Miss "K"

Thinking about you a lot today, Miss K (as a friend of mine has nicknamed you).  

Wondering what you are doing.  

Hoping you are not sick and that you have been staying warm in the cold weather.  

Praying you still have that sweet smile on your face and are playing with many stickers, drawing many pictures and still dancing like you are in your video.

Wish I could share your picture to the world!

Cannot wait to have you home with us.

There are so many people here at home who are praying for you and helping to bring you home, I can't wait for you to meet them!

Your sister, Kennedi, has been talking about going to China with us to meet you and take care of you and she said she is bringing pennies for you to help you learn to count. 

We are working hard so that the day arrives faster than later. 

We love you.

There's nothing really exciting to share on the adoption front.  Just mounds of paperwork.  Home study paperwork, dossier paperwork, grant paperwork.  I have a huge file folder to try and keep it all organized but it is so much that I may need a second folder!  Soon, the paperwork will all be behind us and things will seem less chaotic.  I am not good with having things "pending".  I am the type that likes to have all my ducks in a row and things checked off my to-do list.  Hopefully by April or May (my goal anyways) all our paperwork will be on its way to China and I can breathe some.  For now it's signing our life away (worse than buying a house), appointments to physicals, notarizing, and finger prints.Our home study should be done by mid-February and then it is off to homeland security for our finger prints (Katelyn included since she is 18), wait for approval from them, and then more authentication of our documents before they can be sent to China.  We are now working on our next payment due of $6900 by the time our documents go to China so prayer for that would be appreciated!  We have already seen God move mountain after mountain and know that He is faithful.  His hands are all over this adoption and we are so blessed to be traveling this road.

Here is #3 of the 30 devotionals from Seeds of Change.  I hope it moves you like this book has moved me!

After my daughter Emily and I went on a mission trip and served orphans in Haiti together, Emily, only eleven at the time, started praying and campaigning for our family to adopt.  Eventually, I agreed to be open and pray about it.  As I listened for God's voice and searched His Word, I discovered that we, as Christians, are all called to the work of caring for orphans-the least of the least.  And so, it became clear to my own heart that God was calling me specifically to simply put one foot in front of the other and start down the path towards adoption.  It seemed to me, just as the Scriptures say, that God was indeed "calling me by name".

During my journey, God reminded me of the verse found in Luke 12:48, which says, "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."  When we came face to face with the orphans of Haiti, we came face to face with Jesus.  Although more was being required as a result of this new knowledge, I can honestly say that God has never required anything of us without giving us sufficient grace to accomplish it.  For where God guides, He always provides.  I realized that it was time for me to answer the simple question:  now that I've seen the face of Jesus in these orphans, what now?

So in March of 2000, I found myself, a very scared mother of three, waiting in a hotel room in China.  Our whole family was together to receive our newly adopted daughter into the family.  I was so fearful and full of questions.  Am I too old?  What if I feel differently about her than my other children?  What if she screams?  What if she won't eat?  What if...?  What if...?  Finally it was time to meet the newest member of the family.  What happened in those next few moments was nothing short of a miracle.  Here in front of me was an orphan, a nameless little person in tattered clothes and mis-matched socks tied on with rag strips.  The moment they handed me that tiny bundle, she became Shaohannah Hope Yan Chapman, my daughter.

As I held her in my arms, realizing that she did nothing to deserve my love, I finally got it.  Shaohannah, in an instant, became a beloved daughter, a princess, an heir.  God was right there with me whispering, "This is how I view you.  You were an orphan, and I adopted you into my family."  Oh what a wonderful God, hiding His treasures among us, and through them, showing us His face and His love for us!  For a long time I struggled with depression, and still do in some ways, but in the midst of that struggle and the craziness of having a new baby, I experienced-and still do-an underlying peace like never before.  And I cannot imagine our family, devoid of the love and impact that have now come as a result of our three beautiful treasures, who each came to us through adoption, God led us to them in unique and amazing ways, and He has used their lives to ultimately draw us closer to Himself.

Our God is faithful to accomplish so much through our small steps of obedience, pouring out His blessings in the process.  I have found that obedience to God is the treasure map to untold riches and treasure. Those of you who are involved in orphan care and adoption are already aware of the incredible riches that were hidden to you beforehand.  For those who are not yet engaged in this work, I encourage you to answer God's invitation to know Him more profoundly by joining Him in loving orphans; God may desire to show His faithfulness to orphans through you.  When we respond to God's invitation to step into this ministry, we quickly realize that we are the ones most blessed because the treasures hidden in secret places become ours.

Take a few minutes to sit and ask God to clearly show you what steps of obedience He might have for you to take.  Is there anything God is asking you to do right now, regardless of how big or small, that you can obediently do in the joyful knowledge that He loves you?

~Mary Beth Chapman

File...where art thou??

Well nothing much has happened in our process recently.

Actually not much has happened in many waiting family's process recently and there is a lot up in the air in the China adoption community.

The adoption side of the Chinese government shut down at Christmas to re-vamp their system and website.  Things were suppose to be back up and running on the 5th and since then things have been well...sparse to say the least.

So that means we still have not heard word on her file and we really have no way of knowing when that will come.  We have been waiting for it since September but I have been reassured that her orphanage is a very good one and they are working on getting it done.

The good news is we are moving full steam ahead with our home study and dossier so that when her file does come we will not be behind with the process at all.  We have our home study interviews next weekend, have taken our finger prints, and have our physicals coming up.  Things seem to be moving very quickly with the paperwork...which means fees are coming due.

Trying to remember that we are trusting God with this journey He has placed us on.  Even though we have adopted twice before, the fear of the costs, and the trip, and the adjustments to our new life are all overwhelming some days.  This is a new special need for us as well and so that adds another factor into this journey of our's.  However, I know more than anything that this little girl is our daughter, that God has placed her before us, and that there is great purpose to her life and this road we travel.  I cannot wait to show you her picture and tell you more about her and the story!

Until then... I will leave you with the #2 of the 30 Seeds of Change devotionals:

An Invitation to Know God

"God's heart for orphans is huge.  Throughout scripture God shows this.  He calls Himself the Father to the Fatherless, He says He delights in setting the lonely in families, and He asks us to care for the orphans, the fatherless, and those who don't have a family.  But also we know God loves orphans simply because we know God loves us.  For while we were still worthless, abandoned, hopeless orphans, God showed us His great love by adopting us into His family, and giving us the "Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father'" (Romans 8:15).  As John Piper says, "Adoption is the visible gospel."

God desires that we show his love to the world by going out and in the same way caring for orphans in their distress (James 1:27).  This is not about you fulfilling your responsibility.  This is not, "You better do it or else."  God comes to us as a Father, full of love.  We are not His children because of what we've done, what we've accomplished, or because of any merit of our own.  God clearly says that He predestined us to be adopted into His family, to become His children, "according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise and glory of His grace" (Ephesians 1:5-6).  He did this to glorify Himself because He loves us and because He gets the glory!  "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" (1 John 3:1)

When I was in China worshiping at an orphanage singing, "Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord...I want to see you," the Lord spoke to my heart and said, "Open your eyes, I am right in front of you." And when I opened my eyes, I saw this little orphan girl who had crawled into my guitar case while I was singing and was now sitting there staring up at me.  I had said I wanted to find God, and He answered by showing me that He is there, right where He said He would be, among the poor, the needy, the orphan-the least of the least.

God has poured out His love to us.  At some point in our lives, He revealed himself to us, showed us our need for Him, and now here we are-no longer orphans-but fully adopted sons and daughters.  As we recognize the love of God for us, as we recognize Him rejoicing over us, we simply say, "I want to respond to Your love, what can I do?"  And I believe God says, "Let me recreate that love in your heart.  I want to show up in you, My people, My church."

We pray for revival; we pray for God to move in powerful, earth-shattering ways, and I believe God is saying, "I want to show up infinitely more than you want Me to."  I believe the millions of waiting children represent innumerable opportunities for God to show up and reveal His glory through us, His church.  And that's the invitation from God, "Come and know me, and I will make myself known through you, members of my body, the church, as you care for orphans in their distress."

What are the things you want more that anything else in this life?  How might God answer your heart's deepest desires through serving and glorifying Him among the needy?  What would you say to God in response to His invitation to know Him by loving orphans?  What are some practical ways you can begin answering His invitation?

~Steven Curtis Chapman