Part 1 - Choosing to love

This post shouldn't be hard to write, yet I'm finding myself stuck on how to begin. I opened the page ready to write and share the amazing story God is writing for our family. But here I sit stuck on how to begin it.  I know why - see I want to honor the memory of our sweet China girl now home in Heaven and writing over top of it somehow seems like she is fading away.  We are still missing her.

I think she'd want us to move forward though - not forgetting, but loving her in remberance.

So I'll begin, with her on my mind, I'll share this story and pray that she is smiling down on us as we think of her today.

If you're familiar with how we decided to adopt from China, then you may know that we took time to pray and research A LOT before diving into what many refer to as a paper chase (which ends up being a stack of papers weighing close to 10 lbs when you're done - really).  I don't think it's a coincidence that our journey began in April of 2012, when I first felt God asking us to be open to adoption.  Both little girls we've come to love during this journey were born just the month before.  He knew they needed a family with a Mom and Dad.  Two little girls...forever they will be part of each other's story. I love that.  They were born in the same month, days apart, yet miles apart in China.  Both suffered the same pain of leaving their birth families and were left to be cared for by someone else who wasn't their mom.  That is painful to write.  Not as painful as it was for them though. What is beautiful, what they both were given, what she gave them, was life.  Their birth mothers chose life for each little girl. That is so beautiful! So thankful that each women loved these girls so much to choose this for them. They chose love.

While lives were unfolding in China, we were praying - about adoption, about finding the child that was meant for our family, about faith and trust, and following Gods will for us.  As I researched China adoption, I found out about New Day Foster Home.  They had children who needed sponsoring and while it felt like we were waiting for the right time to move forward with adopting, I asked Jeff one night if we could sponsor a child at New Day.  I wanted to be doing something while we waited. He said yes (maybe a little bit of him hoping my desire to adopt would end there, ahem).  In all seriousness, he just needed a little more time to really hear what God was saying to us. I had decided to be still and let God from that point on regarding when we would adopt.

The next morning, in September of 2012,  a beautiful 6 month old baby with captivating brown eyes arrived at New Day and I jumped at the chance to be her sponsor. (Part 2 - tomorrow)