again, nobody is perfect. And Caleigh says, oh yeah that's like my friend Lilly at school. So Caleigh in 2nd grade has 2 best buddies - Reeves and Lilly. I know Reeves because they were in K together and have been buddies since then, but I didn't know Lilly. But Caleigh has talked about Lilly all year, about how they play together with Reeves every day, etc. Back to dinner - I said, "Oh really? What do you mean?" And Caleigh said, "My friend Lilly at school has that, she's had like 4 surgeries, but it's not big deal, she just has a little scar." And I say, "Oh wow, that's interesting. So was she just born with a rip in her lip?" And Caleigh says, "No Mom (in her slightly exasperated way), she's Chinese! She was adopted from China." And my jaw basically drops. Shocked. One of Caleigh's best friends at school this year has been a sweet girl who was adopted from China with cleft lip/cleft palate? I could not have orchestrated or planned that if I tried. How amazing is that? God has used this little friendship to normalize adoption to her even more, to normalize cleft lip/cleft palate even more, to prepare her for this adoption in a way in her heart that I'm sure I won't know about for years to come, if ever. Praise God for that, for this family, and for this sweetest little friend of Caleigh's.

(from a recent sleepover)

Wow. Just wow. Seriously in awe of God and the amazing ways He works. When we pray, coincidences happen, and when we don't, they don't. 

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 

~Isaiah 55:8-9