Orphan Sunday

Today is Orphan Sunday. In honor of this I would like to share God's amazing, mountain-moving power that is our Adoption Story.

Our complete family-Fall 2010

When my parents were married my Dad mentioned International adoption to my mom. He had always wanted to adopt a child internationally. My Mom {ever-so-kindly} shook him off. Her plans were quite simple. 1 girl. 1 boy. perfect American family. Who could want more? In 1995 they had their first child, a little girl. Ashton. {hehe} in 1998 they had their second child, a little boy. Adam. God had answered my Mom's prayers! She had two beautiful, healthy children, one girl, one boy. God had other plans though, and certainly a sense of humor.
In 2002 my Mom found out she was pregnant. She had another little boy, Hayne. There we go. Brothers and a sweet girl. Perfect, Beautiful, a complete family. Who could want any more?! Certainly not Hal and Angel ourlastname. They were completely happy with the wonderful life they were living. Oh what plans God had!

the bio kids.

In 2005 after a Spa Day that my Dad had gotten my Mom for Mother's Day our lives were rocked. My Mom called my dad {almost kidding} and said "Hal, I think we have a daughter in China." All my Dad said was "I have been praying you would say that." So the process began! On August 21, 2005 we sent our Application to Adopt to the CCAA* in China! We were adding another child to our family! In May of 2006 our precious, spunky, wild, oh so beautiful 3 year old brother, Hayne was attacked by a dog. It was a terrible attack and by the Grace of God and my wonderful Grandma, Hayne was OK. The dog took 30% of his lip and we were told he had a long road of surgery and recovery ahead.{similar to a cl.cp child} We were devastated. How could we possibly bring another child home when we had a baby who needed so much surgery? God knew. After 1 week in stitches we were told would never hold we went to the doctor and fell on our knees in gratitude towards the Lord. Our sweet Miracle Boy was completely fine. His lip looked beautiful and the doctor said he had nothing to do with Hayne being OK. God was the only reason that Hayne was ok. God had plans all along and KNEW that Hayne would be ok and HE KNEW that we would still need to go get our Anna Grace from China...Little did we know, Hayne's attack was God opening our hearts to something we did not even know about!

Finally after a 2 year wait which seemed to last forever on May 1, 2007 we received the referral of a beautiful 7 month old named Xiu Fu Lai. This precious girl was our daughter! On June 29, 2007 we left for China and on July 2 we held our miracle baby in our arms for the first time! In that very moment in Chongqing, China love took all of us in and we were FOREVER changed! All by a almond eyed, 13lb, baby girl. She stole our hearts and would inspire us to fight for the Orphan and follow God's call. Oh how amazing He is!

We spent 1 1/2 years loving on our beautiful Princess and taking in all of her sweetness. We were a complete family. A beautiful, perfect, blessed, and completely done family...so my parents thought. I was positive there was another child in China that was supposed to be a ourlastname. My parents completely disagreed! Four children is PLENTY! I continued to pray and beg God to open my parents hearts and reveal the child God had for our family. My Mom said if we ever go back "a little girl, cleft lip and palate" My Dad said "a little boy, 3 years old."

I prayed and on May 1, 2009 exactly two years to the day we saw Anna Grace's precious face God showed us another little face. My Mom was looking at a new agency list with a friend that had just come out. She went to the bottom of the list to number 46 and it took her breath. She knew this was her son. She quickly went to my Dad's office and showed him the file. He agreed. They sent in to view his file and we fell head over heels in love with a 3 year old little boy with a cleft lip and palate! We were in awe! God had revealed to us a child that matched what both of my parents had invisioned.

We waited and waited. He was gone from the list and we gave up hope of this child ever being ours. We found a peace and just assumed it was not His will. We got an email on June 7, 2009 from our agency. It simply said "Sometimes Gods plans aren't ours. Would you be willing to view the file of this little boy?" My mom was at my Dad's office {she works there sometimes} and dropped to the ground {not literally} she was in shock. She started yelling "No. No. God you already told us no! How can this be?! Hal! Hal! Come here!" My dad and mom decided to view the file. They fell in love and prayed. They prayed a lot for the next week. Praying God would direct their paths and show them the way that was meant for our family. God showed us more and more everyday that this child was meant to be our son. With every prayer they became a little more sure! So on June 15, 2009 they sent their LOI to China to adopt the precious Chang Jian Hui who had stolen every single one of our hearts. Through our Journey to Andrew there were many, many mountains on January 19, 2010 we left for China to bring our precious boy HOME! We spent 3 1/2 weeks in China with our newest little one falling more and more in love. God clearly intended for Andrew Hudson to be our son and brother!

We are now a happy family of 7 and Done...(well we say we are..You never know with God!)
God has blessed us through the miracle of adoption! It is has changed every single one of us and has made us all better! We have been so blessed and hopefully you can be too! There are over 147 million Orphans in the world tonight...Could one be waiting to call you Mommy or Daddy? Do you have extra space in your home to make room for another little life? Could you be the HOPE a child is so desperate for? If our family would have ignored God's call we would have missed out on two of the greatest blessings {other than myself..just kidding} in the World. If we would have went with the crowd and went with the norm we would have missed this beautiful, wonderful, perfect, messy at times, big, Jesus filled, Orphan loving, eyes opening blessing. And that would be heartbreaking.

I will not leave you as Orphans, I will come to you -John 14:18