Three Musketeers

 Three Musketeers

Another great Facetime call. Art says Caleb is getting more comfortable... especially in the hotel room. The boys will fly to Guangzhou today for all the final steps of the adoption in China. We are grateful for your continued prayers.

We are overwhelmed by His grace in our lives.  Some of you have asked for the story about Caleb joining our family. 

Below is the clip from our newsletter announcing this adoption just a few months ago....

Exciting News

Never have we pictured this life for ourselves: full time ministry, China adoptions, or special needs. But, clearly, God had this path planned for us in advance (Ephesians  2:10, 3:20). We have been so deeply touched & profoundly changed by all of this. We cannot imagine our lives any other way. We are full of praise, joy & dependence on God. We realize it may look a little crazy to the world, but we are seeking HIM with all of our hearts & begging HIM to transform us & help us reflect HIM. We are begging HIM to change us & help us to lay down our lives. He is answering very specifically.

We have a new chapter to share with all of you. During our last trip to China, we met a special young man at Mercy’s orphanage. Both Mercy & this boy begged us to adopt him also. It was gut-wrenching for us to explain the system to her. We couldn't take him with us, but we did explain with the help of a translator that God knew his name & his needs. We told her that we could pray for him to be adopted. We were able to share so much with Mercy about our journey to get her & each of our kiddos… the prayers, the money, the smallest of details, our support team & all the miracles. She began to pray with us for this boy. She also gave us many more details including the fact that she believes he could be her biological brother. She has been with him through 3 different orphanage moves and has memories of the day they were dropped together at the orphanage. He is one of the earliest & longest memories she has. We tried to get more info from orphanage workers but they all insisted there was none. We left China with a commitment to pray for him & the knowledge that we would likely never see this young man again.

Imagine our shock when we were home about a month with our new daughters & we came across his picture in a China advocacy group where we usually pray for the children. We did not seek him out or any further adoption for that matter. When we inquired about his file, they referred us to OUR PREVIOUS ADOPTION AGENCY in WA state. Wow! We know how God can work. We asked him to lead us & we asked him to help us obey if this was HIS plan. We asked for clear confirmation if this was Him. There was initial grant money and some private donations.  The Chinese government excused our family size & financial requirements AGAIN. They agreed to let us re-use our dossier even though we have already used it for 2 adoptions (Zoey & Mercy). All of this seemed amazing, but we felt really scared. Our bank account was low & we couldn't see past our load of special needs & limited finances (in our own eyes). We stepped out in faith believing God was calling us to this. Within days, we got donations we weren't expecting. We got a large anonymous donation covering most of the adoption.

We don’t know if this is truly Mercy’s biological brother. We told her it really didn't matter & that sometimes God makes family in the heart instead of the womb. We do know he is precious 13 yr. old boy in need of a family. God has given Mercy & this boy a very special bond. He will age out of the China system in early June. We know God is calling us & equipping us for this urgent, speedy adoption. We are praying, trusting, obeying & asking HIM to be our everything. We are asking HIM to fill us day by day with all that we need to parent these kiddos & walk this road for HIS glory! Join us in praising GOD for these amazing details & praying for our precious Caleb. We are on our way to China again very soon.

 
God has moved mountains to bring this boy home. We are in awe!
 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
⁶ in all your ways submit to him,
    and he will make your paths straight.

 Proverbs 3:5-6

 

We don't know what our future holds. Some of this adoption stuff is really hard. Many days we feel overwhelmed by the medical and healing that needs to take place, but we are confident He has called us to this. We know He is with us. He will never leave us. He will carry us through all that is ahead. We pray with all of our hearts that God would be glorified as we put all of our hope & trust in Him day by day.

 

Some side notes.......

Zach has been trying some adventurous eating this week. He has tried 1,000 year old duck eggs and pig kidney. He debated & then passed on trying the snake tea (?!?!) today. Even Caleb had never seen that before.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

Trying some outings - 100 degrees and public audience not best case scenario but they tried!