Prelude to Our Adoption

Prelude to Our Adoption…

When Eliza Kate Beck-Aden joins our family on March 23, 2009, God willing, it will mean so much for so many… For her parents, it will be the addition of a new daughter, one that we have wanted to add to our family for a long, long time. Yes, we already have three beautiful, healthy, intelligent girls, and we treasure them beyond words. However, God nudged us to try for just one more… for one more time to cuddle with a baby… one more time to experience the majesty of the world with another little person… one more time to coach our daughter’s kindergarten soccer team… one more time to interact with her friends as they come into our house for playdates, meetings, projects, and, ultimately, pictures before a high school dance… just one more time…

Blessedly, the fertility treatments didn’t work. If they had, we would never likely have realized the amazing outpouring of love and support that we have experienced over the last few years. Instead, those trips back and forth to Columbus, listening to Christian CDS and praying about God’s will for us and our family, brought me closer to Him than I had ever been before. Mercifully, I never felt that God closed the door to our heart’s desire. (The doctors said that I responded to the medicine like a 20 year old, though we didn’t get our desired result!) He never said “no;” He just whispered, “not yet.”

On May 6, 2007, Chelsea and I went to a Studio for Young Actor’s production of Annie Junior. Some of her friends were in the show, and she wanted to watch. However, as I sat there on that Sunday afternoon, I realized that God might have been using this sweet children’s play to share an important message with me. I saw teen girls bouncing on beds in the orphanage, singing “Hard Knock Life,” and tears fell down my face. What if my daughter grew up in an orphanage because I said “no” to adoption—and to God? What if God does, indeed, want for us to have another child but just not in the way that I have imagined?

I drove home, quietly went in my office, and typed “adoption” into the search engine of my computer. As I looked at images from China, India, Guatemala, Russia, and all over the world, I felt more strongly than ever that God had the perfect child in His Holy Mind, just for us. Roger and I talked about it later that week, and we agreed to pursue it as soon as we held a family meeting to determine the girls’ reactions.

Brittany and Chelsea had been trying to convince me to adopt a little girl from China for a long time before my trip to the theater (ever since they met two incredible girls from China in our church family at Albany Baptist Church!), and they gushed about the possibility of bringing a little baby girl from China into our lives. We wondered how our youngest child, Emmy, would react… She quietly processed the news, started smiling, and asked when she could teach her new little sister how to play soccer.

Throughout every step of the way, I have seen God’s hand at work, closing doors, opening others, and offering truly awesome signs of encouragement… Our family loves the television show, The Amazing Race, and, although the racers never quite know where they’re going until near the end of an episode, they do their best to follow the signs, figure out the clues, and accomplish the tasks at hand. We have attempted to do the same, and it has been an inspiring and educational journey. Perhaps even more importantly, it has been a love story… the story of our Father answering prayer as He adds this new precious member to our family. He knew how this puzzle would look before the pieces even started to emerge on this earth, and we are so grateful that He chose us to be Ellie’s new family and for her to be our new daughter.

We can’t wait to share the rest of this story with you as we experience it. Enjoy our blog!!

Christie

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your way straight. Proverbs 3: 5-6

Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will do this… Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him… Psalm 37: 4-7