Once upon a time, in a country far, far away…..
Oh, wait a minute…this isn’t a fairy tale!
Seven….not really a big number in the grand scheme of things. But when one is talking of the number of children one has, well that’s another story. To be honest, it’s OUR story! And how did we arrive at the place we are now? ONE AT A TIME! And not by our plans, that’s for sure!
Long ago, it was written: “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” Proverbs 16:9
And, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it full well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; IN YOUR BOOK WERE WRITTEN, EVERY ONE OF THEM, THE DAYS THAT WERE FORMED FOR ME, WHEN AS YET THERE WERE NONE OF THEM.” Psalm 139:13-16
God planned our days…before we were born. God planned the days of a little boy in China, before he was born….and He planned these lives to come together in 2010!
Now, for a more up close look at how it came to be:
It’s November, 2009, Paul is teaching through Nehemiah. It starts out, Nehemiah hears of the condition of the city of his fathers…Jerusalem, and the plight of “his” people (whom he did not know personally). He is distraught, but what can he do except pray to God and give prayerful intervention. His burden was so heavy for his people, that one day, when he was serving King Artaxerxes his wine, the king asked him, “why the long face.” Nehemiah replied, city in ruins, people scattered, why shouldn’t I have a long face?” paraphrased! In answer to his question, the King grants him leave to go to Jerusalem and provides all the supplies and protection needed along the way.
And then….as associates for the adoption agency we have used, when children are about to expire in the system, they send out a notice, asking if anyone knows of someone who would be interested in this child before the file is sent back to China. It happened this day in November, 2009, that the face of a 13 year old boy came across the email. Paul sent home the notice, asking if we knew of anyone, or if Sophie and Amie needed another brother. HAHA. (It was just a joke! We were done!) I joked back…he does look a lot like Jordan. HAHA. My heart did stop and ache for this young guy, who had been passed over for lots of years. He has a repaired cleft lip and palate, not a big issue…but a half grown boy…hmmm, I don’t think so. Besides, we hadn’t even been home a year with Amie, and there is NO money to draw from; we’re still paying off the last trip! We prayed for him, that God would provide him with a good home. We even joked about it with other people…”what do you think if…?” One response we got back said, “you are waaayyyy past asking “if”, your son is waiting”. Another response was, “I have a good chunk of money to get you started.” Huh? No, I was just joking!
After much prayer and contemplation, here we are, 5 months later, with our dossier about ready to go to China! Hotly pursuing a little boy, named Wang Xiao Wen, whom we have named Levi!
Are we excited? Very much so. Apprehensive and scared? You betcha! We don’t have any preconceived notions that this will be easy. So different from a baby, this is a half grown boy, and we are going to totally emerge him in a new culture, food, language, school system, introduce him to Jesus. But this was God’s idea, not ours. He will not give us more than we can handle, with his help and strength!
We covet your prayers for our family as we wrap up this process. Please pray for Levi as he finds out he has a family. We will probably travel June/July/ August.
Let's get Levi home!!!!!! Auntie Faith
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