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A Leap of Faith
If you’ve been following along, you know that it started with me being convicted.
The story has continued with me being shown sign after sign. With us praying and contemplating what Jasmine had asked us to do. It then lead to Dan and I truly asking what it was that was keeping us from adopting again.
I made my list of what was keeping me personally from adopting and each thing was quickly taken care of by God. Each thing big or little was just – G.O.N.E.!!!!! Needless to say, God got my attention.
We’ve prayed and prayed and prayed some more.
Made a list and another list and another list – pros and cons – over and over again.
Prayed some more and then a little bit more for good measure.
We realized that for this to happen God was going to have to be in the details. This would be His story because there is no other way for it to happen. I wasn’t going to write about it and then I thought “You of so little faith. What are you afraid of?”.
I trust God’s plan. I believe fully that this will work. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. Matthew 21:22 Now many people believe this is like having a genie, I don’t believe this will work because I magically asked for it. I believe this will work because I asked and I believe that this is God’s will so I shall receive it.
The first step, getting her file transferred. My husband’s only wish was wanting to stay with our same agency because we have built such a wonderful relationship with them. The other agency is good. It had nothing to do with that. It was all about familiarity. I have tried to get files transferred before and it didn’t happen. Those agencies wouldn’t release them. I even had one agency that told me “Good luck in finding her after her file is released.” We are hoping and praying that they will okay this switch.
As I fretted about whether they would release her file, on Facebook I saw another mom ask which agencies will okay transferring a file of a child. And low and behold, her agency is on the list. They talk about this agency truly wanting what is best for the child.
More waiting and thinking and praying.
Asked myself these questions “Are we setting ourselves up for heartbreak? Can we really get this done in five months? What about our children’s hearts? What about her heart if she finds out she has a family and we can’t get there in time?”
And through the magic of Facebook I read a post from another parent asking others “how fast you can go from no paperwork to travel”. The answer? 3.5 months, 4 months, just under 5 months. Over and over again people told how they did it in under 5 months. We have almost exactly five months. Hallelujah there is hope!
I questioned fingerprinting. Why do we have to do our fingerprints again? Last time it took two months to get Codey’s fingerprints to clear. We don’t have that kind of time.
And by the grace of God, another family tells our social worker how they got their fingerprints expedited and done in days.
I wondered about her. More questions filled my mind. “Would she be a good fit for our family? Did she truly want a family? Does she want to move to the U.S.? Does she like little children? Would she be okay with a big family?”
And more Facebook magic. Someone read my blog and got me added to a group where they were advocating for her. (Thanks Megan!) Where I read about another mom who really wanted to adopt her but couldn’t. I messaged that mom and she put me in touch with people who truly knew this sweet girl and her heart. Which in turn let me talk on the phone with a mama who loves sweet her too and has spent two years with her in China. Which in turn lead to us seeing videos and pictures of her. I truly know more about her than any of the children we have set out to adopt.
God is so good. Ask and He will answer.
I was questioning if this was truly what He wanted us to do. Did He really want us to step up for another round of trust and faith?
It seems that way. Every question has been answered.
This has been mind blowingly amazing.
Sign me up! That is what our family has said. Sign us up for another round of faith and trust. God is good. I trust His plan. His ways are amazing. We are going to try our best and leave the rest in His hands.
This is going to be quite the ride. The paperwork has been started. Please join us on our journey. Please keep us and sweet Kelly in your prayers. It’s gonna take a miracle. To God be the glory. I can see His hand all over this story.
Oh and by the way yesterday, HER.FILE.HAS.BEEN.TRANSFERRED!!!! Step one done. Praising!!!!
We have filed our Letter of Intent (LOI) for this sweet little girl. We would appreciate your prayers as we head out on this journey. I recently posted on Facebook about why we decided to proceed with another aging out older child adoption. Here is why….
First, Jasmine thanks us and tells us how happy she is and she wants to do that for another child. She wants to make another little girl just as happy as she is. (Actually she wants to make six more girls happy but we will start with this one.)
Second, Jasmine shared that in China they had told her that if a family doesn’t come for her before she turns 14 then she will go to a horrible place with very mean people. Those mean people will just leave her in a corner without a (wheel)chair and she would get hit and be hurt and no one would feed her. (Oh to have been able to protect my girl from this pain.)
Third, she shared that she cried the day she got the letter from her daddy. Dan started the letter by saying “To my beautiful daughter”. (Jasmine told me it said pretty daughter, but it actually said beautiful.) Jasmine told me she had always been told how ugly she was and that she read her daddy’s words over and over again and believed them. (I remember Dan worrying over whether the words in that letter were the right words. He so wanted her to know how much he loved her. I love his heart.)
Jasmine informed us that people treated her poorly in China but she thought that was just the way it was supposed to be. She felt like she deserved to be belittled, left alone, and yelled at. She believed that she deserved to sit in her chair and not be allowed to eat with the rest of children, to not be allowed to go to school because she was in a wheelchair and the school was on another floor. She believed that she was not worth any of the things the other children got to do, BUT then she came here. She now sees that she is beautiful inside and out. She sees that family loves her even though her body doesn’t work that way she wishes it would. This is why she is so happy. She has a family that loves her unconditionally.
The pain and the fear and the lack of encouragement and comfort are hard on these children. There are so many children growing up without family. Please consider fostering and adopting or supporting someone who is. The world is full of these hurting souls. I can’t even put into words what Jasmine has brought to our life and this is why we have decided to proceed again for a little girl who may not YET see her worth. We are signing up to comfort her and care for her and love her unconditionally. To tuck her in and hold her hands and help her be the best her that she can be. To pick her up if she falls, to build a strong foundation under her feet, to erase her fears, and to give her what she wants most……A FAMILY!
