Remember on Micaelyn's birthday 2 1/2 weeks ago I said there was some significance to the fact her actual birth date was probably 2 weeks later? Well, during the most likely week of her birth there are lots of significant dates. February 17 was Ernie's birthday, so she could have been born on her daddy's birthday. February 19 was the day my stepdad died, so she could have been born on the anniversary of his death. This may not sound so wonderful to some, but in the adoption world we frequently see connections like this in a positive way. If our child was born on the anniversary of a loved one's death, God has given us a happy way to celebrate our loved one's life and passing on to Heaven. February 21 was the anniversary of my stepdad's funeral, and it was also my grandmother's birthday who died when I was 14. February 23 (today) is my birthday, so Micaelyn could also have been born on my birthday! I never really thought too much about my birthday since it was always a reminder of my stepdad's death, but knowing my daughter could have been born on my birthday makes it really special!!!
I first learned about all the orphaned baby girls in China when I was just a kid myself, and I determined then that I would adopt one (at least!) some day. When Ernie and I first got married 11 years ago I opened my heart up to him about how burdened I felt for all the orphans of the world, and his immediate response was, "Do you want to adopt one?" I thanked God for opening my husband's heart up so easily to adoption! We looked into adopting from China then, but we were both too young and it would be many years before I would be old enough. However, we determined that when I was old enough we would finally adopt our little girl from China that God had placed in our hearts to love until she was placed in our arms.
After waiting so many years, it was just a little ironic that when I finally turned 30 and we began the adoption process again (we had already adopted Christina from Siberia) instead of adopting a baby girl from China we adopted a little boy from India, our precious little Malachi. However, I knew God would lead us to our little girl when the time was right. I could feel her in my heart, and I knew one day I would finally bring her home.
When we started this adoption we knew this time we would finally be bringing home our little girl from China. Having never had a baby girl before, we had planned to adopt a baby. We planned to adopt a baby with moderate to severe heart defects (my B.S. is in Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation) possibly in combination with another need such as cleft lip/palate or limb differences.
Around this time last year when we were just starting to plan for this adoption a precious little girl appeared on our agency's photolisting (and also on Rainbow Kids). She grabbed my heart, but though we were planning to later in the year we hadn't yet started the adoption process. Also, she wasn't a baby girl with heart defects as we had planned for. Being such a young girl I figured surely someone would want to adopt this precious little girl.
Several months passed and we finally got started on the adoption process. We planned to do it real slow this time so it would not be so stressful. Thus, although we officially started the process around May, we were going real slow on all the home study paperwork. All this time, the little girl that had grabbed my heart continued to wait.
By August I finally realized why God kept drawing me to the little girl that continued to wait. Although she wasn't exactly the child we had planned, she was the child HE had planned for us! We told our agency of our desire to adopt her, and in September we were officially matched with her (our agency goes through a committee process so it can take awhile to be officially matched once you make the decision to adopt a child). Little Yiyi was no longer a waiting child, she was our precious daughter!
After waiting for so many years to adopt a little girl from China, one thing I find particularly interesting about Micaelyn is her birth date. As I said, she was assigned a birth date of February 5 but was probably born a couple of weeks later, which means she could very well have been born on my birthday, and not just any birthday, but my 30th birthday! We waited so long for me to turn 30 so we could adopt a little girl from China, and then when I finally turned 30 God led us instead to our little boy in India. However, God knew what we didn't at the time - that our precious little girl had just been born and wasn't yet available for adoption. He had us wait until she was ready, and it was right when she appeared on the photolisting that He led us to start the adoption process again. As painful as it is to know I started looking at my daughter a year ago and we still haven't even gotten our dossier to China yet, I can also see God's hand in how long it has taken us to get to our daughter because if we had moved along faster on her adoption we would never have been able to bring home our new son as well!
God's timing really is perfect!!!
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