Rummage Sale

This weekend our church had a rummage sale to help us raise money for the adoption.  There were many people involved in planning and making this happen.  It would be impossible to thank everyone who helped.  The only thing I can say is that we are heavy with thanksgiving right now.  Last week we sent a check for $3500 to our adoption agency for a bill that was due.  The rummage sale yesterday raised just over $3500.  The funny thing is we've had a couple of adoption bills due lately.  Even though I would be the first to say "God will provide", the last week or so I have felt a little stress just due to the uncertainty of what other expenses will come our way.  I know God will provide, but I still worry about it.  And I'm intelligent so I do this in other areas too, not just money.  You know, I will worry about things even though God has shown me over and over how faithful He is.  But here I am again, completely blown away with how God provided.  You could say it was a coincidence that our sale raised the same amount as our bill last week but this has God written all over it.  He has really used that to comfort me.  I know the financial aspect keeps a lot of people from considering adoption and I understand that completely.  But seeing how God has abundantly provided for us I feel like I am constantly asking forgiveness for ever worrying about it.  When God is putting a family together He pays for it. 

This weekend I wanted to share something with the folks that helped with the sale but there was never a good time I guess.  And it's still a pretty emotional thing for me anyway so I'm not sure how far I would have gotten before it got awkward for everyone.  Anyway, last week I was at Fedex Office making copies of our potential* child's medical records.  150 pages of information.  Some of it was in Chinese, part of it was lab results that I didn't know what it meant, the other pages I just sort of flipped through looking for something interesting.  At the machine next to me was an Asian man.  I felt bold so I asked him if he could translate my child’s name and tell me what it meant.  He was nice and politely told me he was from Korea.  Lesson learned.  Back at my copy machine, hoping the nice Korean man was about done, I started reading one of the documents in my stack of paper.  The document was a summary statement of my child’s condition when he was 6 months old.  It was about 6 or 7 paragraphs.  The last paragraph I cannot get out of my mind.  It says:

____  ____ was born in Hong Kong.  His parents are Mainland residents.  They do not have a permanent Hong Kong address.  They have already signed off this child.  He is currently waiting placement.  He was admitted on day one of birth and has been here since then.

They have already signed off this child.  He is currently waiting placement.  They have already signed off this child.  He is currently waiting placement  They have already signed off this child.

This child has never known anything about a father or mother.  He was 6 months old and had not yet had his picture placed in a family album.  When he cries someone who is on the clock will help him. 

We have prayed for the caretakers that will be around our children since we knew we wanted to adopt.  From the information we have, it seems that our prayers have been answered.  But not being there it is hard to know for sure. 

I cannot get over how it must be for a child to be so alone.  It must be difficult, but that is all he has ever known.  His family right now are the other kids in his facility.  We know he has a best friend.  Thank God for that.  We know he likes the speech therapist and he waits for her on the day she visits.  He loves to play on the playground.

But he's never had a father pick him up when he skins his knee.  He's never had his artwork featured on the family refrigerator.  He's never had his mom brush her fingers through his hair and tell him she loves him.  He's never fallen asleep in the car and then been taken to his own bed to be tucked in.

But he will.  He will.  Soon.

__________________________________________ 

*potential sounds so legal.  I might as well say alleged.  This is difficult.  We don't know for sure that he is our's yet, but as far as we're concerned he is.  And we're already getting his room ready in our house.  We love him more than we ever thought the two of us could love anyone.  And even though he has probably never seen one, I kind of feel like he would know how to use it if anyone ever gave him a light saber.  Which we may or may not have plans to get him one in the future.