Saturday, December 14, 2013

Adoption #2 Update: WE GOT A REFERRAL!!!


Jenn and I wanted to announce that we received a referral of a little boy 15 months of age from Northern Ch*na.  It is interesting to see how God works.  Prior to our referral Jenn had been following a little girls story by the name of “Lily”.  Lily has a heart condition and has been in and out of the hospital fighting a battle.  There was a facebook post of this little girl recently singing a son.  It brought her to tears as she listened to it.  She knew she needed to find the song.  As she put some of the words into YouTube she found that the song was called “All of Me” by Matt Hammitt.  He sounded just like the lead singer of Sanctus Real, which is her favorite group.  A lot of their songs spoke to her while we were on our adoption journey to Yu Mei (Piper—we are calling her by her Ch*nese name).  In searching, she found out that Matt Hammitt is the lead singer of Sanctus Real.  She started listening to the words and the meaning behind the song.  In searching she also found that he has a blog that he has because his son was born with a heart condition.  This song was written about his son.  The song talks about what it was like to go through a heart condition with his son.  As Jenn reflected on the words of this song it brought tears to her eyes.  You see we have been praying for little Lily for some time now.  She is a sweet little girl that was adopted from Ch*na and has been fighting a tough battle with a heart condition.  During that week we felt God giving us a new perspective of heart conditions.  It is interesting how God prepares the heart at times but we don’t always know exactly what it’s all about.

On Thursday December 6th, we received the call for a referral of a little boy.  This little boy had a heart condition.  He is diagnosed with ASD which means he has a 5mm hole in the heart.  It is interesting because to this day I believe God prepared us for this little guy.  We began to pray and surrender to God for his direction with this little guy.  Jenn and I always told ourselves no matter what the condition we were presented with we would give it to our heavenly father.  You see God has already called him by name.  He has already chosen his family.  All we needed to do was surrender and allow God to reveal whether or not he was our son.  I met with small group that Friday night and we prayed for this referral.  We prayed God would reveal his answer to us and give us an overwhelming sense of peace.  Let’s just say that is what God did.  You see when we surrender our hearts to the father he reveals things that are not human like.  They are signs that can only come from him.  It was Saturday and Jenn was on the TV using YouTube to google Matt Hammitt’s song so I could hear it.  I was in the bathroom shaving and we were getting ready to begin our day.  Jenn yelled to me you have to come here.  We listened to a YouTube video of Matt Hammitt “Sanctus Real singer talk about the day his son’s heart stopped.  The day his heart stopped was September 14th.  (not the same year as his son)  This was the same day our little guy was found abandoned in China.  The story of Matt Hammits son was incredible and they were able to bring him back to life.  Jenn and I and our girls were amused by how these dates lined up.  For some reason we didn’t put it together before but I mentioned to Jenn that we were in China that day our little guy was found.  As we thought back we realized that we landed in Beijing Ch*na on September 13 to go Yu Mei our first adoption.  The very next day we toured the Great Wall of China and our little guy was found abandoned several hours north of where we were.  Very interesting to see how God weaves a story behind life as we live it.  You see we serve a HUGE GOD….  A God that is merciful and is our great provider.  When we submit to his plans for our lives he reveals himself through a story that can be told to many.  If not told to many it is a story that can be imbedded in the heart to last for a lifetime…  We knew he was ours.  We knew we needed to formerly write our Letter of Intent to our agency.  We wrote it before we had our medical review with CHOP.  He was part of our family.

Here are the lyrics to the song “All of Me” by Matt Hammitt

Afraid to love
Something that could break
Could I move on
If you were torn away

And I'm so close
To what I can't control
I can't give you half my heart
And pray He makes you whole

You're gonna have all of me
You're gonna have all of me
Cause you're worth every falling tear
You're worth facing any fear
You're gonna know all my love
Even if it's not enough
Enough to mend our broken hearts
But giving you all of me
Is where I'll start

I won't let sadness
Steal you from my arms
I won't let pain
Keep you from my heart
I'd trade the fear
Of all that I could lose
For every moment
I'll share with you

You're gonna have all of me
You're gonna have all of me
Cause you're worth every falling tear
You're worth facing any fear
You're gonna know all my love
Even if it's not enough
Enough to mend our broken hearts
But giving you all of me
Is where I'll start

And Heaven brought you to this moment
It's too wonderful to speak
You're worth all of me
You're worth all of me
So let me recklessly love you
Even if I bleed
You're worth all of me
You're worth all of me

You're gonna have all of me
You're gonna have all of me
Cause you're worth every falling tear
You're worth facing any fear
You're gonna know all my love
Even if it's not enough
Enough to mend our broken hearts
But giving you all of me
Is where I'll start

You're gonna have all of me
Cause you're worth every falling tear
You're worth facing any fear
You're gonna know all my love
Even if it's not enough
Enough to mend our broken hearts
But giving you all of me
Is where I'll start
It's where I'll start


The following week we sent the referral file to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to be reviewed.  We already knew God’s answer for us but we wanted to be more educated on his condition so we knew how we could help him.  The doctor talked a lot about his file.  There is a good chance that since he was born with this condition that the hole in his heart could heal all on his own.  If not around the age of three or older they would do a procedure to close the hole in his heart.  Please join us in prayer for our little boy that God would heal his heart.  We know God specifically has a plan for our little one and we can’t wait to see his story be told.   A couple that we traveled with to Ch*na adopted a two year old girl.  She also had a hole in her heart like our little one.  I still to this day remember being in Guangzhou, Ch*na where we all were getting our children’s medical checks done by the doctor.  I remember our friend of this little girl running up to Jenn and I in tears telling us it’s healed….  Her hole in her heart was healed….  Awesome experience to witness as God provided a great blessing that day to this family.

Where we are now:

We have submitted our Letter of Intent (LOI) requesting to adopt him on 12/11/13.  We are currently waiting for our formal Letter of Acceptance (LOA) which is our official approval from Ch*na.  Our paperwork has been translated and needs to go through the review process and then approval state before we receive our LOA.  Currently we are praying that God would provide the funds to pay for our adoption.  We have seen him work with Yu Mei’s adoption and he moved mountains!!  We cannot post a picture of our little one until we receive our LOA.  If you see us please ask us to see his picture.  He is a cutie!! 

Currently we are doing a puzzle piece fundraiser to help with our adoption funds.  Each piece is $10.  We will write your name or favorite verse on the back of the puzzle piece.  We are putting it together as we go.  We plan on framing it so that both sides of the puzzle will be seen so we can remember each piece of “our puzzle.”  Thank you to those who have already contributed.  I will post a picture of our puzzle to show you the progress.  Please pray for us as we wait for our little one.  Since we have been matched we have received a $11,360 invoice that we are working towards paying.  If you feel led to helping us with our fundraiser please feel free to contact me or use the donate button to contribute. 

 
Here is another song Jenn found after we wrote this post tonight:

Trust by Matt Hammitt

Verse 1
Lest I'm tempted to forget
I'll tie Your love around my neck
I'll write Your words upon my heart
Lord I won't forget how good You are

Verse 2
I'll dwell upon Your faithfulness
I'll rest within Your promises
And when I'm walking through the dark
Lord I won't forget how good You are

Chorus
I will trust
I will trust You
I will trust You Lord with all my heart
And I won't forget how good You are
No I won't forget how good You are

Verse 3
You gave me everything I have
And my whole life is in Your hands
When what I fear is closing in
Lord Your faithfulness will never end
Your faithfulness will never end

Bridge
And even in the darkness
Even in the questions
Even when the hardest time of life are at hand
And even in the darkness
Even in the questions
Even in the times that I'm not meant to understand

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