Why adoption & My new tunes!

A big thank you to Rony for turning me on to the esnip music. She's been putting some clever tunes to go along w/her blogs. To the left you will see a play list, of a few of my current favorite songs. Turn up your volume, and check them out.

I have to tell you about the last one on the list, 'He knows my name'. This song is Sophia's song. The whole time we were waiting for our referral, I would hear it and cry. Cry. I have tears in my eyes now, as I listen. 'He knows my name. He knows my every thought. He sees each tear that falls and hears me when I call.' All I could think of was Sophia, somewhere in China, crying and I wasn't there for her. He was hearing her, though. Won't you grab a tissue and have a listen?

If you don't know the story of how we came to adopt, I will tell you. (We do have another website: www.journeytosophia.com if you want to see our 'gotcha pics' or other posts from china, but I will save you from going.)

Why did we adopt from China? Because God called us to. Let me explain further.

On July 16, 2004, DH was driving in his truck, listening to a Focus on the Family Christian radio program. It was Pat Wadenphuhl, speaking of how God had led them to adopt from China. She told her story. I wouldn't know until mid-December just how touched Ted was by this program. (Ted said he knew right then, that we would be adopting a baby from China; it was a feeling he just couldn't describe.) He wouldn't share this with me until months after we'd begun the process.

DH had a customer to meet at 10:30, so he pulled over to the side of the road, so he could hear the rest of the program before proceeding to the job site. DH arrived at the job site at 10:30ish. The man he was to meet was there, but he needed to run and pick up his daughter at camp. Minutes later when he returned, he had indeed picked up his daughter, his CHINESE daughter, that had been adopted from China years before!

DH and I met the same day for lunch. He was sharing what he had heard on the radio program, as I sat in tears. (Yes, I'm very emotional.) He shared with me information about the one child policy, and the conditions in which these children were living. He told me how he arrived at the job site, to meet the customer with a daughter that he'd adopted from China. How odd - a neat coincidence I thought. It hadn't hit me yet.

I began to tell DH of something 'odd' that had happened to me this very same morning. I had received an email from an old friend that I hadn't heard from in almost 20 years. Her name is Hope, and she came to my school in the 2nd grade. She had looked me up on classmates.com, and sent me an email. Nothing special, just how are you, what are you doing, have any kids, things like that. I'd signed up for classmates.com a couple years ago now, and had never been contacted by anyone else.

This is where it gets interesting. Hope was born in Asia, in Korea. She was adopted, and moved to my home town in the 2nd grade. Hope emailed me the same morning, after 20 years of no contact. As I told DH of this 'funny' thing, it hit me like a ton of bricks. It was becoming very clear that these weren't 'coincidences.'

I looked at DH and said, "Um... do you suppose we're supposed to... adopt a baby from China?" We both looked at each other and we just knew. DH said something to the effect of "it sure looks that way."

Wow. We were both taken aback, but couldn't deny what we were being called to do. We never doubted and said no, but we were in shock for awhile! :) I joked with Ted and said, "Do you suppose God knows how dense we are, and he had to give us 3 'clues' in one morning?" No, really! We had two bio children, DH had a vasectomy, we were content. Adoption was never a dream, never a thought. We didn't really know anyone that had adopted, and we certainly were not experts on China's one child policy, or all the baby girls in orphanages over there. We were living our lives, and doing our thing. But God had another plan for us.

What a huge leap of faith. Financially, we were a one income family of 4, and we didn't have the $25,000+ that it takes for an international adoption. Probably the biggest leap of faith, was the financial piece. After cleaning out what we had in savings, we proceeded to take out a home equity loan, just as Patt W. had done when God had called her to adopt. We knew it was all orchestrated by God, and He would provide the means. We did a bit of fund raising. So many people donated items for our benefit garage/lawn sale that happened Memorial Weekend. My mother even made a beautiful miniature doll house to raffle at the sale. Family and friends were so supportive. Praise God, we were able to raise over $4,000 at that two-day sale!

We had never thought of adoption; we thought our family was complete. This wasn't our idea, like most of the decisions in our past had been. This was bigger than us. This was clearly orchestrated by God. Wow, why us, we wonder? We're thankful that He has chosen us.

Our completed dossier was logged in December 28th 2004, and 7 months later we were referred Sophia (see pic above). We all traveled to China as a family, and we love her more than words can express. So you see, it was a 'God thing'.

That's our story. We still don't know why us, but we are amazed and thankful every day for this incredible journey. This was going to be a post, with no pictures, just to point out my snazzy new music player over there on the left hand side, and look what it turned out as!

Enjoy the tunes, while I get a tissue myself! And when you get a minute, how about sharing your story?