Joy, joy, joy! It's a Calling!

 Joy, joy, joy! It's a Calling!                                       

People refer often to a new child as a bundle of joy. For the parents, the amazing wonder of that new life comes with a bundle of responsibilities, noise, chaos, feelings of failure, learning disabilities, ear infections, severe allergies, you name it! If you are in the parenting business you know how it can look like. But still, many of us will do it all over again in a heart beat because it is worth it! The privilege of taking care of a precious life and the love that can bring is so worth it! Trey and I have done it three times and we are about to do it once more!

This time will be different. A lot different. We will not experience the embrace of a little hand around a finger. We won't nurse a new born and we will definitely not be posting videos of the first steps or the first solid meal. Our bundle of joy is one that was left behind by men but never forsaken by Jesus. It's a boy!!! That we know!... and he is Chinese.

Things have also changed on how orphans look in China. I remember in my twenties the sad news of the many, many little Chinese girls abandoned at birth. Every body wanted a boy-- everybody still wants a boy in China. Nevertheless more access to sonograms have turn the tides. Now with the announcement of the sex comes the appointment for the abortion and the unwanted girls will never make it out of the womb.

Boys, in the other hand, are not always perfect and a cleft lip, club feet, cerebral palsy or a hole in the heart are enough to abandon the child. Poverty, bad timing and the many other modern reasons to give up a child are, of course, still very prevalent. So now a typical orphanage is a place full of boys.

The good news is that there is still a lot of people willing to pursue the adoption of these kids, and that the Chinese government has been diligent in creating a corruption free and practically fast process . The not so good news is that the older the child gets the more lost his file becomes in the middle of the thousands of little faces waiting for a home.

With that said, our child is a boy that is around 8 and 10 years old.

Don't take me wrong, we have no intent to show the greatest altruism through adoption. We were not thinking about it at this particular time of our lives. We do have a heart for the orphan. We were open to hear from God about it when the time was "right". BUT He is and will always be in charge of our BUTS. He will always be the master and commander of our destinies and He will always be welcome to give us more joy.

No doubt our new son will bring all the joy-- and even more-- that we expect. He will bring his own challenges and he will make our family even richer and more loving and special. But the supreme joy is in saying "yes" to Him! in embracing his invitations with anticipation and to launch with Him a story of miracles.

As we go through the journey of adoption we want to invite you all to celebrate with us! We feel privileged and happy and we hope that ours son's way home would be enlighten by the many prayers of our friends and family lifted to the Only One who can redeemed his orphanhood.