Almost two years ago, God gave me the impression that we would adopt a little girl after Jacob. Since that time, I have kind of been on the look-out for her. At one point, we thought we had found her in Vietnam…a little one with a heart condition, named Sinh. We were not able to bring her home, however, because she was too sick to be moved from Vietnam. Her name, Sinh, meant ‘Life,” a meaning which later, took on more significance. At that time, God gave me a verse, “He takes away the first to establish the second.”
I often look at waiting lists of children, and contrary to the popular belief of Jeff and Ryan, I do NOT fall in love with every child I see!! Haha! Late last summer, I was looking at an agency’s new waiting child list. As I looked at the children’s files, a little one caught my eye. Her special need was a ‘little foot’ that was almost identical to our Chloe’s. She also had a leg issue that was somewhat hard to discern, but didn’t look too serious.
I mentioned her to Jeff and he said, ‘Maybe we should adopt her.” I laughed, thinking that this sweet child wouldn’t be waiting for more than two days. She was young, beautiful, and her special need wasn’t serious. Besides, we had only been home a few months with baby Jake, and I didn’t think an agency would be willing to work with us.
A few months later, I checked the list again and this little peanut was STILL waiting for a family! I couldn’t believe it. I mentioned her again to Jeff. Again he said, “Maybe we should adopt her.” I laughed… Awhile later, I asked him, ‘Were you serious about adopting her?” He said he was open to it, so I called the agency to ask about her. I was told that another family was reviewing her file, so we needed to wait and see what their decision was.
Since we know what Chloe may be facing in the future with her leg (possible surgery to make her legs the same length), we had no problem with this child’s special need. As we prayed about her, we felt at peace about pursuing her adoption. I told the agency we wanted her if the other family did not. A few days later, they called to say the other family had decided not to pursue, but we still had to wait for their committee to meet and decide if they were comfortable with our family.
During the wait, I looked at her picture and asked God what name He had chosen for her. Instantly, it came…. “Faith.” I also prayed that God would give Jeff her first name, and several days later, during a family discussion on names, Jeff and Taylor came up with the name, “Zoey.” I looked up the name, Zoey, and read that it means, “LIFE!” God never ceases to amaze me! He HAD taken away the first (Sinh) to establish the second (Zoey).
A few days later, we got the call that the committee Okayed us!
Our Letter of Intent went to China and we waited for a response. A month later, China contacted our agency and wanted to know where the rest of our income was! Our income was under the amount required to adopt from China. Well…hmmm….we couldn’t just magically make more income appear in our bank account. We prayed again…and God gave Jeff the idea to ask his boss about his bonus level. Jeff had just been given a lot more responsibility at work, and he thought that MAYBE it had pushed him into a higher bonus level. It took a few long weeks to get an answer, but in the end…YES…he was bumped into a higher bonus level. It pushed us just barely over the amount required by China! God is amazing!
We thought we would then be approved quickly, but a month went by….then another, and another. During that time, we were told that China was concerned about the number of young children we had. We continued to pray that if God wanted Yong Qing in our family, He would make sure we were approved. Yong Qing needed a family and we prayed that God would rescue her.
Finally, at the end of February, the call came! We had been approved!!
So here we are, about to embark on the lovely paperchase again! Our social worker is coming on Wednesday, and we will begin the process to bring Zoey Faith home.
The day after we got approval, my devotional was titled, “Lifted to Safety.” The verse that went with it was: ….God…does great things, and unsearchable, marvelous things without number…Those who mourn are lifted to safety.” Job 5:9,11
In my mind, I picture sweet Zoey, being lifted to safety and brought home to her family.
