I posted back in June about the specific things we have felt led to pray for related to Calli's adoption. I wanted to make sure I documented how God has answered those prayers here in her blog. We are so thankful to look back and see how God has answered each of those God-sized prayers!
1. The first thing I said we were praying is that we would be able to complete the adoption debt-free. DONE! Through a combination of our savings, ways we have earned extra money, selling puzzle pieces, the incredible generosity of our friends and family, and grants we applied for, we have a total of $30,500 for an adoption that is estimated to cost between $27-30,000! We received 5 grants, for a total of $15,500! That is unbelievable! We have finished our puzzle (pictures to come soon) and I can't wait to write about that in a post all to itself. So we should have everything we need for these last few steps and then for travel as well. Praise God! And, any funds we have remaining we are able to use for her medical care when she comes home. Calli will require several surgeries over many years, so we will be able to use any extra to help with the costs of those surgeries. We are so thankful and humbled!
2. We prayed that we would receive a referral by Christmas. DONE! We were matched from the shared list that was released on November 26. What a wonderful Christmas present for our family! We also were praying very specifically that our baby would be at least a year younger than Cooper, who was born on August 31, 2010. Calli's given birthday is August 31, 2011. That is just incredible to us!! She was found on November 7, 2011, and estimated to be 2 months old. We are not sure on the details of why she was given that birthday, but that was a very clear answer to us from God that she is our baby!
3. We have been praying for her attachment and bonding with us. We obviously won't know much about this until we are with her, but part of that prayer has already been answered. We asked God that she would be attaching to her care-givers or nannies, so that she would understand in time how to transfer that attachment to us. So many babies that are living in institutions are by themselves so much that they really don't know how to receive love: how to be cuddled, how to be fed by someone else, how to be rocked and held. We knew that even if it meant the separation would be hard, that we wanted our baby to be learning how to attach before we got her. That prayer has been answered even more than we expected! Calli is in a foster home with a foster mom and dad and we learned last week from our update that she is very loved by them and even sleeps in their bed with them! We are so thankful for the way they are caring for her. This makes me sad for her for when we go to get her - she knows them as a mother and father and I can't imagine the grief she will have while at the same time we have so much joy in receiving her as our daughter. We are praying very much for that transition time, that God will prepare her little heart for that and that as much as she can, she will be ready for that time. We are hoping the pictures we sent of us will help a little with that. Will you join us in praying for that as well?
4. And we are still praying for the fourth thing, for when we bring Calli home. For our adjustment to being a family of five, for Kendall and Cooper, for energy and wisdom in how to best parent all three of them. Now we know we are also praying for issues related to her cleft lip and palate. We would love to have your prayers for that time as well!
Those are the big things! There have also been so many other answers to prayers we have prayed along the way. One of those was when we learned that we would be able to make the decision regarding whether or not she had her first surgery in China. We have been talking with Michelle's mom, Connie, who works for a plastic surgeon in Ft. Worth. He specializes in cleft lip and palate and saw Calli's pictures the first day we got her referral. We asked him his opinion about what to do about the surgery and his first response was that really both options were right. It would be fine to wait (wouldn't affect development any more) or it would be fine to let them do it and then repair when she got here. So that was fine, but we really needed some clear direction about what to do. Randy prayed about it with our friend Kirk the next morning at the office, and then I got a call from Connie and she said, "Is it too late? Have you already told them your decision?" I told her no, that we still hadn't decided or told our agency anything. She said that Dr. Schuster had gone home that evening and thought about it some more, then talked to some of his colleagues during surgery that morning and all of them agreed that it would be best to wait until she was here to do the surgery. Her gap is pretty wide, and there is risk of losing some of the lip that is there already. That was all we needed to hear! I called Randy and he told me about he and Kirk praying about it that morning. We were thankful to have that information from the doctor and were able to tell our agency our answer quickly! Also, we just got that update last week and the doctor saw her pictures and said again that we made the right decision in choosing to wait. Awesome!
"I lift my eyes up to the hills - where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." Psalm 121:1-2
God, thank you for answering our prayers the ways you have. I believed that you were ABLE to do those big things we were asking, but I am so humbled that you CHOSE to do them. Thank you. May we be faithful with the sweet gift you are giving us in Calli Faith and honor you in the way we live our lives as a family. We desire more glory for you and more honor for your name. Teach us to have a big faith that trusts in you for big things!!
No comments:
Post a Comment