Thursday, April 9, 2009

Faith Part 3 (only one more, I hope)

"Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring our endurance and steadfastness and patience." James 1: 3

If you are just now getting a chance to read our blog update, you may want to scroll down to the April 8th post to catch up. Happy reading....

So, I waited and waited and waited for what seemed like forever when in reality it was only a couple of days. During the wait to hear back from the doctors I was still researching any and everything regarding his special need. As most adoptive parents know, the medical reports we are given are pretty vague in some cases. His was no exception. He medical file indicated that he had multiple special needs (5 to be exact), some of which I could not find much information on. On Tuesday nights Matt leaves work and goes to teach a class to new electricians. So, after getting the kids settled into bed, I decided to see if I could find any more out about his medical needs. It was so frustrating to me that I was not getting much information.

So, as I sat in bed with my laptop doing searches on one of his needs in particular, I decided to look under Google Images. But first I asking God to give me some type of sign that this was indeed our son, and that his medical needs were not more than we could handle. Are you ready, because this is where it starts to get really exciting...

After spending about half an hour looking at page after page of images, I was just about to log off for the night and get some much needed homework done. I told myself to goon to the next page and then I was done. I was at the end of the page and just about to close out of the screen when a picture of an Asian boy caught my eye. I clicked on his picture and began began reading the information on him. I got about half way through it before I realized that the little boy I was reading about was the EXACT same boy that we were considering adopting. How could this be?


This precious little boy had many medical challenges – a rare and dangerous umbilical polyp, a heart disease, a lung deformity, and two other issues of sensitive nature. He came to the foster home on October 26, 2006, and at the time, we did not know about his heart or lung problems, nor did we understand the severity of the umbilical polyp. The heart problem healed without surgery, but he needed 4 other surgeries to treat his other medical challenges. To look at him now, you wouldn't know that he has had such a long road! He is a happy mischievous little boy, and a source of much laughter in the foster home.

The above information is more than what was in his file, but I also found information regarding each and every surgery and how each one was as success.

What I didn't realize when I clicked on to his picture was that it redirected me to another website. I was searching the site of a place called New Day Foster Home located just outside of Beijing. By this time I was overwhelmed with everything that I was reading and seeing. I was still trying to figure out exactly what New Day was when it hit me, this WAS OUR SON. At that moment I felt this huge amount of emotion come over me and I just started crying. This was the feeling I was missing with the previous little boy. I was experiencing the exact same set of emotions as I did when I first saw Mylee's picture. I didn't know what to do. I knew I couldn't get ahold of Matt so I called a friend who is also a fellow adoptive parent (in fact, her husband and I traveled together to her our daughters last May). Tara was in just about as much shock as I was when together we figured out what New Day is. New Day Foster Home is just that, a foster home, with a twist. Their mission is to provide life saving surgeries for orphaned children throughout China. Once these children receive the care they need, they are then taken back to New Day to live until they get a family. Once they reach a certain age, or when the New Day staff feels they are ready, they are then placed in a local foster family so they can get all the feelings of having a family. The children that live with foster families attend pre-school five days a week at New Day and go home at night with their "families." How cool is that?

Okay, I can into more detail about New Day later. As soon as Matt came home I explained to him how everything had played out earlier that night. Together we read through his medical information on New Day's site, and sifted through tons of pictures and even watched a couple of videos of him. I asked him what he thought and he said, "send in whatever amount of money you need to to lock in his file, he is our son. But, please don't get your hopes up until we get PA. I don't want you getting hurt like before. And we both know that until we get PA we are guaranted anything." Have I mentioned before how much I love my husband?

So, the very next day, I waited for confirmation from our pediatrician as well as from the international adoption specialist at Riley before I submitted out LOI (letter of intent). On March 20, 2009 we submitted our LOI and our pre-approval packet to WACAP to adopt this little boy.

4 comments:

Tami said...

Oh Mandi!!! I LOVE seeing all this written down....to Him be the glory:-)!!

OK, please don't leave us hanging too much longer....my refresh button is getting worn out, girl!

Hugs,
Tam

TanyaLea said...

I've been on the edge of my seat waiting for your new posts. I am SO very happy for you...and I KNOW WHO IT IS!!...He is SO, SO, SO very adorable! I knew he was from New Day and we have prayed for your little boy! My children and I pray for the children regularly. When we first came upon the N.D. website, we would pick a new child's profile, and pray specifically for that particular child. This started about a year ago. It's been wonderful to follow the journeys of other parents who have adopted a child from New Day and see these precious children join their "forever" families! God bless you on your journey to bring your little guy home...we will joyfully and prayerfully be following along! <><

YEAH!!...what a happy day! :)

Tami said...

Oh, and i meant to write, it sounds like you have one awesome hubby there;-)(but you KNOW that)!!!!

Tisra said...

Oh the stories I could tell that are so similar to yours. We always thought we'd have 2 kids. Had #3 after God united our hearts in agreement. Pursued adoption when God united our hearts in agreement for #4. Each time, God was faithful. Now, our little girl Dorothy, who waits in India, will be home this year. She has a minor medical need, and was a waiting child, and much of your description was the same for us, too. There just comes a point, after all the "research and reading" when you know that is your child and you'll come alongside them regardless of conditions, handicaps, or shortcomings!

Congratulations on your newest journey!

Tisra
http://www,bdhq.net
http://lifetrain.blogpsot.com