James six months ago right after we met him in the orphanage
James fishing for the first time so proud of his catch! Are you kidding me can it really be only six month ago that we were united with this sweet little boy? Our lives and the life of our little boy we met on the other side of the world were changed forever on that day. As Mike said the other day it seems like James has always been with us. That really is how God works and I have heard it so many times before. When we filled out the paper work for our request to adopt a child I wanted God to be completely in control of this in all ways. We chose boy or girl and prayed over what special needs we thought we could handle. We checked off quite a few special needs and I felt in my heart it would be a boy and he would have a heart defect. I love how God prepares you in these ways! Well we absolutely fell in love and even as we tried to decipher the medical report with pages of cardiac things we didn't quite understand, we walked in faith. I remember Mike saying that "complex cardiopathy" was a scary term and fully agreeing with him. I remember the day when we were confirming we would accept this boy that there were questions about insurance covering these special needs. What a scary day it was with the thought of not being able to adopt him and we only knew him for 48 hours- but wow had God molded our hearts to him. God specifically used that to confirm this was our boy. In a way the fear was a place I just couldn't go, even though it always has been kind of a part of who I am. God helped me to walk in faith about his medical needs because we firmly believed this was our boy! I remember the one doctor saying "we really won't know until we get him here, isn't that what faith is about..." how did this doctor at our practice who I really didn't even know say that (I mean that was directly from God)!
When I look back at some of these pictures and videos of when we first met him it makes me sad to think of how scared he actually must have been. I mean he didn't know us at all! We have missed the first three years of his life, but we have our boy now. I look at the way he has just thrived and bloomed and it brings us all such joy. We are overflowing with love for him and he has accepted our love and freely gives love back. I cannot believe how much we have been blessed by God in all of this. The opportunity to parent this beautiful boy is a privilege. We are so thankful for the joy and laughter he has brought into our home. Every financial need was met in ways we were blown away by. We kept our eyes off the cost of this and on God that had guided us to this journey. We wavered on taking the kids to China because of the huge expense, but we are incredibly thankful we did and the debt is gone. Only our God could provide Mike with a bonus in this economy! We will be forever thanking God for the gift of James He has given our family!
