~Meet Charlotte~
Last Tuesday morning (March 20) at around 8:00 we got the phone call we've been waiting for! My heart started pounding and I ran to the computer to get my first look at the child who has been in my heart for 2 years. It was so surreal to see this actual little person! We had 72 hours to pray, take her file to our pediatrician, and send back the paperwork to accept her. I was thinking as I rushed to the doctor's office with her file that there wasn't anything he could say that would change my mind about her! :) We also took her file to a cardiologist because her special need is a heart murmur which has already been repaired with surgery in China. The sweet receptionist on the phone told me it was my "lucky day" because the cardiologist is only in the local office one day a week ... and it was today! By the end of the day we had received a personal phone call from our pediatrician. He spent time discussing all the details of her file with me and told me she looked healthy. We also heard back from the cardiologist that day. By the next afternoon our paperwork was sent and we began waiting for pre-approval (PA) from China.
Over the next few days I read her file over and over and over – just trying to learn everything you can know about a person from three pictures and a few pages of information. :) And God began to connect a few dots for me. The first time I ever called the China program coordinator from my agency was March 2010. We read the information she sent and prayed ... not really sure what direction to take. On May 26, 2010 I emailed to say that God was stirring our hearts through stories of other families and through lots of prayer. We didn't have the green light to get started, but we were committed to keep seeking God's direction. Our baby was born 5 days later on May 31.
I'm not a patient person. In fact I can be pretty impulsive once I get an idea. With each of my other adoptions, things moved very fast ... just the way I like them. But this time, I did not get peace about moving forward for almost a whole year. Last April 17, I was sitting in worship at church and just feeling the presence of the Lord so strongly. Without thinking I wrote something down on a scrap of paper in my Bible. I wrote word for word what I sensed God saying to me. "If you want to experience ME ... know more about ME, Go GET HER. James 1:27"
We started the process right after that. We knew it would be a long wait. I was pretty calm about the whole thing. I asked God to ordain every circumstance. I felt that if there was a snag or a hold-up in the process, He had a reason for it. But a few weeks ago, without warning, I just lost my patience. I had a sense of urgency that I really haven't had this whole year. I even told my program coordinator I didn't know if it was God's prompting or my own impatience, but that dossier HAD TO GO. It got to China just a little too late for the previous list of children that were made available. But just in time for this list. The one with her on it.
In January 2011 (way before we even applied with our agency or talked to the kids about adopting from China) Jackson had an unusual prayer request in Awana. He asked his class to pray for his baby sister. His teacher asked if he meant his big sister? But he was insistent that they needed to pray for his baby sister. As I was reading Charlotte's medical report I noticed that her heart surgery was in December of 2010. Afterward she had to spend 20 days in the ICU. She needed prayer.
Some people might think these events are coincidences – or at the least a stretch to try and make them fit together the way I want them to. But what prompted me to write these seemingly insignificant things down in my journal over the past two years? Why did God direct my attention to the dates on the first of over one hundred emails related to this adoption? He wants to prove His sovereignty. He wants me to know He's answered my prayers. He wants me to know when I wonder if she's really my daughter ... she is.
