Pre-approval on January 3rd!

I was so deep in thought while crafting my first blog post that the significance of January 3rd didn't even hit the page. Now that I think about it, several things happened over the last couple of months that got us to the 3rd, but we really didn't understand God's plan until that date. Or maybe a little before. But really, we were so engrossed in our own plan that we didn't even think about God having a plan that was different from ours. And scary.

Just before Thanksgiving my adoption friends Carol, Mary Ann, Bonnie and Jeanne encouraged Darrell and me to consider going back to China (we adopted our daughter Katie from China 6 years ago). For those of you who don't know, we were certified by the State of Texas to adopt domestically back in May 2011. After 7 long months we didn't understand why we didn't get a match. After all, we didn't box ourselves in. We asked for a child age 3-12, gender didn't matter, ethnicity didn't matter. We didn't understand why God called us to adopt but wasn't sending us a child. We were becoming impatient.

On November 22nd my friend Carol sent me a link to a site called Wonderful Waiting Kids. On November 24th I sat in the floor of my Aunt Cheryl's living room and scrolled through picture after picture of precious children.

On November 28th God led me to her. A precious, beautiful girl named "Marlaina" to whom I became instantly attached. Here's a younger picture of her sweet face. She'll be 9 in March.

 

Darrell, on the other hand, was not so attached. He was in the throws of seminary finals and had a lot on his mind, least of which was the scary thought of adopting a special needs child from China. Not to mention the cost. Yikes!

After about a week of prayerful consideration, conversations with amazing Annie Hamlin, prayers over our current children and their feelings on the adoption and, well, pretty much all out abandon to follow God's scary call, we did it. We picked up the phone and called Madison Adoption Associates. The next few weeks were scary, I guess because of all the unknowns. But we trudged forward in complete faithfulness and then--January 3rd--PA!!! PA is pre-approval from China in the world of adoption abbreviations. It was time to start a blog to keep up with all the milestones. And time to truly begin falling in love with this beautiful girl named Liu Qingnan (Marlaina).

We are amazed at the outpouring of love and encouragement received from our family and friends. We are humbled that complete strangers who prayed for Liu Qingnan now pray for us. We are thankful for our cheerleaders inside and outside the adoption community who leave us comments, send us emails and give us hugs. Most of all, we glorify our God in Heaven who leads us to do scary things in His name and for His purpose, who provides for us when we think there is no provision, and who holds our hands with each step we take. And then we realize it's not scary at all.