One year ago, we stepped inside the walls of the orphanage that was home to her for the first 3 years of her life.
On our visit, we saw a little girl sitting in a crib.
But she wasn't a baby.
She was 11 years old.
Sitting in a crib.
All day long.
The Lord spoke to me about her the very instant that I saw her, wrapped my arms around her and wept over her.
HE said, "You're here for someone else. Who will come for her?"
I remember this as clearly as if I were standing in that room this very minute.
God had again challenged me to fight for another sweet life…another Child of the King.
For privacy reasons, I won't use her real name.
I'll call her Joy.
Here's a photo of Joy I took that day:
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| Such a sweet smile - even though I was acting like a crazy woman, crying and telling her how pretty she was like she could understand anything I was saying! |
We had been home with Lily for only 3 days when I reached out to our adoption agency to see if we could find out any details about Joy.
Months went by and we finally received word that the orphanage had never created an adoption file for her.
In order to be legally free for adoption, every orphan in China must have a file made and submitted to the CCCWA.
The bottom line was….
Joy was not free to be adopted.
After some prodding by our adoption agency to complete a file for her, her orphanage said they would only create one if there was already a family ready to commit to adopting her.
This is very unorthodox.
However, since this was the ultimatum, Doug and I prayed about whether or not we were to be Joy's forever family.
We didn't feel a peace about moving forward, so we informed our adoption agency of our decision….they informed the orphanage…and the orphanage responded by saying…
"Ok. We'll go ahead and make a file for her anyway!"
WOOHOO!!!! We were ELATED!!!!!
Once her file was made, her profile could be seen by thousands and thousands of people through orphan advocacy groups and hopefully there would be a family to step forward and adopt her!
I totally thought I'd done my part in standing in the gap for Joy.
But y'all gotta know by now that NOTHING is that simple in my life :)
We waited the anticipated 5 months for the file to be made and then I inquired about her again.
Just to find out….
They never made a file for her. :(
We were back at square one.
It's been several months since we received that news, and yet I haven't advocated for her…something the Lord {and my husband ;)} has convicted me about time and time again.
I confess that I've put this off for so long because I've allowed doubt and fear to creep into my soul.
Because what I'm about to ask of you seems…
Crazy.
Unlikely.
And too much of a risk.
But HELLO?!!!
Is that not what adopting Lily was for our family?
Crazy to adopt another child with significant special needs.
Unlikely that the adoption would even go through because she was so sick at the time.
Too much of a risk - financially and emotionally.
And yet…
God spoke.
We obeyed.
And we can't imagine life without Lily Williams now.
So here goes….
Will YOU go for her?
Before you think, "That's not for me! Hopefully somebody else will adopt her!" please just stop and pray and ask the Lord about it.
It will only take a few seconds.
Don't think you're too old…
too young…
too poor…
too overwhelmed with the kids you already have…
too far past having young children…
or not prepared to love and care for a child with health challenges.
Let me tell you, we can always find a good excuse to say no to stepping out in faith.
Because it's scary.
And hard.
VERY hard.
And those 2 things aren't really things we like to do.
But we walk by faith because it's what's God says to do.
So I'm asking you to simply pray about adopting Joy.
Trust Him if he speaks to you.
LORD, WE TRUST YOU!!!
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| Another adoptive Mama took this photo of Joy almost 2 years ago |
To those of you praying about adopting Joy, here is the only information her orphanage has told us:
According to ****** SWI，******* was born on ****** 2003 with CP. She can do nothing but sitting. She has not had any therapy yet. She can't control her bowel movement and urine. She only can speak simple words which are not clearly. Her intelligence is far behind her peer. The orphanage has not done her finding ad. on the local newspaper yet. They can start to prepare her file right away as long as we have one family to adopt her.
I blocked out her specific personal information for privacy reasons, but I'll tell you that she's almost 12 1/2 years old.
Children in China cannot be adopted past their 14th birthday, so Joy only has 1 1/2 years before she can no longer have a forever family.
I feel that I must also stress that if you decide to move forward with Joy's adoption, there is no guarantee that the orphanage will hold up their end of the deal and create her file.
Joy needs a family who is ready to take a HUGE leap of faith!
Leave a comment on this blog or PM me on Facebook if you have any questions for me about Joy.
Love in Christ,
Elaine
