'Do You Know?': A Poem for our Little One in China

On the eve of my birthday, I would like to share a poem I wrote for our 'little one in China' a few weeks ago.  It's an adaptation of a poem I wrote between God and me when I was ministering in the Netherlands.  I shared it last week at our Talent Show fundraiser (which went great and the support we received was so encouraging!) and want to share it on this blog in honor of the little one waiting for us...

'Do You Know?'

A Poem for Our Little One in China

 

Do you know that we are here?

Do you know that you needn't fear?

 

Do you know that God hears what we pray?

Do you know that you are His molded clay?

 

Do you know the beauty He sees in your eyes?

Do you know it shines through your laughs and your cries?

 

Do you know we ask God to hold you in His hand?

Do you know He is the God who knows each grain of sand?

 

Do you know how much your life is worth to your family?

Do you know our desire is for you to see?

 

Do you know that we are waiting for you?

Do you know that God's love will come through?



A Word of Encouragement to those Seeking to Adopt

Today, I would like to write a word of encouragement to those seeking to adopt because sometimes you need those!  James, the writer of the book of James in the Bible, was Jesus' earthly half-brother.  James' parents were Mary and Joseph.  Although Joseph was not Jesus' biological father (as Jesus was miraculously conceived from the work of the Holy Spirit and born of Mary, thus Jesus was both fully God and fully man), Joseph raised Jesus as his earthly son.  Another way to state this is that Joseph adopted Jesus.  'Jesus' identity as the Christ, after all, is tied to his identity as the ancestor of David, the legitimate heir of David's throne.  Jesus saves us as David's son, the offspring of Abraham, the Christ.  That human identity came to Jesus through adoption' (Adopted for Life, Russell Moore).  Years later, James wrote a now well-known verse in the book that bears his name, 'Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this:  to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world' (1:27).  Russell Moore continues in his book to say, 'How much of this 'pure and undefiled religion' did James see first in the life of his own earthly father?  Did the image of Joseph linger in James' mind as he inscribed the words of an orphan-protecting, living faith?' (p. 75).  Wow.  When I read these words earlier this week, I was breathless thinking about God's plan in adoption!  Joseph is often seen as a secondary figure, in the background of the manger.  But he was so much more than that!  And James was greatly impacted by his father's heart for adoption.

As I sit thinking about these amazing truths, I hope they are an encouragement to you on days when you believe God is calling you to adopt, but others are discouraging you from following this call.  The reason I specifically shared James 1:27 today is because earlier today, Isaac, Emma, and I were literally visiting 'a widow in her affliction' and this widow told me that I could not adopt because that would be unfair to Isaac and Emma and the education we need to provide for them.  Even after I told her that we believe God will provide for us, she continued to tell me we should not adopt.  So, to summarize, while I was exercising 'pure and undefiled religion', I was told by the recipient of that gift, not to visit an orphan is his/her affliction to make him/her part of our family!  If you are on a journey to adopt, you can probably insert your own outlandish story here!

There are sometimes unexpected bumps or discouragements on this blessed journey to adopt.  There is a spiritual battle for your heart and your children.  But, if you truly believe God is calling you to adopt, if you have sought out godly counsel, are in a stable marriage, and believe you have 'room at your table', remember that over 2000 years ago, a man named Joseph overcame much greater obstacles and trusted God, by faith, to fulfill centuries old promises of the Messiah coming through David's line, his family line, through adoption.  And realize that you are in great company.

Our Family Tree

When I found out I was pregnant with Isaac, we told our parents by giving them copies of our 'family tree.'  For Ricky's parents, his mom and dad were at the top of the tree and lines were drawn to Ricky and his brother Lance and a line from Ricky to me and then a line was drawn from Ricky and me to a box that read 'Baby Simpson, due October 2009'.  A similar tree was drawn for my family.  When I found out I was pregnant with Emma, I made Isaac a T-shirt with a family tree drawn on the front.  The branches at the top said 'Dad' and 'Mom' with our birthdates and the branches underneath read 'Isaac' and his birthdate and 'Baby' due April 2011.  We then let Isaac walk around our parents' houses until they realized what the shirt said and then celebrated our baby, who we would later learn to be our sweet Emma Grace.

As we began putting together our China Dossier (all the paperwork we need to send to China for their approval), we were told to put a picture of our family in the packet.  So, in keeping with our 'family tree' theme, we had a picture taken in our front yard in front of our 'family tree'.  Each of us are holding a small branch that represents our 'little one in China' (this is what we call our child in our prayers).  The moment this precious child is finally placed in our arms and the paperwork is completed, the child will be a branch on our family tree, just as Isaac and Emma are branches, forever adopted into our family!  It is hard to wait for that moment. 

Yesterday I looked up all the references in the Bible to the 'orphan' or the 'fatherless' and was so encouraged by God's heart for our child and the orphans of the world.  Deuteronomy 10:18 especially struck me.  It says in part, 'He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow...'  God is defending our child.  I decided to look up 'defend' in the dictionary and it says 'to drive danger or attack away from' and this is what He is doing for our child.  He is there, even when we can't yet be there.  And in that truth there is much hope and thankfulness as we wait. 

Dear Little One in China,  God is defending you.  He is with you.  We are asking Him to hold you, today and forevermore.  We love you and are so grateful to look forward to the day when your branch is officially grafted onto our family tree! 


An update on our progress:  After speaking to our caseworker last week, she told me she is almost finished writing up our home study and it should be officially completed in early May, just in time for Mother's Day!  What a great gift to this mama!  We are already putting together our China Dossier and will begin our immigration paperwork once our home study is complete.  Prayers in the process are appreciated!

Hidden Person of the Heart

Throughout this week, I have been reading I Peter in my quiet times with the Lord and God has really been speaking to me about 'the hidden person of the heart' that Peter writes about.  When he is talking about wives, he says our adornment should be 'the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit', so I was reflecting on how God has been growing this imperishable quality in me as a wife and mother and it led me to sit in thankfulness for the good, hard work God has done in my heart.  I Peter 1:3-4 says, 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy, has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you...'  I have read these verses before.  I have 'His great mercy' and 'living hope' and 'will not fade away' underlined in my Bible.  I have a cross over 'Lord Jesus Christ' and a triangle around 'His' from my days of marking each key word in each book of the Bible.  But this week, the awesomeness of these truths entered deeper into 'the hidden person of the heart.'  And I am grateful.  According to God's great mercy, I have been born again into a living hope and have an inheritance with my precious Savior Jesus Christ that will never fade away!  Amazing grace!  Wow!  Too often my heart glazes over these truths, so I am thankful for the moments I hear God speak to these deeper places of my heart. 

As we move forward in our adoption journey, God is graciously reminding me about my adoption into His family.  As we fill out paperwork and have physicals and meetings and wait in line at the license bureau and take online courses and drive 60 miles to our adoption agency for meetings and try to find people to help with Isaac and Emma while we have extra meetings and drive back to the doctor's office again for something extra we need to have done and continue to give Isaac and Emma the time and attention they need and pray for the finances to come in and etc., I am reminded about how much more God did to be with me.  He didn't just travel from the United States to China, Jesus Christ left the glories of heaven to hang on a cross for me, so that I could be rescued from sin and born again into a living hope that will never fade away.  Because I have been adopted into His family, I wait in hopeful expectation of the day we will hold our child in our arms, adopted into our family.  And I am grateful. 

Also, to give everyone a little update on where we are in the home study process, a couple of days ago I received a call from our caseworker saying things are going faster than expected!  Things going 'faster than expected' is not common in the world of international adoption, so we are encouraged by this!  Any step that goes faster, means that the next step can begin sooner.  Our home study is scheduled to finish in mid-April, so we are hoping we will wrap up this stage a little earlier than that and then we will begin the process of getting our materials (our dossier) to China.  Thanks for journeying with us!  Your prayers and support are true gifts to us!

Home Study, Horton, and the Sanctity of Life

Last Monday we had our first home study meeting with our caseworker at Bethany Christian Services.  It was good to get started, even in the midst of a pretty crazy week getting our apartment packed up to move into our new house on Saturday.  This meeting was a tangible step forward to get to our child.  Every morning when I wake up, I pray for my husband and children, including this child.  I pray for God to sit with him, so he will know he is not alone.  One thing you hear most often about children in orphanages is that they often have attachment issues since they are rarely held and this will probably be true for our child and thus the prayer, that even if human hands are rarely holding him, that God's hands will.

One of Isaac's favorite books and movies is Dr. Seuss' 'Horton Hears a Who'.  For those of you without 3 year olds who may be unfamiliar with the story, the gist of it is that Horton the Elephant discovers the people of a whole town, Who-ville, living on a speck of dust that has landed on a flower and he believes it is his duty to protect the people of this town from being destroyed.  There is a sour kangaroo in the story who cannot see or hear the people because they are so small and thus believes they are not real and wants to destroy the speck of dust in beezlenut oil to teach Horton a lesson about making up stories.  Horton has all the people of the town begin shouting, 'We are here!  We are here!  We are here!'.  The pro-life cause was not the one Dr.Seuss had in mind when he wrote this story, but it is the one I always think of when we read the story or watch the movie.  Actually, when we watch the movie and the people of Who-ville start shouting 'We are here!  We are here!  We are here!', it is hard on my heart to think of so many precious unborn children shouting those words with no one to hear them.  The story of course has a happy ending.  The kangaroo and the other animals of the jungle finally hear the people of Who-ville and they are saved.

This Sunday is 'Santity of Life Sunday' in many churches around the country.  As we journey on towards our adoption, I want to stop and remember the unborn, as well as the orphans around the world.  No matter where you stand on these issues, please take a moment to listen to these sweet voices that were 'fearfully and wonderfully knit together in their mother's womb' (Psalm139) and you may just hear them. 

Recently, I read the book 'Unplanned' by Abby Johnson.  Abby was once the director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas, but now works with the organization 'Coalition for Life' to help moms in the crisis of an unwanted pregnancy learn that abortion is not the answer for the life growing inside them.  One day she witnessed an ultrasound guided abortion and watched the baby go from moving in his mother's womb one moment to being gone the next and she was forever changed to believing that baby was a child and not just tissue.  She now stands outside the Planned Parenthood clinic where she once worked, praying and giving these women options such as material assistance if they choose to keep their child or connections to adoption agencies if they believe that is the best option.  She speaks much of God's forgiveness and her own journey to healing.  It is a really powerful book and I recommend it for those on both sides of the fence.

Ricky and I believe that adopting is a beautiful way to affirm our faith in God's view of the sanctity of life. It is possible, although not probable, that the birth mother of our future adopted child is pregnant right now (it is more likely that she has already given birth), but if she is pregnant, I pray she will know someone across the world wants her child to enter their family, that he is wanted and he is a precious life and that he will know that our hearts hear him and the millions of other orphans around the world crying out 'We are here!  We are here!  We are here!' and that we are acting on their behalf.

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves...defend the rights of the poor and needy."  (Proverbs 31:8-9)

Joy to Our World!: Our Adoption Journey

For some time I have thought Ricky and I may adopt a child in the future.  Right before Emma was born, we started volunteering for a humanitarian relief organization called "Kids Against Hunger" in Cincinnati.  Before you start helping pack meals for the world's poor, they show an awareness video about the plight of the orphan in the world.  They gave a lot of sobering statistics and showed pictures of many precious lives, but one statistic stuck in my heart more than any other:  if every orphan in the world held hands, they would be able to reach around the circumference of the globe twice.  Maybe it's because I have traveled on a plane around much of the world that the vastness of this fact stood out to me, but I knew we had to do something.  Scripture is filled with truths about God's heart for the poor, such as Zechariah 7:9-10, "Dispense true justice, and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother; and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor..."  It is also filled with the amazing truth of how we are adopted into God's family through faith in Christ's atoning work on our behalf on the cross.  So, as Christians, Ricky and I knew that our question was not 'should we help orphans?', it was 'how does God specifically have for us to help orphans?'  This is a question we have been praying about in a more focused manner since early Fall and as we prayed and sought guidance and spoke with different adoption agencies, the answer became clear:  God has for us to adopt a child, not at some vague time in the future, but to start the process now.

Therefore, we are delighted to share with you our joyous news this Christmas season!  We were recently accepted into a renowned adoption agency called 'Bethany Christian Services' China Special Needs program focused on a adopting a child with a minor correctable need (such as a cleft lip and palate).  This program resonated with our hearts because it would give us the opportunity to adopt a child that is given very little hope in his/her home country, but could become part of our family, receive the needed medical attention, and be given the opportunity for a full and abundant life!  We sit in thankfulness for how God has worked in our family and brought us to this place to move towards adopting!  (We were also accepted into their Uganda program, but are primarily focused on China at this time).

So, as we enter the new year, we will begin the home study process and gathering all the needed paperwork to help bring our child home!  And we also just learned that we received the house we had put an offer on in our church neighborhood at a much lower price than we originally thought and will be moving in in January.  We are humbled by God's provisions for us.  If everything goes as planned (which is not a given in the world of international adoption!), our home study and gathering materials portion of the process will take about 6 months, the referral process for a boy in this program is 1-6 months (these children are on a waiting list and a large number of them are boys).  We will be adopting a child younger than Emma, so our referral process will be longer than 1 month, but is not thought to be longer than 6, meaning that by next Christmas, it is possible our child would be in our home!

We will update this site as our journey continues.  Please let us know if you have any thoughts or questions or wisdom to give us on this journey!  Also, as you may know, the cost of international adoption is high.  Depending on our travel costs, the total cost for our adoption will be somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000.  We will be raising this money through those led to give, grant programs we can apply to once our home study is over, and any other ways God has to provide these funds!  If you are interested in giving financially, please contact Ricky or me and we will let you know the best way to do this (our email addressess are below).  Please let us know too if you would like to be part of our prayer team!  Your prayers are a special gift to us!

Thank you for learning about this adventure that awaits us.  And Merry Christmas to your family!  Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Link to the song 'Kings and Queens' by Audio Adrenaline.  This song has been especially powerful to us:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U64bongHqYU

Ricky's email:  rlsimpson2@yahoo.com
Michelle's email:  michelleusimpson@gmail.com

Merry Christmas from the Simpsons!

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