Other lights...

In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets...  -The Four Loves, C. S. Lewis

As soon as we started the process to adopt Hannah Ryan from China, Ryan and I started noticing a change in both our boys...particularly in Hudson.  Hudson is now a big brother.  Even though he has not yet met his little sister, there has already been a change in him...he has already assumed the role.  As we started to see this happen, I immediately thought of the above quote by C. S. Lewis.  Even though he is specifically talking about friends, I see it already in Hudson's life as a result of the coming "light" of Hannah Ryan.  He already loves her unashamedly...he tells everyone about her.  He is already talking about how he is going to protect her and help care for her.  He has even described how he will make her laugh when she is upset.  There is a tenderness that Hannah Ryan is awakening in him that is absolutely blowing me away!  I think one of the things I am looking forward to the most when we arrive at the airport is seeing Hudson's face when he meets his baby sister for the first time...somebody is going to have to have their video camera ready!

The week after we officially told the boys that we were adopting a little sister from China, Hudson came home from school with a pink purse.  He regularly comes home with prizes that he has earned from the "Treasure Box" of one of his teachers at school.  When he has earned enough stickers for working hard, he can redeem them for a prize.  Well, apparently, he had been saving up to get something really good.  This particular week, after learning that he was going to be a big brother, he redeemed ALL the stickers he had been stockpiling to get a pink purse for his little sister.  The purse has remained hanging on his bedroom door since that day...waiting for the day when he can give Hannah Ryan her purse.  Before we left for Summer Beach Project, I was cleaning the house and picked up the purse.  I was surprised to find that it was full.  I poured out the contents to discover that Hudson had been bringing home more and more "girly" treasures from school (and finding things around our house) to put in Hannah Ryan's purse for her...a purple brush, beads, stickers, a necklace...  Oh how blessed this little girl will be!!!  I am so thankful for the "other light" that God is bringing into our family and for the "facets" of her big brother, Hudson, that we would never have gotten to see without her!

Home Study...check!

We are SO EXCITED to share that the last piece needed for our home study arrived today!  We had a little bump in the road with Ryan's fingerprints.  We sent both of our prints off in March.  We did this because for the home study we have to have a clearance letter from the Alabama Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Well, my letter came in on May 5.  When Ryan's hadn't come in a week later, we decided to call Virginia.  We are so glad we did!  They thought they were still waiting for Ryan's prints to arrive.  Apparently, they had gotten lost in the shuffle.  But, by the end of the day they had found Ryan's prints and processed them...and his clearance letter arrived today!  So, that means that our Home Study is essentially complete!  I just need to read over it and check for any errors.  The next step is to send off our Home Study and our I-800A form so we can get yet another set of fingerprints done.  We are so thrilled to have this first BIG step in the adoption complete!  Next step...dossier!  Please continue to pray for our process, for the Lord's provision financially, and for Hannah Ryan!

Blessed on Cinco de Mayo!

The Lord is already providing in big ways for our adoption of Hannah Ryan.  Yesterday, we were blown away by the love and generosity shown by our Sunday School class at Briarwood.  Sweet friends of ours who have a big crawfish boil every year planned a "surprise" for us this year.  They spread the word to everyone in our class that this year they wanted to use the event as a way to raise funds for our adoption.  They were praying that the Lord would raise $1000 from the evening...God exceeded expectations and over $2000 was raised last night by our amazing friends.  Ryan & I are so blessed to be in the Heritage Builders class at Briarwood.  We are so thankful that the Lord has placed us in such sweet community.  Thanks to each of you for making Cinco de Mayo 2012 a day that the Akers will never forget!

And her name will be...

We will call her Hannah Ryan...I have always loved double names for girls!  :) Hannah means grace or favor.  We pray that Hannah Ryan will know the grace of God that has been lavished on us by the sacrifice of Christ.  When Hannah of the Bible prayed for a child, God heard her prayers and gave her a son, Samuel.  In her prayer of thanks she said, "...He raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor."  What a beautiful picture of what our Heavenly Father does through the beauty of adoption!

For each of our children, we have a passage of scripture that we pray for them.  Hannah Ryan's will be Ephesians 3:17-19:

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

So many sin struggles that girls go through could be avoided if they truly understood the lavish love that Christ has for them.  We pray that Hannah Ryan will know and be secure in the love that her earthly Daddy has for her and that this will give her a better understanding and security in the love of her Heavenly Father.  Being named after her Daddy will be a constant reminder that she is Daddy's little girl and that she is loved unconditionally by him!!!

He does immeasurably more...

than we ask or imagine!  Remember what I said in my first post about Lifeline being granted partnerships with 3 orphanages in China?  Well, make that 8!!!!!!!!!!!  That's right!  Lifeline now has exclusive partnerships with 8 orphanages in China, representing over 3000 children who need a family.  And, 5 of those orphanages are in Chongqing.  I have been DYING to post this for over a week, but I've been waiting for the official update from Lifeline to be released.  Go read the update from Lifeline and join us in praising our Heavenly Father for what He is doing on behalf of the fatherless!!!  

http://lifelinechild.org/orphanage-partnerships-in-china/

Welcome to our adoption journey!

Our adoption journey to China has finally begun!  This is something that our family has talked and prayed about for a very, very long time.  Even before Ryan & I adopted our boys from Ukraine, we knew that one day we wanted to adopt a little girl from China.  For me, it all started in the summer of 1999.  I had the opportunity to spend the summer before my senior year of college in China, and my heart has not been the same since.  It was during those few weeks that the Lord really broke my heart for the lost and for the nations (particularly for China).  I came home in LOVE with the people of China…and with the intention of going back after graduation.  God, however, had different plans.  During that next year, Ryan & I began dating, got married, and moved to Texas for seminary.  However, in the fall of 2003, God gave me and Ryan the opportunity to spend 2 weeks in China together…in the Chongqing municipality.  Our time in China those 2 weeks was amazing…God truly rekindled my love for the people and the culture.

Since adopting our boys in 2005, Ryan and I have continued to desire a daughter from China. But, the Lord has been clear that the timing was not right.  However, after much prayer, this spring we feel that the “fullness of time” has come for us.  Our long-awaited journey to adopt our daughter has officially begun.  It was not even a question of which agency we would use…as soon as we felt the Lord stirring our hearts towards adopting again, we contacted Lifeline Children’s Services.  Through meeting with a friend who works at Lifeline, we learned something that confirmed that the Lord was directing our steps towards China.  Lifeline has just been given the opportunity to partner with 3 orphanages…in other words, adoptions from these 3 orphanages will be exclusive to Lifeline families.  The orphanages are Sui Xi Orphanage of Guangdong Province, Zhu Hai Orphanage of Guangdong Provice,  and Chongqing Orphanage of Chongqing City.  Yep…that’s right.  There are over 660 cities in China.  Out of those 660 cities, Chongqing is the one that Ryan & I have spent time in together.  Now, obviously, we have no idea what orphanage our daughter resides in…but just hearing that Lifeline is going to be working with an orphanage in Chongqing was like another nudge from God’s sovereign hand.  As we started this process one of our home study discussion questions was, “How do you plan to educate and expose your child to his or her international heritage?”  It kind of made me laugh…because pieces of Chinese heritage & history are visible all over our house...from artwork, to books, even to our youngest son’s name.  Hudson Taylor Akers was named after the great missionary to China and founder of China Inland Mission.  It is truly amazing how the Lord started something in my heart in 1999 and is bringing it full circle in the addition of a precious daughter from China to our family.  Ryan, Rowen, Hudson, and I are SO excited about our daughter and baby sister.  We can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store for our family!

I will try to update this blog often so that you will know where we are in the process and how to be praying.  For now, we are cruising along in the home study process.  Please pray for this process…that we can get everything done quickly so that we can begin preparing our dossier to send to China.  As you know, international adoption is VERY expensive…please pray that Jehovah-Jireh will provide for every need that arises.  Also, please be praying for our daughter…that her needs are being met and there are loving arms caring for her.