Adoption Story Update & Prayer Requests

Another week has flown by! It seems like it's taken forever this year to get all of our Christmas decor out....or maybe it's just me.....it seems to be hard to get into it this year. I think my mode of thinking has been into making sure all of our paperwork was on course for the adoption. But....I have to say that the more I got things out and actually had a long enough length of time to actually work on it, I began to get more excited about Christmas decorating. And now, it's finally all up and done.....time to take all of those Rubbermaid boxes back out to the garage, and time to enjoy the light of the Christmas trees and those Christmas movies together! :) Over my next few posts, I will share some Christmas decor photos with you.

But for today, I'd like to share something with you concerning the adoption. This would have made a great Faithful Fridays post, but I totally missed posting on Friday. However, I decided it would be a good "anyday" post! :) Remember in the first post that I shared we were going to pursue adoption? I stated that this would most definitely have to be a "God thing"...one where God opened the doors. And He has to make it plain for me to see! Well I don't know why I would ever be surprised, but God never ceases to amaze me on how He works things out.

Let me tell you a story.

I shared with you already about how quickly doors opened for us to find our son, Luke Tai (by the way that's the name we gave him), who waits for us in China. We came to the decision to pursue adoption in September, and I did research on agencies and special needs. By the first of October, we found our agency, BAAS, and began the paperwork end of our homestudy too. By October 19th, we received the call from Xiaoqing at BAAS with the referral/match of our little Luke (whom we fell in love with immediately). By October 21st, we sent in our LOI for him. By October 27th, we received our PA (approval to proceed with the adoption from China). I knew God had a purpose for things happening so quickly, because I never knew things to happen this fast.

Now let me tell you what I didn't know was happening during that time. I only recently learned this bit of information. I know God put this person and information in my life for a reason and to show us just how wonderful He is and how much He cares and to give me confirmation that Luke is our son and God planned it that way all along.

I joined a couple of forums recently, one being a waiting child through China forum and one being a forum for the province from which Luke is from. In one of those forum messages just early last week, someone (named Tammy by the way), asked how long it was taking to get PAs these days, to which I replied to the post on the forum with how long it took us. Well Tammy saw my blog link at the bottom and went over to visit and read about our adoption story. Imagine her surprise when she saw Luke's picture. Here's why.......the third week of September, her family was referred Luke's file to consider and pray over from an entirely different agency. After prayerful consideration, her family couldn't get peace that this was their son. Her words to me were, "no wonder I couldn't get peace about it....because he wasn't our son....he was your son! (You can imagine the goose bumps as I read her words). She was so thankful to know "why" God wouldn't let this boy be hers and to know she was obedient to His word and didn't make a mistake by following through with his file. And she was thankful to see that Luke had a family. And then I could see why God lit a fire under us in September so we could find the agency that held Luke's file. He lit that fire under us about the time they were considering his file. I'm sure that the next hands that held Luke's file with a referral were Xiaoqing's of BAAS, when she called and had all of his updates and knew he was right for us! And so doors opened quickly!

As I read more of her story, the tears came for me! She told me more of the story...a personal testimony of how Christmas Eve of 2007 was a hard time in her life. When she received the next referral file, she saw her son! God gave her family peace that this little boy was their's. Found on Christmas Eve that same year of 2007, this little guy was God's gift to their family. They knew it in their heart! So now God gave them the little boy that was meant to be their son all along!

And it gets even better....as we talked a little more mentioning little tidbits of our lives, we discovered that we live about 40 minutes from each other! Our boys are going to be friends....it's meant to be.....and I will forever be grateful to Tammy for listening to God speaking to her heart....and for being obedient to His words.

How amazing is that? God is SO good. I know He let us find each other to give us peace and contentment in what He's working out for our families to His glory.

And I've got to share a couple of pictures that were sent to us within the last week when we sent Luke's care package. They aren't new updated pictures, but pictures, nevertheless, that we haven't seen....a stage in his life for which we now have photos! Yay!

Look what a priceless smile! And what a chunk he was!




And here.....Colt says he looks like a little Monk.....our little Monk! Don't you think this looks like a bit of a mischievous "got caught" look?




I just want to scoop him up and hug and kiss him!

And to fill you in on the next step in our adoption journey, our homestudy is complete and awaiting approval with our agency. As soon as we get approval, we go the next step with Immigration and fingerprinting. That's one more step closer to Luke! I really appreciate all of your comments and prayers concering Luke!

I have a few prayer requests that I'd like to mention and would really appreciate your prayers! First of all, my father-in-law (who is 80 years old and lives alone) has been in the hospital most of this week having tests run. We don't know the results of any of these tests yet. Please remember him (and all of us) in your prayers! I would like to ask prayer for Tammy (from the story above) and her family that they receive their PA very soon on their little guy, so they can bring him home as early as possible too! And, I would appreciate prayers that our homestudy approval wait and immigration wait is a short one and things move right along as well! I'm not a very good "waiter". :)

And next time, I'll try my best to have some Christmas pictures for you. It's time to clean up after all those boxes first! :) I can't wait to visit your blogs to see YOUR Christmas decor too!

Thanks for stopping by! :)