One of the hardest parts of the adoption process is the time between finding a child and getting that child.
Your child - the one that God has written into your momma heart - is thousands of miles away.
You can't hold them or take care of them or protect them or be their momma. The job that God gave you to do - you can't do it.
Naturally - you also fret about all the time up till this point. Before you even knew about this child.
For many of our China adopted children, the answers make us sad - because there has been no one. Or not one that would measure up to our standards.
But for two of our girls - it was different.
For them, God sheltered them beneath His wings using some rather extraordinary people who poured into our kids.
We are exceptionally blessed because not only where they cared for - we are able to have a relationship with these people today.
Julia Xiao Bai lived with Melissa from almost the day she came to the SWI - and was with her until last November. Those years she was with Melissa she was valued and loved and cared for. She also learned to love Jesus.
Melissa and her family made a three hour journey (one way) to share lunch with us yesterday. This connection is so very important to Julia Xiao Bai - and we are blessed that we are able to maintain the relationship.
She has a mom before me who prepared her and took care of her - what a blessing from God. Truly sheltered.
Cami was also immensely blessed. She had a foster mom that we got to spend time with earlier in our trip. There was also an orphanage director who took notice and extra care of her.
But more than that - there were two women who took notice of a little girl who needed more help than the SWI could provide - and they came along side of her and got her some badly needed medical care in 2008. They made arrangements for her to receive 6 months of care in Hong Kong - and covered her while she was there.
They love her - and today they came to see us and spend some time with us,
Agnes, Mde Zhong and Brenda sheltered Cami. They extended themselves in ways that they didn't need to and at risk to themselves to help her and love her and make her feel loved and valuable and wanted.
They were her dream team. They are her biggest cheerleaders. They sheltered her.
There are not words to fully explain the magnitude of what these relationships mean to our girls.
I don't even know where to take the emotions that come from seeing these relationships in person, and knowing that we can stay connected.
It's God's Holy and divine intervention.
His promise that every single child matters to Him, and while we may not always see or know how He shelters them - we can be assured that He does.
You have been a refuge for the poor,
a refuge for the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the storm
and a shade from the heat.
I also learned some hard things about the behind the scenes at the orphanages. Like the hospital won't take kids that might die. So there is a room for them. And at most places, there is no hope or help or effort to save them.
Cami was in one of those rooms. But there was hope - because Madame Zhong had a nanny in that room. And that nanny was very, very good at what she did. And kids lived because of her. In July - at Cami's orphanage, there were 17 babies in that room.
Praying for those babies to be held in the shelter of God's wings tonight. That He would reach down and protect them and give Ai Lian the knowledge and the wisdom she needs to care for them.
Praising Him for the woman in that room that saved my girls life - and that she would be blessed beyond measure for her heart.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Sheltered. We are all sheltered.
