Thursday, July 22, 2010

July 22, 2006

4 years ago today.

The day our dossier was logged in at the CCAA.

Our dossier for AnnaClaire.

You know what's crazy?

We'd still be waiting. Still.

And so today, on this would've been 4th year anniversary of a momumental day I look at my FOUR sweeties from China and just praise God that we are not still waiting.

Four years ago, our first dossier was logged in. Yesterday, we celebrated month with Gracie. Our fourth addition to our family since that time.

4 years. 4 kids.

All while people still wait...

and wait...

and wait.

I'm not here to make a post going off about special needs adoption and how I don't understand why there are still families traveling to China to adopt "healthy" babies.

No, that is not my intent.

Because honestly, every orphan needs a family.  

Instead, I want to focus on praising God.

Praising Him for showing us a different route.

Praising Him for blessing us with FOUR wonderfully amazing children in the past four years.

For showing us that "special needs" is merely a classification

But nothing more.

Maybe an extra dr. appt here and there.

But that is all.

And beneath that classification,

there is so much more.

And the truth is...

We could've waited years and years for ONE child.

But in that amount of time, we have been immensely blessed...

FOUR times over.

12 comments:

Lexie said...

Amen!!!!!!

It will be so interesting to see how many more years we would have waited had we not gone the SN's route. I wonder how our family will have grown by that time! And I've got a sneaky suspission that....there's more G's out there too! ;)

Amen amen amen for 4 beautiful children!

Jenn said...

:( So true. I tell you one thing I am so glad we followed HIS call to the SN list we would have missed the biggest blessing, Abby Grace. So many people are so scared they don't even look into special needs, I sure wish they would. A great friend of mine waited several years and finally followed HIS call and just received her daughters SN's referral this past week. It pains me to think that so many orphans don't find their families because of their SN label. As I told my friend...look at the child not the need. HE will guide you and will be there to support you all you have to do is ask.
<><
Jenn

Faye said...

Excellent post Emily! Thank you!

Stephanie said...

AMEN!!

Kristi said...

I pray that anyone who reads this would take just one minute to humbly ask God, "Our family too?"
Well said Emily!

Michelle Grubbs said...

And how many of us have been blessed by watching God at work in your family's life.

Our Journey to Rachel said...

Praise God! You and your family have been immensely blessed. Your family is beautiful in every way. We did not adopt from the special needs list because I didn't feel called to do that from the beginning. I do know one thing for sure, I believe our daughter was meant to be a daughter even though we waited over 3 years for her. She is so perfect in every way.

Blessings,
Sherry Crist

Julie said...

amen! and that picture is ADORABLE!

Janet and Kevin said...

Our first LID was September 25, 2006. But God . . .

Now we are home with two precious little boys.

Lovely post.

Hugs,
Janet and gang

Unknown said...

Such a wonderful post -- I'd love to reprint it. My husband and I are working on building a Christian adoption focused website. We would like to reprint personal blog posts that are significant and articles that are helpful to adoptive families from a Christian worldview. I really like this post for celebrating how God has moved in your family AND for describing the worthy-ness of one child to warrant that long wait and all that is required in this process. Love it -
Kelly
www.raudenbushfamily.blogspot.com
www.jiayindesigns.com

Dana said...

God has really blessed your family with four (plus 3 bio) beautiful precious children. I am so happy that He called you to the place you are and we have been blessed to follow along and be there as you have brought each one home. Although our four year wait was hard, I wouldn't trade a second of it because we would not have our precious girl. We also would not have made the trip to Vietnam if we hadn't waited that long. And I couldn't imagine our family without these two gifts. I think each family that prayerfully follows God's plan for them celebrates in the joy of knowing that they have been given the perfect child/children meant just for their family. (:

Wife of the Pres. said...

LOVE THIS POST!

Can I send it to TongguMomma for possible Whatever Wednesday over at NHBO?

You know what is crazy? Our LID for S was 12/14/2007. Can you imagine? We would not even be close, still years away. And we have these three … yes, PRAISES