What if....?

We’ve now been home for two weeks.  It seems surreal that we even went to China to be honest.  Things are going very well.  Within about 20 minutes of being home, it was as if Andrew had never left us last summer.  The children were in the basement laughing and playing hot wheels, nerf swords, and nerf guns.  The laughing and talking were music to our ears!  Jet lag has finally eased up and life is returning to a new normal.  We are still trying to find a good routine, but with all the other children’s activities we’ve been a family on the go.  We are enjoying every moment!!


The plane on the screen is facing the wrong way, but this is the map we watched off and on our screens during our 15.5 hour flight to Hong Kong.  We were almost there!!

Recently our youngest daughter asked me, “Mom, what if raindrops were ice cream and candy bars?!”  I had to chuckle to myself and replied that if the sun came out like it tends to do here in central Illinois that it would be one big mess!  After she thought about it she had to agree it would be no fun sloshing around in melted ice cream and chocolate caramel stickiness, especially in sandals!  I did however share that IF they wouldn’t melt it would be a tasty rain!  What if…?  What if broccoli tasted like brownies?  What if everyone got along?  What if you had a million dollars?  What if America turned back to godly principles?  What if it stops raining here in Illinois for a few days?!  What if?!  Hmmm.  “What if” are two small words that can get you thinking and discussing!


July 2014.  Water fun!

It was one year ago this time last year that we were preparing to participate in the Madison Adoption Associates and In His Hands Orphan Outreach’s summer hosting program.  In the weeks leading up to the children coming to Illinois we asked lots of questions and were asked lots of questions.  Many people we talked with had never heard of such a program and were very curious as to how it worked!  It was a very exciting time for us as we shared the things we were learning and the journey God had called us to last year in hosting a little six year old boy from China.  There were a few people who really had a hard time understanding how bringing the children here could possibly be helpful.  It sounded almost cruel to them I think.   So we did our best to educate them about the hosting program, yet the questions still remained in their minds – What if he falls in love with you & your family?  Will you adopt him?  What will you do if he cries & doesn’t want to leave? 



July 4, 2014.   Andrew arrives in Springfield, IL for the summer hosting program.

 

June 1, 2015.  "Gotcha Day"
After 305 days of waiting to bring him home, the day finally came when we were reunited!

“What if”?  These two simple words cannot only get you thinking and discussing but they can also keep you from doing the things you need to be doing, the things you know you should be doing.  These two words have been around a long time, too.  Just go back to the Old Testament to where God speaks to Moses from the burning bush in Exodus 3- 4.  God tells Moses His plan to rescue the Israelites from Egypt.  God lets Moses know that he has been chosen to go to Pharaoh and free God’s people.  Usually we like to be chosen first, remember in grade school when the captains would start picking teams for kickball at recess.  Getting chosen first was a pretty big deal.  (At least it was at my grade school!)  Our friend Moses, however, doesn’t do any fist pumping or high fiving; he isn’t exactly excited to be chosen to be the messenger of this wonderful news.  He begins to have a discussion with God and begins to ask questions like, Who am I God to do this?  Suppose they say…?  What if they don’t believe you sent me?  I’m not eloquent in speech!  Please send someone else!  Now, we know that Moses was used mightily by God and did indeed help lead the Israelites out of Egypt, but he too asked questions in the beginning and he also asked God “What if?” -  Exodus 4:1 – “Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen¹ to me and say, 'The LORD did not appear to you'?"   

The sunset on Andrew's last night as an orphan. 

In my response to the what if questions I shared that the orphans study English and then come to America to learn about the American culture first hand much like an exchange student would. They come as a group with chaperones for a month. Many of these young people have not eaten in a restaurant, been to a zoo, been on a boat, etc... The experiences they would get to have during the month were things we Americans take for granted every day. I reassured those asking that the children were not told or promised they would be adopted so it wasn’t a situation where they would be disappointed if they didn’t find a forever family and reassured again that the children were here on an educational trip.  We also shared once a child reaches 5 years of age; their chances of being adopted were less than 5%. So...remaining in the orphanage in China was really not helpful to them at all. The opportunity to travel to America for many of them was their only chance at having a family. It was also quite likely their ONLY chance to learn about Jesus. That is the biggest freedom we as Americans take for granted.   Then we would finish up sharing that we felt God had called us to host Andrew and to introduce him to Jesus; to allow him to experience as many things as possible. We felt called for the month of July to love him and allow him to experience what it was like to be a part of a family. Then we addressed the “what ifs” (what if he falls in love with you?  Will you adopt him? Etc...)  We didn’t have an answer but were going to be obedient to what God called us to do (host) and the what ifs would work themselves out because we had faith God would take care of the details.


June 1, 2015.  Gotcha Day.
 

June 2, 2015.  Adoption Day.

I was defriended on Facebook for that conversation.  I was okay with that.  It was okay because we were obedient to what God had called us to do.  We knew He wouldn’t call us to something and then leave us alone to figure the rest out.  And guess what…we were right!  We discovered we had both been praying about adoption!!  We did fall in love with Andrew!!!  We did adopt him!!!!  One year later, Andrew is no longer an orphan but is a part of a forever family experiencing love, learning about Jesus, and oh so many other new things!!!!!  Brad and I are changed people because of this entire experience.  Our lives will never be the same.  It’s not all been rainbows and unicorns, so please don’t misunderstand and think it’s been a piece of cake.  However, living in obedience to God is oh so much better than the alternative.  It’s been an amazing year!  God was able to take “What if” and use it in our lives to do something incredible!

I am so very blessed to be their mama!  Love these 5!

It’s been two weeks since Andrew came home, and I am so grateful and overwhelmed God would choose me…a sinner…an imperfect person…an imperfect parent to be blessed with this precious little boy!  And, it makes me wonder…what if?  What if we hadn’t listened to God calling us to host?  What if we had said no?  What if we hadn’t listened to Him calling us to adopt?  What if we had said no because of our fear of what others would think?  What if we said no because of the money it would cost instead of trusting Him to provide that need for us?  What if we had said no to God because we were comfortable with four children and adding another child from a hard place would require changes to what was familiar?  Hmmm.  What if…?  


First Family Photo as a family of 7!!