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.
