Waiting for our sister |
April 18,
2006
We are still waiting!!!
It seems as if the question of the year for the
Harris family might be, “So, when are you getting your baby?” We
sure do wish we knew the answer to that question. We are
basically in line behind other parents who are waiting to be
matched with their babies. As of now, the Chinese Center for
Adoption Affairs (CCAA) has matched all families with dossiers
logged into their office before May 31st. Our dossier was logged
in on August 24, 2005. Originally, we were told to expect our
referral within 6 to 8 months. Well, we have made it to 8 months
and we still have several months’ worth of matches ahead of us.
Some people have said that all of the sudden the CCAA will start
making a lot of matches and then it will be us! That is our
prayer! Adoption is so different from being pregnant because you
really don’t know when you will see her face and yet she
consumes so much of your heart. This has already been such an
incredible journey for our family and we are so glad you are
following along with us! We ask that you join with us in praying
for Sarah Joy, for her caretakers, for her birthmother, and for
us as we prepare to bring her home!
"Do not be
anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and
petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to
God." Philippians 4:6 |
Christmas 2005 |
Why
Adoption?
So many people have lovingly asked us why we chose to
adopt when God had already given us two beautiful children.
Our answer has to be….when God puts something on your heart,
you cannot pull away from it. Most of you know that Michael
and I are very involved in our church, Beech Haven Baptist,
and we continuously seek God’s will for our lives. In Sept.
2004, our church was involved in a 2 week revival crusade with
Life Action Ministries. During that time, we learned how
important obedience is to God. I had no idea that He would be
calling us to adopt a baby.
I remember reading the book of James over and over and
finally the words of James 1:27 jumped off the page. “Religion
that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to
look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep
oneself from being polluted by the world.” Then I just had this
burning in my heart and I knew we had to obey! Michael has been
wonderfully supportive about the adoption. I really think he
believes this won’t be the only baby we adopt. I don’t know….we
will just have to wait and see how this one goes! Not long after
we started talking about adoption and praying about it, we went
to see Steven Curtis Chapman in Atlanta and we were blessed to
see his presentation on adoption. He and his wife, Mary Beth,
have adopted three beautiful girls. Once again, God was
reassuring us that this was the path we were supposed to follow.
Disney World
-- Summer 2005 |
Why China?
When we originally felt the call to adoption, it
wasn’t necessarily to China. In fact, I had been looking at the
faces of beautiful boys in Guatemala. Then I casually started
talking to a lady (Lisa Miller) and soon learned that she was
the mother of a beautiful girl from China. Lisa gave me a
National Geographic Video that followed a family from Atlanta,
GA as they journeyed to China to bring home their second
daughter. Lisa also introduced me to a wonderful group of people
in the Athens area that are parents of children from China. I
started attending the playgroup and learning more and more about
the orphans in China. I learned about the one-child policy that
China still enforces today, where mothers are only allowed to
keep one child and they usually choose the boys. That is why so
many girls are in the orphanages. I also learned that adoption
from China is actually one of the safest and most predictable.
In other words, the picture of the child we see in the referral
will actually be the child we bring home. There are typically no
surprises like there are with other international adoptions.
After we finally decided to proceed with China, we had to choose
an agency that we felt we could trust and rely on. After much
prayer, we choose Chinese Children Adoption International (CCAI)
and we have been extremely pleased with them!
Thank you so much for following our
journey! We are so excited!!!
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