Adoption Miracle Update!

I am so amazed at the power of God right now that I have to share what happened yesterday. It’s a really long story, so I will try to condense it down to just the most important pieces. To start off, about a month ago, I had a vision that I was standing on a hill overlooking a little poor village in China near a river, and was singing and praying over the village. Then I was standing in an outdoor meat market in the same village, and was dancing around the meat market singing, and worshipping Jesus at the top of my lungs! The vision ended and later that day while we were driving home, I told my kids about it, and when I finished, the car got really quiet, and my son Jonathan said, “Mom, I just heard the words ‘Ching How’ in my head.” Jonathan doesn’t know any Chinese, and it was interesting that he said this, so we went home, and looked it up on the internet to see if ‘ching how’ was a Chinese word. It turns out that yes, they are Chinese words! We commented that maybe that would be the Chinese name of our child, or the city she was from, and that we should pay attention to that, in case God uses it to help us find her. We also found some places on that map where we thought it might be.

Fast forward a few weeks… I was introduced to a friend of a friend via email. My friend introduced me to her friend named Jan, because Jan has adopted from China. Jan lives in Tennesee. We had been emailing back and forth, and then one day I got an email from her that really shook me up inside. She said that her friend had told her about a little blind girl who had been passed up for adoption, and that the agency was getting ready to send her file back to China, and that she probably wouldn’t have a chance at being adopted after that. She asked if I was interested and I immediately replied with a resounding ‘NO’, because that severe of a special need was way outside my comfort zone. All the while I was typing that email, I was feeling a pull towards this little girl, but just continued to ignore it because of my doubts about being able to handle the special need.

Fast forward another 2 weeks… I got an email from our friend Kelsey, who lives in Kansas City. She said that when she first read our support letter a month ago, one minute after our letter came in, she got an email from her friend Pam in Ohio, telling her about a little blind girl who really needs to be adopted. Since she had just finished reading our support letter, she thought of us, and decided to forward the email to us. But they were leaving for vacation, and didn’t forward it to us at that point. So it had been about a month since that happened, and when she remembered, she sent it to me. Her email had information about a little blind girl named Li Hao. The minute I started reading the email, my heart started to quicken, and it felt like a magnet was pulling me to my computer screen. I did not want that to be happening. I didn’t want to feel anything towards this little girl. So I kept quiet and went on to the next email, but my heart was pitter pattering, and I was feeling very drawn to her, and a love for her as if she was my own daughter. My husband sat down that afternoon and asked me what I thought of Kelsey’s email. I asked him what he thought and to my surprise he said that for some reason he had instantly felt very drawn to this little girl, even though she was blind. I told him that I did too. My husband said that it seemed strange, but that he already loved her. I told him I did too!

I wondered if my friend Jan had told me about the same girl, so I emailed her and she said that it was the same girl. The news about Li Hao had been forwarded to her by her friend Pam in Ohio, who is the same friend of Kelsey in Kansas City!So we emailed Pam to tell her that we would like more info on Li Hao. She emailed back that ever since she laid eyes on this little girl over three months ago she hadn’t been able to get Li Hao off her heart, and that she and her family have been praying every day for her. Even her parents were praying, as well as their small group from church. They all had been carrying a strong burden for Li Hao to be adopted. While still very uncertain, we decided to pursue it further, and contacted the agency. They said that because nobody had shown any interest in her for three months that they had just sent her file back to China, but that there is a possiblity of getting the file back. We then asked them to please try.

All the while we were on an emotional rollercoaster about it, due to the extreme nature of her special need; something that we had never considered before. On the one hand, we were definitely pulled, and felt that she could be the one, but on the other hand, whenever I started to think about what it would entail as a parent, I got fearful and wanted to back out. I went on a prayer walk and told God that it was interesting that her name was Li Hao, since the second part of her name is Hao, just like what Jonathan heard, but I also told him that I really wanted it to match up with the name that Jonathan got, because then I would know that I know that it was His will. So last night we heard back from our agency about her, and it turns out her full name is Qian Li Hao. We then found out that the pronunciation of Qian is actually “Chi’in”, with the two parts said quickly together (chee-un). So her name really is what Jonathan heard! We have been in total amazement since this discovery. God cares so much about this little girl, and wants to put her in our family, so he brought her into our inbox TWICE from two different people in two different states who are both friends with the same person in OHIO, and told us her name ahead of time so we would know it’s her!

We looked up Qian Li’s town on google earth, and other sites, and found that there is a little river right near her city that looks just like what I saw in my vision! We are not certain the exact nature of her vision impairment, but even if she turns out to be completely blind, we know that we know that we know that this little Qian Li Hao has now been made a member of our family. I emailed Pam last night around midnight to tell her that we are pursuing Li Hao for adoption. Pam told me today that she hadn’t read the email yet, and that when she woke up, she immediately began praying for Li Hao to have a family, like she does every morning, but that this morning, the Lord spoke clearly to her that she didn’t need to pray for that anymore because Li Hao now has a family!

My husband researched the meaning of her Chinese name, and it means “Humble River of Beauty”, or “Hidden River of Beauty”. We signed and submitted our application to the adoption agency on 7/7/07, and found out that Qian Li is our daughter on 8/8/07. Eight is the number of new beginnings and we are definitely filled with a sense of one after all this. We are just so grateful to God right now, and want to share our amazing news with you all! Now we are just waiting for China to release her back to the agency, and continuing on with the details involved of making an adoption happen. Please continue to join us in prayer over the situation! Thank you!

Lots and lots of love,
Kim