Sometimes you are clearly given a gift of grace and sometimes you find yourself in it. Both are of Him and from Him and are equally overwhelming and exciting. This is a glimpse of both.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. Isaiah 55:8
One of my favorite memories during our marriage, pre-kids, is when Denny and I went on a church mission trip to Honduras for 10 days. During that time, we both fell in love with the people there and our eyes were opened to the extreme poverty so many people live in. We talked of wanting to bring all those little kids back home with us. I believe this is when God planted the seed of adoption in my heart. Denny has always had a special place in his heart for orphans. His father, aunt and uncle were raised in the Home for Children in Sevierville, TN.
After our youngest child, Jonathan, was born, I was ready to do it all again. Or so I thought. Due to several trials soon after his birth, thoughts of having more children were put to the side. Our perfectly healthy baby was diagnosed with Hydrocephalus, which is a build up of fluid on the brain. We heard things for the first time like “possible brain damage, possible paralysis, and likelihood of brain surgery”. There is nothing scarier that we have faced in our marriage than taking our 5 month old baby for a neurosurgeon appointment. Our friends and family surrounded us during this time and covered us in prayer and support as we felt God’s hand in even the smallest of details along this path. There were many times of doctor calls, appointments, research, waiting and fear. There is no cure for Hydrocephalus and most people need brain surgery to install a shunt to drain the excess fluid. If the fluid is not drained, there can be permanent brain damage. For the first several months, the doctors said Jonathan was stable and would only need surgery if the fluid increased. Since the beginning of Jonathan’s diagnosis, Denny kept saying he knew God was going to heal him.
When Jonathan turned 1 year old, he had another MRI of his brain so the neurosurgeon could check for an increase. There was not! Jonathan would not need to see a neurosurgeon for another year, when again they would measure the fluid. At his 2-year check up the doctor was glad to see there had not been an increase in brain fluid and said Jonathan will never need a shunt….Praise GOD! God healed Jonathan of Hydrocephalus and to this day is a perfectly healthy, active little boy.
Please visit this site to join our team, Jonathan’s Prayer Warriors, at this year’s Chattanooga Hydrocephalus Walk to help raise awareness about this condition
http://HAwalk.kintera.org/chattanooga/jonathansprayerwarriors
Looking back over this terrifying, uncertain time in our life, I would not trade it for anything. There is nothing like the heartache a parent can have over their hurting child. There is also nothing like the power of an amazing God with His healing hands.
None of this changed my desire to “do it all over again.” I knew we had more kids out there. A year or so later, Denny brought up the idea of adopting (which he had several times previously), but I still had a desire to birth more children. Or so I thought. I prayed about this for a year and God completely changed my heart. Adoption is the way to our next child.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,..."
After much prayer, reading and research, we were led to the China Special Needs adoption program.
Why China?
Because that is where our child is.