Flash back to day after Hannah's adoption

Tonight as I sit here ready to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Maria's adoption tomorrow.  I reflect on how difficult Hannah's adoption and adapting to our family has been.    Yesterday I was looking for a file on my computer and found a post I had written the morning after we met Hannah.  At that time it was a bit too raw to post and I mentioned in another post in July that maybe I would share it some day.

I think this is the day.    This evening before posting it I went back and read my posts from China the 10 days after we met Hannah.

She really comes from a hard place and her condition is much worse than we thought it would be.  But she loves unlike any child we have had.  She is happy and loves to hug us and show affection so that is such a blessing.

Below is the thought I typed that morning the day after we met her.  At that time I did not know how hard some of the coming days would be and did not know some of the hidden blessings that God had in store for us as we walked this journey.  I am thankful that I saved my thoughts from that morning and I am glad that I was able to go back and read them now after all these months.

Don't take me wrong we are not special and other families have been through so much more than we have.   We know that God called us to this adoption and that He will provide for our needs. 

Here are my thoughts from that July morning:

The gospel through adoption.

These thoughts run through my mind just hours after receiving Hannah.   We can see the Gospel through adoption.  I lay in bed at 5 am in China thinking about how her life has changed and how it will change.

Adoption is hard. It is down right tough.    We as the parents go down a road that has a high cost. It takes time, money energy and a long term commitment.

As I lay in bed this morning Robin was talking and crying about the conditions that Hannah came from.  We talked about the things she has been through and the loss that she suffered.

Imagine being a 1 month old child and being left by your birth mother as a tiny helpless premature baby of less than 3 pounds at 1 month old. A baby that was so small that she belonged in a hospital receiving care that she needed but instead she was left.   Why we will never know.  Maybe the parents could not take care of her or afford health care.  Maybe they thought that if they let someone else have her that she would get the care she needed.

She was left in a dark nasty place, a place where none of us as parents would ever leave our child.  She comes from a place of loss and hardship.  A place where she had to fight for her survival.

Even where she has been care has been minimal.  They just get by.  Living in an orphanage has to be rough. She has likely seen and experience things that I will never understand.

Thoughts:

A price had to be paid.  She needed a kinsman redeemer.

She needed someone who would walk the road with her and never forsake her.  Someone that would stick closer than a brother (A family)

She was dirty and smelly and needed cleansed.  She does not look like us, talk like us, smell like us etc.  But she is OURS.

She still does not talk like us, or smell like us or look like us but over time she will begin to be more like us.

Where would her life lead if someone did not step in to help her?  Save her from this life.

She will not immediately begin to be like us. It will take time. She will not do things the way we do or obey us.  She may even fight back and resist our help.

Wow how much is that like my life.  God sent his Son to pay the price for me.  I did not look like him, talk like him or act like him but he loved me enough to pay the price.  He wrote his words down in a book as a guide for me.   He loved me even when I was not like him.   Even now when I turn my back on him and sin against him He loves me and calls me back to him.    Hopefully over time I get more and more like Him.

Some day I hope to see her walk the isle at church and accept Jesus as her Personal Lord and Savior.  I expect to see her confess this to people around her and to be bathed in the waters of baptism and I long to see her begin to look more like Him and walk more like Him and to talk and smell more like Him and to be a reflection of her real savior and redeemer.

One of the things we had sent her was a photo book that showed her new family.  She had this book as a guide.  When we met her she had this book and showed it to me.  I also had another photo book for her and it showed more of her new life in pictures.   She held onto both books and began to show me pictures.  Now as we go forward we need to introduce her to another book the Bible.  We need to introduce her to a true kinsman redeemer and we need to teach her to hold on to that book and the words that flow from it’s pages.  We need to let that book begin to be her guide and help her to see life through a new perspective.