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In honor of Ami’s recent Gotcha Day anniversary, I’d like to post our Memorial Box story of Ami’s adoption.  It is so hard to summarize such a significant event by telling one short story, but I’ll try to keep this story in as small of a “nutshell” as possible.

In early 2004 we had three biological children and we were feeling quite comfortable with the size of our family and the busyness that it entailed.  But somewhere back in the far reaches of our hearts and minds we were not 100% sure that this was it.  So together Chris and I began praying and seeking God’s will for our family.  We began to have thoughts of foster care, domestic adoption, and international adoption.  It left us both with a feeling of vulnerability to ask God, “Do you want us to foster children?  Do you want us to adopt?”  It was such a humble feeling, yet strangely comforting to be so open and moldable before Him.  We had so many fears about everything from money and how it would change our current lifestyle to how it would affect our children.  Yet as we prayed God began to soften our fears as we gave our control over to Him.  It’s laughable to me now to look back at our various fears.  Oh how He has stretched and strengthened our faith!

After a year of praying and continuing to seek God’s will for our family we heard from Chris’ brother and sister-in-law that they had felt led to pursue an adoption of a baby in China.  Over the past year we had shared together our consideration of adoption, but neither of us had felt confident in that decision at the time.  As they shared their excitement with us about their decision, Chris and I felt totally convicted that this was our calling as well.  It was instant, like a light bulb had gone on for both of us.  This was what we had been praying about for a year, this was God’s direction for us, this was his calling!

We were so excited that God had brought both of our families to this point at the same time.  Yet we so did not want to “steal the show” from Eric and Kate.  This was to be their first child and we didn’t want to take anything away from their big news, yet we knew without a shadow of a doubt that this was from God.  They were so very gracious, though, and were very excited along with us.

We independently settled on China, a baby girl, and the same agency.  That was just the beginning of seeing God along our journeys.  We pursued our paperwork without pressuring each other, yet we also prayed all along that God would see fit to allow us the privilege of traveling together to receive our girls.

Our wait to be matched with a child was a very tough one for this mama as the months stretched into over a year, but during that year we knew God was at work.  A year and a half after we began the adoption process we received the most wonderful call from our agency.  We had been matched with a 6.5 month old beautiful baby girl.  She was so much younger than we had anticipated, but oh how happy we were.  She was living in a rural orphanage in southern China waiting for a forever family.

Another very exciting phone call was received on that same day announcing that our 6 month old niece was matched with Eric and Kate!  The girls were only one week apart in age and were in the SAME orphanage!  But God.  He had answered our prayers above and beyond what we had expected or imagined.

Here is Ami waiting for her Daddy and Mommy to come.

We traveled to China together two months later and we received the gift of another child in our family along with a very special niece.  I have said many times that I cannot imagine having missed this “surprise pregnancy”.  These were not our plans.  But God.  He knew how much of a blessing little Long Li Dan would be to our family.  He knew as He knit her together in her China mommy’s womb.  He knew.

During our long, long wait to receive our Ami Jo-Li, Chris wore a simple red thread bracelet that he had made.  It was simply a reminder of what was to come, something to physically grasp while we waited to physically hold our China doll.

This photo was taken during our stay in Guangzhou.  It was so sweet that Ami discovered this bracelet on her daddy’s wrist.

So all that to say (!) tonight we will place this simple bracelet in our Memorial Box as a simple reminder, as a standing stone, to the amazing adoption journey that lead us to Ami.  Thank you Father for this most unexpected and excellent gift!

Thanks to all that have left comments or sent other notes regarding these MBM posts.  I hope they encourage you to think about the standing stones in your own lives and that you will create your own memorial box filled with symbols of God’s living and breathing presence in your families.

For today’s post I’ll go back almost 20 years.  I was in my second year at PCC and was spending a semester abroad in England at a sister college.  It was a very memorable time in my life, one filled with friendship, learning, traveling, and growing by leaps and bounds in my faith.  At the end of the semester I had made arrangements to spend the summer in France working with missionaries before returning back to the States/PCC in the fall.

Due to some unforeseen circumstances my plans for spending the summer in France fell through at the last minute.  You can imagine my anxiety at having the rug pulled out from under me and wondering what I was to do.  A few different options were presented and I talked to mentors, prayed, and prayed a whole lot more.  In the period of about a week I knew without a doubt that God was directing me to return to southern CA and work for the summer.  It didn’t seem very grand compared to spending the summer in France, but it was a time like very few others when I have felt God so real and present, a very intense week of spiritual growth for me.  The disappointment of failed plans had disappeared and I was excited about what was ahead.

I flew back to CA and spent a week with my grandmother before driving down to school to look for a job.  I spent the first couple of nights in the dorms with a friend until we could move into our apartment.  While there she pointed out a guy that had said he wanted to meet me.  I had never seen him before and naively thought that maybe he wanted to talk to me about my time in Europe or my time in Japan.  Just a bit later I was walking out of the dorms and “the guy” was walking towards me.  I smiled at him and expected him to say something, but he just looked down and kept on walking.  I thought it was weird and wasn’t sure what to think, but I started to wonder if something else was up.

Meanwhile I had been blessed with being able to return to my old job at the drugstore.  Just a couple of days later I was working at the cosmetics counter and over walks “the guy” straight towards me and smiling.  My heart was pounding and I’m sure my cheeks were burning.  “The guy” and I made some small chit chat about our mutual friends and we also learned that we had quite a bit in common.  He said he had just come by the store to say good-bye to a mutual friend that worked with me.  He said he was driving back to the midwest and all of a sudden in my heart I felt a panic and was so sad that he was leaving.  I was greatly relieved when he explained that he was just going for a visit and would be back in a couple of weeks.

I’m sure you’ve figured out that “the guy” was none other than Chris.  After he returned from a visit home we quickly started spending lots of time together and I knew from the get-go that this was my future husband, this was why God had closed the door to France, this was His summer plan for me.  I wasn’t  “supposed” to be in California, and Chris wasn’t even “supposed” to be there either.  He was supposed to be in school in Missouri.  But God.  We dated for a year and were engaged for a year before getting married and the rest is history.

So in our Memorial Box we have a small bottle of Eternity perfume to represent where Chris and I met and how God’s timing was everything.  It’s the perfume I wore at the time and I think the name also bears significance too. Thank you Father for guiding our steps and for bringing us together in such a memorable way.  You are good all the time!  When we think the worst has come and OUR plans have failed, YOUR plans prevail and you bless us with far more than we ask or imagine.

Please refer to my original Memorial Box Monday post or to Linny’s blog to read more about a Memorial Box.