Many people ask us, "Why China?" In some ways, it is a difficult question to answer. There are several practical reasons, but we see our decision as the result of a series of miracles. Even before we knew that it would be difficult for us to have biological children, Tim and I both wanted to adopt. We had known each other for 5 years when we discovered this shared secret dream, and it was Tim who brought it up when we were talking about getting married.We were amazed that we had known each other so long, and never realized we had this desire in common. The next miracle occured four years later, when we were struggling with the emotional and physical pain of infertility problems. I was sitting in church, and the pastor was talking about the Christian Church in China. It was as if God was sitting next to me and casually leaned over and whispered, "You're going to adopt a baby from China, you know." Tim was out of town at the time, and was a little taken aback when I called that afternoon and blurted out, "God told me we're supposed to adopt a baby from China." I am not the type of person who feels that God "tells me" things every day. In this case, I was glad of that, because Tim took me seriously. I spent the next few months reading adoption stories on the China web ring and crying. I began to dream about meeting our baby! However, I missed one little detail, which brings me to the next miracle.
At this time, Tim and I were in our late 20's. It wasn't until we called an agency that we discovered we didn't qualify to adopt a healthy infant. We were told to expect a special needs child or an older child because we were under 35. We talked about it and didn't feel like that would be the greatest situation for the child or us, as we would be first-time (inexperienced) parents. Now, I realize we would have been fine, but I do believe God had a reason for delaying us. We began to look into other countries, but didn't feel peace about proceeding. We knew we were going to move across country in the next few months, and felt like God was telling us to wait on the adoption for awhile. I was ready to adopt from Ethiopia, but Tim couldn't let go of China. "Maybe they'll change the age limits, " he said. I thought that was HIGHLY unlikely. I knew I was too emotionally fragile to know when we were supposed to reopen the adoption issue, so I asked God to speak to Tim about it, knowing that he wouldn't bring it up on his own. Nine months later, we were on the opposite coast reading the paper on a rainy January afternoon. An article on Chinese adoption caught my eye, and yes, the age limit had been changed to 30. I was 29, Tim was 30! We both noted the article, but said very little about it. Several weeks later, Tim mentioned that the base was holding an adoption seminar, and did I want to go. I said, "Do you think we're supposed to pursue this again?" In that moment, God answered my prayers, as Tim said, "Yes, I do!" I couldn't believe it! Two weeks later, our application was in to a local agency specializing in Chinese adoption, and our INS paperwork was in the mail! |
